Strictly Come Dancing returned for its eighth series on BBC One with a red carpet launch show on 11 September 2010, and the competitive live shows began on 1 October. The series concluded on 18 December when Kara Tointon and Artem Chigvintsev won the competition. According to BARB data, this series was the consistently highest rated of the show to date, peaking at 14.28 million viewers. Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli, Craig Revel Horwood and Alesha Dixon returned as judges.