Poll-axing

Nov 11, 2022 by Rob

38? Three 10s? Seriously? This was the incredulous reaction to Hamza’s cha cha cha at EntertainmentOdds HQ last Saturday. And surveying comments on social media, it was an opinion widely echoed among Strictly viewers country-wide.

And then we had Shirley on Sunday night’s result show declaring Hamza, ‘… has more music running from the tips of his toes to the top of his head than any man I have ever seen in my entire life’. That’s a powerful endorsement right there.

Does it suggest Hamza is already being crowned this year’s winner or, if they continue along this same path, are they looking to depress Hamza’s vote?

It’s a basic tenet of Strictly that excessive over-scoring is vote demotivating as much as extreme under-scoring is motivating – just look at Craig’s harsh 3 for Ellie T’s rumba for evidence of that.

All in all, it was a strange evening because if they were trying to get rid of Ellie T they were far too heavy-handed in the way they went about it. The three leaderboard ties also looked suspicious, hinting that they were, in truth, seeking to help both Tony and Ellie T escape the dance-off.

Week 7 Judges’ leaderboard:

Hamza & Jowita: Cha Cha Cha – (1) – 8, 10, 10, 10 = 38
Kym & Graziano: Argentine Tango – (6) – 9, 9, 9, 10 = 37
Helen & Gorka: Jive – (8) – 9, 9, 9, 10 = 37
Molly & Carlos: Foxtrot – (3) – 8, 9, 9, 9 = 35 – bottom 2
Fleur & Vito: Waltz – (9) – 9, 9, 8, 9 = 35
Ellie S & Nikita: Charleston – (4) – 7, 9, 8, 9 = 33 – eliminated
Will & Nancy: Quickstep – (7) – 8, 8, 8, 9 = 33
Tyler & Dianne: Viennese Waltz – (5) – 7, 7, 7, 8 = 29
Ellie T & Johannes: Rumba – (2) – 3, 7, 5, 7 = 22
Tony & Katya: Salsa – (10) – 4, 6, 5, 6 = 21

Ellie T has now been handed Charleston to a song that looks tailor-made for her friendship with Johannes. We have seen three Charlestons in succession leave the show and it doesn’t sit right for this to end up being the fourth.

A jive to ‘Land Of 1000 Dances’ is the sort of fast Latin recipe made for a high impact number. Granted Katya’s choreo ingenuity there is ample room for Tony to entertain with it.

We saw Tony mess up his pimp-slotted salsa so there might be a narrative there for the judges to eulogise him, if he can get through it without losing timing.

Tony has looked to be struggling with jive in training, however, and likely to be on early, a killing with kindness, ‘we’re getting to the serious stage of the competition…’ treatment could be in the offing.

Both Molly and Fleur have now hit the dance-off twice. Molly’s tears alone would suggest the show will go out of its way to score her to safety tomorrow night dancing a rumba, otherwise it looks extremely cruel.

Fleur, meanwhile, has what looks the perfect fast Latin dance to play to her strengths in samba, which also happens to be Vito’s specialty, and could be in line to open the show with a bang.

Tyler must have flirted with a dance-off appearance last Saturday but now has the first male paso of the series to an instrumental track in ‘Unstoppable’ that screams a power-packed, high impact, dramatic routine. And Tyler has been looking good in training.

It appears to be a week when all of Molly, Fleur and Tyler could legitimately be placed top of the judges’ leaderboard.

Hamza’s ‘Afro beats’ Couple’s Choice sounded on paper like a pimp-slotted 39 or 40 dance in the making, but listening to ‘Jerusalema’ it’s underwhelming. Of course, we have just seen what happened with Hamza’s CCC so it might not be that much of a negative and it is only Hamza, Helen and Will who are yet to enjoy the pimp slot in this series.

Given Fleur has samba, it feels like there is more likelihood of Helen’s salsa disappointing on the night. ‘Despacito’ seems the ideal salsa track but looking back on Aston Merrygold dancing to it with Janette in 2017, a 32-scoring effort, it really isn’t.

It might prove to be a night when Helen is, in part intentionally, scored low, making it harder for whoever is scored below her to escape the dance-off. After the high point of last week’s 37-scoring jive, which was sold to the audience as Helen’s big breakthrough, it could also add to her series narrative if salsa proves a dip in form.

Will has a song that means a lot to him in ‘Three Times A Lady’ for his waltz. This might mean we see family members in the studio, a heart-string tugging VT, and Will squeezing out a few tears when he talks to Claudia. Without these elements, it looks like being one of the more forgettable dances on the night.

Kym produced the outstanding dance of last Saturday in her and Graziano’s Argentine tango. And yet it only earned her a 37, and Motsi and Shirley chose not to stand up to applaud it.

We have had press stories about Kym having struggles with panic attacks and missing training on Monday due to suffering from a bug. The general vibe is, despite Kym matching if not surpassing Helen dance ability-wise in this series, she is not in TPTB’s final plans.

That aside, an American Smooth to this orchestral version of ‘Chasing Cars’, should be the stuff of a graceful and beautiful ballroom number.

If Tony does manage to make it to Blackpool Week by escaping tomorrow’s dance-off, Will and Kym could find themselves in trouble but as we see so often on Strictly, a lot can change during the live show.

Saturday should see the thousandth 10 awarded in the 20-year history of Strictly, the running total currently standing at 998. Thanks to James Ross for highlighting this landmark stat.

Please do let us know who got your vote(s) on the week 8 exit poll which will open at the end of tomorrow night’s show.

Strictly 2022 Exit Poll – Week 8

It is proving a very useful indicator and last week told its own story with Ellie T flying remarkably high at the top, and Ellie S dragged into the bottom 2 picture along with Molly.

Week 8 – dances & songs:

Ellie & Johannes: Charleston to Friendship by Elaine Paige and Bernard Cribbins
Fleur & Vito: Samba to Hot Hot Hot by Arrow
Helen & Gorka: Salsa to Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber
Kym & Graziano: American Smooth (foxtrot) to Chasing Cars by Cinematic Pop
Molly & Carlos: Rumba to All The Man That I Need by Whitney Houston
Hamza & Jowita: Couple’s Choice to Jerusalema – Remix by Master KG feat. Burna Boy and Nomcebo Zikode
Tony & Katya: Jive to Land of 1000 Dances by Wilson Pickett
Tyler & Dianne: Paso Doble to Unstoppable by E.S. Posthumus
Will & Nancy: Waltz to Three Times A Lady by Commodores