Kimberley In Danger
Speed is of the essence when it comes to Strictly weekly markets as the prices invariably disappear faster than Bruce Forsyth’s syrup post-show. This week’s dances are as follows:
Dani – VW (dancing to ‘That’s Amore’); Denise – salsa; Kimberley – jive; Lisa – QS; Louis – Charleston; Michael – samba (dancing to ‘Tequila’); Nicky – AT
Initial thoughts from seeing the training footage are that Kimberley could well struggle with the jive. It’s a tough dance to pull off well and it doesn’t look like it will play to her strengths – essentially, she’s not light or quick enough on her feet.
We expect to see Denise and Dani ahead of her on the leaderboard, and possible one or two others too. Given she has already landed bottom 2 from a position of joint 2nd on the leaderboard, we see some definite value in Ladbrokes quote of Kimberley to be in the bottom 2 at 9-4.
In terms of lowest score, it’s hard to see past Michael doing a samba. He could well show improvement and is sure to attack the dance with gusto but we doubt the judges will be pulling out anything higher for him than a 7, so he looks the bet at 5-6 with Ladbrokes to be lowest scorer.
The lowest judges’ score of 27 or under also looks a good play at 6-4 with Ladbrokes. We expect Craig will give Michael no more than a 6 and it seems unlikely he’ll manage to achieve an 8 among any of the other judges.
Nicky’s AT looked a decent work in progress in the early training footage and we envisage him scoring higher than Michael, as we do Lisa with her QS. Louis’s Charleston looks like it could go either way.
Again, in the training room he didn’t look like he was really selling the dance and this looks his ongoing Achilles’ heel but with a modicum of facial expression and charisma thrown in, he could push himself up into the top 3 on the leaderboard.
If Michael is lambasted this could give him the ideal platform in avoiding the bottom 2, and if he really gives the samba a good go and shows some improvement this could also be an incentive for viewers to vote for him. ‘Tequila’ is a great party dance which could also aid him by way of getting the audience involved. So we will not be backing Michael to be eliminated pre-show.
Our gut instinct tells us Lisa is probably polling highest among the remaining women, but she is going to need her fans out in force to ensure her safety from potentially a mid-table position.
Much depends on how well Nicky does with his AT but we would not be surprised if it ends up an all female dance-off this week, and pre-show we will also take some of the 6s on Kimberley to be next eliminated, while keeping a close eye on where the rest land on the leaderboard on Saturday night.
Rob Furber
Full list of songs for this week’s dances:
Kimberley and Pasha – Jive to Land of 1000 Dances by Wilson Picket
Denise and James – Salsa to Rhythm Of The Night by Valeria
Louis and Flavia – Charleston to Dr Wanna Do by Caro Emerald
Lisa and Robin – Quickstep to Bring Me Sunshine by Jive Aces
Michael and Natalie – Samba to Tequila by The Champs
Nicky and Karen – Argentine Tango to Skyfall by Adele
Dani and Vincent – Viennese Waltz to That’s Amore by Dean Martin
Lost on Kim bot2, it’s a second week in a row for both bot2 favorites to actually land there, no excitement really…
Kimberley surprisingly managed to escape the bottom 2 – she was aided by being massively over-scored again. The show did a good job of getting the b2 it wanted: Michael vs Nicky – Michael eliminated.
Another decent week with MV lowest score at 5-6 – LANDED!
Lowest judges’ score 27 or under at 6-4 – LANDED!
This story confirms what many have suspected series-long:
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/285635/Strictly-Come-Dancing-Denise-van-Outen-is-public-enemy-No-1/
Louis now a best price of Evens on the high st. We would advise readers to make sure Louis is ‘on side’, ie, in the green column.
Given the continued mostly over-scoring of the women (& focus on positives) & mostly under-scoring of the men (& focus on negatives), there may yet been an attempt to ramp one of the women past Louis in the final throws of the series.
Louis being given the pimp slot last night only told us that his Charleston was a crowd-pleasing routine that would likely top score, as it did, and it was a very simple routine for him to ‘sell’.