Taylor Woe

Nov 25, 2022 by Rob

Tyler looked hard done by to lose Saturday’s dance-off versus Molly. His routine had the more complicated choreo and dynamic content, and getting through all those difficult lifts unscathed in the dance-off felt deserving of a place in the last 7.

News Tyler is taking part in the Strictly Live Tour makes it look a more baffling decision though it would come as no surprise if, down the line, Molly is announced on the live tour as well.

It was a third dance-off appearance for Molly which tells us, for whatever reason, she is not connecting with the audience. Having gone to the trouble of saving her in such a heavyweight dance-off, we can probably expect to see the show do its utmost to help her avoid the dance-off tomorrow night.

So we may well see Molly’s tango to Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy scored top or joint-top of the judges’ leaderboard, and possibly granted the pimp slot.

Having been struck down with Covid, Kym now gets a bye to the quarter-final. This probably goes against the show’s Machiavellian scheming as it looked for all the world like TPTB tried to put Kym away in Blackpool.

Dark staging, awkward flight of stairs to negotiate, poor camerawork, a mix of Rihanna songs that weren’t especially paso-friendly, sung poorly live… though that last point may have just been coincidence.

Ellie successfully avoiding the dance-off once more leaves you wondering just how highly she might be polling but with Hamza and Helen likely flying high at the top, and Ellie probably polling third at best, things start to look a little trickier for her in terms of avoiding the dance-off tomorrow night.

She will ideally need some ties, and the two contestants we know have been struggling on the pv series-long, Molly and Fleur, scored mid-table or lower. That looks an unlikely scenario.

The kicks and flicks and speed of movement jive demands is unlikely to suit the tall, willowy Ellie, and the tempo of Brown Eyed Girl seems far too slow for an impactful jive.

Where the judges will need to be careful is in not being too heavy-handed in their Ellie criticism as this would be a strong vote motivator, which we already saw happen in week 7, but it’s hard to see Ellie not ending up bottom of the leaderboard.

Fleur landed the first maximum 40 of the series for her Beyonce-esque CC in Blackpool leading to a fair degree of disgruntlement expressed on social media among the ballroom traditionalists.

Blackpool Week (Week 9) judges’ leaderboard:

Fleur & Vito: Couple’s Choice – (7) – 10, 10, 10, 10 = 40
Helen & Gorka: Quickstep – (6) – 9, 10, 10, 10 = 39
Hamza & Jowita: American Smooth (foxtrot-based) – (1) – 9, 9, 10, 10 = 38
Molly & Carlos: Jive – (2) – 8, 9, 9, 9 = 35 – bottom 2
Tyler & Dianne: Salsa – (4) – 8, 9, 9, 9 = 35 – eliminated
Will & Nancy: Samba – (8) – 8, 9, 9, 9 = 35
Kym & Graziano: Paso Doble – (3) – 8, 8, 8, 9 = 33
Ellie T & Johannes: American Smooth – (5) – 7, 8, 8, 8 = 31

Fleur now has the dance of death in rumba but she also has a handy narrative potentially working in her favour of reining in her power, finding more control and improving her fluidity of movement and finishing lines.

Once again, Hamza has been handed an ideal track in Libertango for his AT. When you look back at the song choices for his dances in recent weeks, he couldn’t have asked for much better, and Shirley even stated, ‘You’re the one to beat’ in her Blackpool appraisal. If this was X Factor you would treat that statement as a red flag but that’s just about the only small negative you can find at this point.

Helen is now the only contestant left in the competition not to have been given a pimp slot. Among her remaining dances, Helen backers might have preferred to see a Couple’s Choice or AT for her if tomorrow is her pimp slot moment.

Her salsa wasn’t her best, and samba remains a difficult dance to excel with. The track is a good samba track though and she has looked pretty good in training.

Will just had the pimp in Blackpool with his samba which received glowing eulogies from the judges followed up by a miserly 35, which left Will in a state of bewilderment when discussing his score on Tuesday night’s It Takes Two.

Among tomorrow night’s songs, the choice of Kula Shaker’s Hush for a Charleston is the biggest mystery. It doesn’t seem a natural fit with the dance which probably means either big praise for taking a risk and coming up with something original or, sorry, it didn’t work for me, with a critical tone led by Craig.

With Will and Nancy handed matching, tailored black suits for what’s being described as an ‘unusual’ Charleston it feels more likely to be eulogised, especially on back of news Will is on the live tour.

Ultimately, it’s hard to see a Will Charleston being scored lower than an Ellie jive; ditto Fleur’s rumba. If there’s a big name contender dropping down unexpectedly on the night it looks more likely to be Helen which, in itself, could make Ellie’s escape from the bottom two even harder.

Please do let us know who got your week 10 vote(s) on our exit poll which will open at the end of tomorrow night’s show:

Strictly 2022 Exit Poll – Week 10

Once more it proved an invaluable guide last week, suggesting Ellie would escape the dance-off, and Tyler was in big trouble of dropping into the bottom 2 along with Molly.

Week 10 dances & songs:

Ellie T & Johannes: Jive to Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
Fleur & Vito: Rumba to Too Lost In You Sugababes
Helen & Gorka: Samba to Eso Beso by Emma Bunton
Molly & Carlos: Tango to Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
Hamza & Jowita: Argentine Tango to Libertango by Bond
Will & Nancy: Charleston to Hush by Kula Shaker