It’s not unheard of for the Strictly Come Dancing vote to flip the live show’s leaderboard on its head. But when celebrities with the calibre of Amber Davies end up in the dance-off so early on, it’s time to question the system.
For Icons Week, the former Love Islander and her professional partner Nikita Kuzmin delivered a near-perfect Cha Cha Cha set to Ariana Grande’s 'Break Free'. The routine began with Amber dancing alone – perched atop a huge set of stairs, no less – and the ambitious choreography barely gave her a moment to pause for breath.
“Amazing, I absolutely loved it,” Anton Du Beke told her on Saturday night. “I look forward to seeing what you guys present on the dancefloor, there is so much creativity,” added Motsi Mabuse. “You guys are so close [to a 10]... I can feel that 10, I can almost touch it.”
Shirley Ballas congratulated Amber on improving her footwork and even Craig Revel Horwood, the pickiest of them all, concluded: “That was really and truly a great dance.”
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When it came to the scores, Amber received a total of 33 (thanks to three eights and a nine from Anton), leaving her joint second on the leaderboard - just one point behind Emmerdale actor Lewis Cope, who wowed with his Quickstep to 'Ring of Fire' by Johnny Cash.
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But fast forward to Sunday night’s results show and the smiles had faded.
Once viewers’ votes had been added to the judges’ scores, Amber found herself in the dance-off against former footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. The outcry online was immediate. It was “an abomination of a vote from the British public,” declared one X user. “Amber should be nowhere near the dance-off,” said another.
As it stands, the voting works like this: once all the judges’ scores are in, the couple ranked highest is given a score equal to the number of pairs performing. This means that on Saturday night, Lewis received 11 with Amber and Vicky, who were joint second, being awarded 10 points, and so on.
Viewers' votes are then allocated in the same way, so whoever received the most this week was awarded 11. These marks are then added to the judges’ scores. If there are any ties once these have been combined, whichever couple received the most viewer votes is deemed to be ahead.
Essentially, viewer votes and the judges’ scores are equally weighted – unless there’s a tie, which means the audience at home decides. Strictly never reveals an exact breakdown of each week’s vote, aside from naming the bottom two couples.
For Amber, the dance-off will mean one of two things: either her confidence will be knocked and we’ll see her have a tough week, or she’ll come back fighting. Judging from her tears at the end of Sunday’s episode, I’m afraid it might be the former.
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The bigger tragedy is that Jimmy - a contestant who has shown serious promise and brought a lot of joy to the dancefloor - saw his fate taken out of his hands. The only way he would have survived on Sunday night is if Amber and Nikita had made an uncharacteristic mistake or two. Jimmy clearly had so much more to give the competition and it’s a real shame to see him leave the contest so early, especially when a more evenly-matched dance-off would have given him a fighting chance.
Of course, viewers should have a say and Strictly wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t involve being able to back your favourite contestants. But when the voting system allows for a celebrity to fall so far down the leaderboard, nobody wins. Giving more weight to the judges’ scores would be a simple fix to help all of the celebrities taking part – and, ultimately, give them a fairer chance.
Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC1 on Saturday and Sunday nights, and on BBC iPlayer.
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