It has been announced today that ballerina Darcey Bussell will return this year as the new judge taking the place of Alesha. Darcey is no newcomer to Strictly Come Dancing as she also judged the last few weeks of series 7. My personal opinion is that I would rather have seen an expert from the world of Ballroom and Latin American dancing come on to the panel, and I know there has been lots of speculation about some of the former Strictly professionals or choreographers, and that would have been preferable for me.
The BBC press release also confirms that the rest of the judging panel will remain unchanged, with Darcey joining Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood.
]]>All the pages have been updated with the results from the final:
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]]>Anyway ... we're down to the final three now, and I know I'm wondering how they match up against each other according to the stats!
| Couple | Number of dances | Total points | Craig | Len | Alesha | Bruno | Average | Highest | Lowest | 10s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry & Aliona | 12 | 414 | 8.1 | 8.3 | 9.3 | 8.8 | 34.5 | 39 | 27 | 13 |
| Chelsee & Pasha | 12 | 411 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 8.7 | 34.3 | 40 | 27 | 9 |
| Jason & Kristina | 12 | 409 | 8.2 | 8.6 | 8.8 | 8.6 | 34.1 | 40 | 27 | 6 |
So on a scores basis, it's pretty close, but how about looking at top scoring dances:
| Dance | Highest scoring couple |
|---|---|
| Foxtrot | Chelsee & Pasha |
| Quickstep | Harry & Aliona |
| Foxtrot | Jason & Kristina |
| Foxtrot | Harry & Aliona |
| Foxtrot | Harry & Aliona |
| Dance | Highest scoring couple |
|---|---|
| Cha cha cha | Jason & Kristina |
| Jive | Chelsee & Pasha |
| Paso doble | Chelsee & Pasha |
| Rumba | Harry & Aliona |
| Samba | Chelsee & Pasha |
| Dance | Highest scoring couple |
|---|---|
| American Smooth | Jason & Kristina |
| Argentine Tango | Jason & Kristina |
| Charleston | Harry & Aliona |
| Salsa | Harry & Aliona |
So Harry is the ballroom king, Chelsee is the latin queen and it's honours tied in the speciality dances between Jason and Harry, although interesting to note that the final three contestants have the highest scores in all the dances, with none of the eliminated celebrities getting a look in.
But what about the dances they haven't danced yet. If the final follows the same format as last year they will dance one of these:
Aliona has already tweeted that she's choreographing for "this week's rock n roll showdance and American Smooth!". Now, I don't know whether she means a Rock'n'Roll themed showdance, or if they're dancing the Rock'n'Roll which was only used in series 7, and not been seen since! It could be that because Harry danced a paso doble in the Children In Need special, that they've decided it would give him an unfair advantage, and they've opted to make them dance the rock'n'roll instead, but that would then mean a change to the dances from last years final, where it was one new dance, a favourite dance, a showdance and their highest scoring dance.
Whatever happens, we know that we will have another different professional dancer lifting the glitterball trophy with their celebrity partner. This will be Aliona's second final, after coming second last year with Matt Baker, while Kristina and Pasha will be competing in their first final.
As usual, this is all fascinating stuff for Strictly Statistics geeks like me, but means absolutely nothing! Like every other year, this will all come down to the public vote, and of the three couples, only Jason & Kristina have been in the bottom two so far, but that's no guarantee of public apathy for them - Alesha & Matt were in the bottom two in the semi final of series 5, but went on to become series champions. Whatever happens, I think we're in for a cracking final, and if no-one stuffs up, then it could be a pretty close match.
]]>In case you didn't know, you can see what the couples dances and song choices are at the Week 11 page.
Yet again, we've got some song choices that have been used on Strictly before:
So how are the couples matching up against each other at this stage of the competition? Well if you look at the statistics, the top five couples are the five remaining couples. Harry & Aliona rank highest with an average score of 33.6 points and seven 10s, with Chelsee & Pasha and Jason & Kirstina both averaging 33.5 points and four and two tens respectively. Holly & Artem aren't far behind with 32.4 points and two 10s, but Alex & James a little way back with an average of 29.9 and yet to score a 10.
Looking at the professionals left in the competition, James, Artem and Aliona have all made it through to the final before, so maybe that experience will stand them in good stead to make it through, but you could say that Kristina has never made it this far in the competition before and Pasha is the new boy, so perhaps they have more to prove and have that much more determination to get to that grand final.
And what about semi-finals? From series five onwards, we've seen a semi-final dance score four 10s (or five in the case of series 7, when Darcey Bussell was added the judging panel), but NONE of the couples who have scored the perfect score of 40 (or 50) in the semi-final have gone on to become champions.
So that's it for now, Strictly fact fans - make sure you vote for your favourites if you want them to make it to the Blackpool Grand Final!
]]>Four of the song choices have been used before on Strictly:
Looking at the couples statistics for this series, the top three couples are Jason & Kristina, Harry & Aliona and Chelsee & Pasha and it's hard to separate them. In total, Jason & Kristina have scored 262 points for their 8 dances, while Harry & Aliona and Chelsee & Pasha have both scored 261 points. Jason & Kristina and Harry & Aliona both have a highest scoring dance with 37 points, while Chelsee & Pasha's is 36 points, and all three couples lowest scoring dance was 27 points. All have scored 10s, with Harry & Aliona on four 10s, and Jason & Kristina and Chelsee & Pasha both receiving one each.
Holly & Artem aren't far behind the top three, with a total of 252 points, a highest score of 35 and a lowest score of 28, but no 10s yet. Their highest score was for their American Smooth, often similar to the Foxtrot they're dancing this week, so that could stand them in good stead for a high score this week.
Anita & Robin (this week Anita dancing with Brendan due to Robin's injury) and Alex & James are both closely matched, with total points of 237 and 236 respectively, but you would have to say that Alex is in the ascendency with her Tango last week earning not just her first 9, but three 9s and a total of 35 points and a joint top place on the leaderboard.
Although Robbie & Ola are statistically the lowest scoring of the couples (217 points and a highest score of 31 and a lowest score of 19), Robbie is one of those celebrities who has been bitten by the Strictly bug and has surprised everyone with his enthusiasm and love of dance. He may be a stronger ballroom dancer, and this week he has another latin dance, but as was mentioned on It Takes Two last night, he has been working his social media and with backing from his celebrity supporters, his popularity means he hasn't been in the bottom two yet.
And then we have the Swing-A-Thon elimination dance. All seven couples on the floor at once, with the judges deciding which celebrities are performing the best and awarding points from 1 to 7 to add to the couples individual dance scores, so doing well in this group dance could mean moving up the leaderboard. It's all to dance for!
So that's it for this week. I can't even begin to guess who could be at the top of the leaderboard this week, with the Swing-A-Thon potentially putting the cat amongst the pigeons, and the public voting unknown, it's all to play for!
]]>In addition to professionals from the current series, Strictly favourite, Ian Waite will also return to the dance floor, after having been a regular on It Takes Two this year with his mid week review of training in "Waite's Wednesday Warm Up" - my favourite segment of the ITT week!
The couples taking part are: