Strictly star Chris Appleton reveals sweet gift he received from pal Kim Kardashian as she tells him to 'break a leg' ahead of his dancing debut

He boasts a string of big names in his friendship circle, and Strictly Come Dancing star Chris Appleton received a sweet gift from one of his most famous pals as he prepares to make his dancefloor debut.

The famed hairstylist, 43, is set to compete in the new series of the BBC show, and on Friday he shared on Instagram he'd received a present from his close friend Kim Kardashian.

Chris posted a video on Instagram Stories that showed a bouquet of white roses that Kim had sent him, along with a card telling him to 'break a leg' when he takes to the Strictly floor.

The card read: 'Break a leg, you got this, xo,' with Chris captioning a video of the gift as 'the sweetest surprise'.

While fans are no doubt hoping that Kim could make an appearance in the Strictly audience to cheer Chris on, he has shared that he's already received advice from one of his famous friends.

Chris recently shared that Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause had her own words of wisdom, having competed on Strictly's US counterpart Dancing With The Stars.

He said: 'My friend Chrishell has done Dancing with The Stars in the US. The best piece of advice she gave me was to just have fun and enjoy every bit, because it goes so quickly.'

Strictly has gone through a massive shakeup for its 24th series. The show's long-time hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly made the shock announcement they were quitting during last year's series, heralding the start of the overhaul.

After months of rumours as to who would replace them, it was finally announced in May that seasoned presenter Emma Willis, comedian Josh Widdicombe and the show's professional dancer Johannes Radebe had landed the gig.

In their first major interview this week, the hosts have explained how the new presenting format will work.

Explaining that having three presenters was a 'wild card' choice for producers, Emma, Josh and Strictly pro dancer Johannes have admitted the format is still 'very open' just weeks before the live shows are due to kick off.

'There's no like for like, so no one's kind of replacing anybody and at the minute it's all very kind of open,' Emma told The Rest Is Entertainment podcast.

'We're having lots of production days where we go in and we play around and we're kind of feeling each other out - well, they're feeling us out really.'

Josh added to podcast host Richard Osman: 'It's going to be like total football, Richard. We're going to be moving everywhere.'

Emma also clarified that Johannes 'definitely' won't be in a 'backstage roving reporter' role as some insiders previously suggested.

The show shakeup has also included a focus on social media stars, disappointing loyal fans of the BBC's flagship show, who have criticised the 'weak' line-up, claiming there aren't enough 'household names'.

Insiders have revealed the broadcaster has a casting strategy as part of its overhaul and has been deliberate in its targeting of celebrities with big social media followings in a ploy to attract younger viewers to the show.

It has been suggested this is to follow a similar, hugely successful social media strategy employed by its US counterpart Dancing With The Stars. 

Celebrities such as Chris might not be a household name, but he does boast a huge social media following with 4million fans on Instagram.

Sports YouTuber John Nellis has an even bigger fanbase, with 15.7million YouTube subscribers.

Dancing With The Stars has used their celebrity contestants' followings to their advantage, introducing a TikTok Night last year – an episode which saw the contestants perform viral dance routines, sparking an uptick in interaction from younger viewers.

The Dancing With The Stars TikTok account now has more than 5million followers, in comparison to Strictly's 670,000.

And even before this year's Strictly line-up was announced, the professional dancers fell victim to the same strategy. In recent months popular dancers Nadiya Bychkova, Karen Hauer, Michelle Tsiakkas, Luba Mushtuk and Gorka Marquez have all been given the boot.

It's understood pros with bigger online followings have been chosen over dancers who are not so TikTok friendly as the series tries desperately to attract a younger audience.

One example appears to be axed Bychkova, who has 214,000 Insta followers, while Dianne Buswell, with 1.2million Instagram followers and 973,000 on TikTok, has kept her place in the line-up.

Meanwhile five new young pros have been recruited with ballroom champ Maddie Ingoldsby boasting 364,000 TikTok followers. 

The trio of new hosts also have a strong online presence. Comedian Josh Widdicombe has more than half a million Instagram followers on his personal account whilst the Insta page for his hugely popular podcast Parenting Hell has 250,000.

Emma Willis has 2million Instagram followers and fan-favourite dancer Johannes Radebe, who will act as a co-presenter this year, has 458,000 followers.   

The insider has explained that the BBC struggles to attract big-name celebrities these days, because the landscape has changed.

The source told The Sun: 'Crucially the pipeline that used to feed these big shows has changed.

'Boyband and girlband stars aren't as prevalent any more and, once upon a time, getting someone from a soap or a big drama was a massive deal, but now even that has diminished somewhat.

'Now, though, social media is continuing to boom and big stars from the world of TikTok, YouTube and Instagram are known to a vast section of society.'

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC iPlayer and BBC One at 7.25pm on Saturday, September 19.