For 18 seasons we’ve seen celebrities dance in TV4’s Let’s Dance, but now it’s done. TV4 is now stating that there will be no season of Let’s Dance in 2024.
– Let’s Dance is one of TV4’s biggest and most popular programs of all time. Since the start in 2006, a total of 18 seasons have been broadcast, but in 2024 it is time for a break. Although Let’s Dance is still a show with more than one million viewers each week, ratings have steadily declined over the past few years. We want to break that trend and then we need a break to review how we could renew ourselves and come back again in 2025 with new energy, says Fredrik Arefalk, channel and content director at TV4.
Tony Irving on Let’s Dance going on hiatus
Let’s Dance premiered in 2006, then led by David Hellenius and Agneta Sjödin. The one who took home the very first Let’s Dance win was Måns Zelmerlöw together with Maria Karlsson. After that, there were a total of 18 seasons of the program.
As recently as the end of May earlier this year, we saw when the comedian Hampus Hedström won first place together with Ines Balanescu, after a final against Charlotte Kalla and Tobias Karlsson.
Someone who has been with us since the beginning is the jury’s Tony Irving, who thinks that it is absolutely the right decision by TV4 to pause Let’s Dance.
– I think it is a wise decision by TV4. Strategically, it has been broadcast for 18 years. When we started in 2006 until now, TV viewing has changed, everything that is 18 old needs a renewal, a transition, a repair. You can’t do that when you only run season after season, you’ve done that with all the other programs, says Tony.
He believes that it is not only beneficial for the program, but also for himself.
– For my part, it is also good, it gives me the opportunity to evaluate myself and what I want to do. I will miss Let’s Dance and dance on TV next year. But I’ve been married for 10 years and next year will be the first spring I get to spend with my husband, I’m looking forward to that, he says.
“If TV4 wants me back, I’ll be first in line”
But with that said, he will be happy to come back in the future.
– I went in as one person and come out as another. I have another job, my life doesn’t fall without Let’s Dance, but if TV4 wants me back, I’ll be first in line. If they don’t want me back, it’s not because I’ve done something wrong, but because they want something else, he says.
– I can’t put my finger on anything, I don’t know the strategy. But I can say this: I can dance and can adapt dance to the right order, when TV4 knows what they want to order, I can help, he continues.
David Lindgren has assumed the role of program manager for Let’s Dance since 2021, and during his three years he has been joined by both Petra Mede and Kristin Kaspersen. He comments on TV4’s decision to pause the program in a message.
“I’ve had so much fun during my three years at Let’s Dance and am so grateful for the years I’ve had there. So we’ll see what happens in the future,” writes David.