Eastender the value for 1st Strictly exit

Sep 8, 2009 by Rob

At last, the first bookies’ quotes are up on Strictly Come Dancing’s week one elimination market, and Loose Women’s Lynda Bellingham is 2-1 favourite to get the bullet with the Magic Sign.
Darren Bennett is a shrewd pro who has previous at getting the most out of his partners – surviving until week 3 with Gloria Hunniford in series 3 and getting to week 4 with Jessie Wallace in series 6. Admittedly, it’s a different format now, with the first 2 weeks of the show running over consecutive nights with 8 contestants facing off over two dances: a Latin and a ballroom, before the judges vote to decide who to save following the dance off.
This certainly makes it a fairer contest but the public still have their say and it may be foolish to underestimate Bellingham’s Loose Women following, as highlighted by Coleen Nolan’s progress earlier this year on Dancing On Ice.
Chris Hollins, 5-2 second favourite with Ladbrokes, too, has legitimate claims of garnering solid support from Beeb fans, much like John Sergeant and ‘Ballroom Bill’ Turnbull have done in previous series.
Bastian, Hingis, Johnson, Wilding and Calzaghe can all be expected to show potential on the dancefloor, particularly in the case of Ali Bastian who has been getting rave reviews from her pro partner Brian Fortuna via his regular ‘Tweets’ from the training studio.
Attractive, younger female dancers can find it tough to get the public’s support, however, making Bastian, Hingis and Johnson more vulnerable out of these five, and a first week dance off between two of those three will certainly put the cat among the pigeons.
Ricky Groves will have the support of the Eastenders faithful but a recent injury in training will have restricted the hours he has been able to put in, and he doesn’t come across as a potential Fred Astaire. Also, you only need recall the departure in week one last year of fellow Eastender Phil Daniels to see Groves’ potential vulnerability, although, if he’s slaughtered by the judges while endearing himself to viewers there’s always the possibility of an enormous sympathy vote.
But at 8-1 he is the value call, with the chance of laying off should he end up in the dance off, with this year offering the opportunity for ‘in-running’ elimination betting on Betfair following the return to a live Saturday night show.
Strictly will be back on our screens on Friday September 18, the week one dance off taking place at the end of the second show, broadcast the following night on Saturday September 19.