The Steps to Success Story

With the return of the much beloved Strictly Come Dancing back on our screens, speculations are again at the forefront of the show, and the main question of all, who will win the glitterball trophy this year?
Celebrities who have appeared on the show in the previous series never shy away from admitting how difficult and challenging it is to be a part of the series both physically and mentally. So what does it actually take to become a Strictly Come Dancing champion and can the winner be predicted?

Steps to Success, created by William Hill Slots, has studied the previous winners of the last 10 Strictly Come Dancing series’ to see what they have excelled in and perhaps what they have struggled with. Many similarities are held between past winners and trends have arisen throughout the series, so is there a method to win the show and certain steps to take to success?

Profile of a Strictly Champion

Anyone can become a favourite while on the show for many reasons. Whether that be they are funny, talented or a national treasure. However, very few get to call themself a Strictly Champion. The competition is tough year after year and for many series, it has been a close call with heaps of talent to choose from to be crowned that year’s victor. Yet similarities still occur.

With the nature of the show centring around famous faces taking part, it’s natural for many of them to come from similar occupations and backgrounds. The most common occupation for winners of the series in the past is a tie between models and television presenters with an average of 36. Followed closely by actors and actresses with an average score of 35.

Next up is the gender of the celebrities within the winning couple  – over the past 10 years, male contestants have lifted the glitter ball trophy more times than female competitors. Male celebrities have won their series 60% of the time in the last decade.

Routine Trends – easiest and hardest

Even though everyone has their own personal favourites every year and different winners have certainly excelled in certain areas whether that’s a  love for ballroom or a flair for Latin. Despite this, former victors still shared common similarities in the various routines featured on the show.

Based on the past 10 winners’ scores and what they were awarded for each of the many routines they have done it is clear that the majority of winners struggled with the Cha-Cha-Cha, as it was awarded the lowest score on average across the board with only 27. This is likely due to it being a more common routine for contestants during the earlier weeks of the series. The routines that follow in proving a challenge to even the most talented of contestants on the show are the Jive as well as the Tango both being given an average of 32. Both are known for their difficult technique.

In comparison to them, the couple tended to excel in the couple’s choice routine which has an extremely impressive average of full marks with 40 out of 40. This perfect score time and time again is largely due to the fact that this routine is often saved for the final weeks of the series when celebrities have been training for weeks and weeks and have perfected their technique. The couples choice routine is followed by the show dance with an average of 38 – once again a routine that is typically saved for the back end of the series. The 3rd highest routine and the highest of the traditional dances is the Charleston. The routine which became popular during the roaring ’20s has an average of 36 from former winners.

Themed Weeks

The theme weeks are some of the most anticipated episodes of the season from the vivid storytelling in the routines as well as the costume department excelling. With this added anticipation celebrities often give it that little extra.

Musicals week has a very impressive average of 36 out of 40. Crowd-pleasing music numbers from Disney movies, with last year’s winners Rose and Giovani, performing their quickstep to love is an open door from Frozen. And the season 18 winner Bill Bailey opted for the more traditional musical as they danced to the title song from the iconic musical, The Phantom of The Opera.

With Halloween growing in popularity throughout the UK every year it comes as no surprise that past winners have done well during this week as the excitement around this particular episode increases. Couples often pull out all the stops during this week resulting in the pair securing an average of 34.

The final consistent themed week from the last 10 years is movie week, winners with notable performances from these episodes are  The Wanted’s Jay McGuiness and his partner Aliona Vilani whose Pulp Fiction themes Jive wowed the public and is now part of Strictly History. Past winners as a collective have an average score of 33, placing it as the lowest-scoring week for winners from a themed episode.

Scoring

It is undeniable that everyone on the show wants to be awarded top marks by the judges. As for the judges themselves, they want to see a flawless technique and excellent storytelling in order to even think about awarding a couple a 10. Naturally, those who win the show are amongst the best in the series, which is backed up by the fact that on average winners of the show are awarded a total of 18 10s throughout the duration of their series.

Being awarded high marks is what everyone wants to achieve during their time on the show, with winning couples having what it takes to be awarded the top scores from the judges, with many often coming out on top of the weekly leaderboard. On average, winners of the show have gained the weekly top spot  4 times.

Summary

Even though there is no magic crystal ball to peer into and see who will lift the glitter ball trophy this year, delving into the patterns and trends of the previous 10 winners can give us some insight into who could possibly be crowned this year’s winner.

Our safest bet for this year’s victor is wildlife presenter and cameraman Hamza Yassin as he currently has received the most 10s with 6 currently to his name. Yassin also has the second-highest average score of 32.6. Actress Molly Rainford currently has the highest average score however she has already been in the dance-off twice a position that only one previous winner, Ore Oduba, has been in

As well as his performance on the dance floor setting him up to take home the title, Yassinfits the champion profile being both male as well as a presenter. Only time will tell if he has what it takes to become the next Strictly Come Dancing Champion.