Daisy Lowe devastated after her granddad died hours before the Strictly launch

Last night’s show saw celebrities and dancers discover who they are paired with and the results didn’t leave viewers disappointed.

Wearing a suitably glittering shirt, Balls, 49, twisted and writhed around the 27 year-old from St Petersburg, during the first group dance.

The politician had failed to take the opportunity to lose weight and undergo intensive dance ahead of the recording since “that wouldn’t have been consistent with the spirit of the show”.

Viewers saw EastEnders star Tameka Empson paired with hot new Spanish dancer Gorka Marquez, model Daisy Lowe with previous Strictly champ Aljaz Skorjanec and Olympic gymnast Claudia Fragapane, this year’s youngest contestant at just 18, with another new pro, AJ Pritchard.

And it was Strictly who came out on top as the show received a million more viewers than The X Factor – despite the shows airing at different times in the evening.

The ITV launch show was watched by 6.8 million, a 34% viewing share, but had increased to 8.3 million viewers on Saturday for its third episode.

The 14th series of the ballroom dancing show, which beat The X Factor in the ratings past year, officially goes live in three weeks.

Saturday night’s third X Factor episode of auditions was beaten by Strictly, although the rival shows were not broadcast at the same time.

Strictly proved more popular than The X Factor, which attracted 8.3m viewers.

Despite the commendable figures, neither show has managed to beat The Great British Bake Off though, which raked in a staggering 10.4 million viewers last month.

However, the success of Strictly has been a double-edged sword for the BBC, leading to rows over whether the publicly funded broadcaster is stifling the competition.

Daisy revealed he told her of his pride that she was taking part in the hit BBC show before he passed away during her first day of rehearsals.