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Strictly Come Dancing's producers have confirmed two Friday shows and a new points system for the seventh series.
The celebrity ballroom dancing show returns next month and will include an episode on Friday night for the first two weeks. Earlier this month, it was confirmed that the Sunday results show will not be happening this year.
The 16 celebrities and their professional partners will be split into two groups for the first two episodes, but not into men and women as in previous series.
Meanwhile, the BBC's controller of entertainment Commissioning Mark Linsey also announced a new points scoring system to avoid the confusion of the 2008 series. During last year's semi-final, a tie between Rachel Stevens and Lisa Snowdon meant that votes cast to save Holby City's Tom Chambers were effectively irrelevant. Almost 1,800 viewers complained to the BBC, resulting in the network offering unhappy fans a refund. Ofcom received around 297 complaints.
Speaking about the new series, Linsey said: "For the first two weeks we will be dividing our couples into two groups, but this year we'll be mixing it up and it won't be split into boys and girls.
"Also for the first two weeks we'll have shows on the Friday and Saturday. This will make it a lot harder and more arduous for our couples. The pressure is really on them. On the Friday they will be doing ballroom and on the Saturday they will be doing Latin.
"The Saturday will be one complete extravaganza and it will be the number one destination for TV viewers. It will be action-packed and crucially they will be able to find out on that night, who is in and who is out."
He continued: "There is also a slight tweak to the scoring process. The problem last year was that the couples were tied at the top, so we've changed the points system this year. We've gone through rigorously and used lots of mathematical equations. We've made sure that after the judge's scores, no one couple is safe from the dance-off and any one couple can be saved from the dance-off."
Earlier today, the Strictly 2009 lineup was confirmed. Joe Calzaghe, Ricky Groves, Ricky Whittle, Lynda Bellingham and Ali Bastian are among the 16 contestants.
