Strictly Come Dancing remains the most popular BBC show but I think there are still three major problems with the hit dance series having watched every episode.
Strictly Come Dancing needs to change 3 things if it comes back in 2025 (Image: BBC)
At one point it looked like Strictly Come Dancing’s days were numbered this year. As waves of scandals rocked the BBC’s premier dance contest and pro dancers were dropped one after another, it’s fair to say the Beeb’s crown jewel was on the rocks going into 2024.
What should have been a celebration of 20 years of Strictly turned into a bit of a PR nightmare after Giovanni Pernice and then Graziano Di Prima both parted ways with the show, while constant stories about training issues behind the scenes dogged the Saturday night extravaganza.
But despite all of the chaos, series 2024 did eventually shimmy back onto our screens – and with it, the usual problems returned too, and if the show is to come back next year, the BBC really needs to fix three things.
Chris and Dianne were worthy 2024 winners (Image: BBC)
I spent much of the last three months watching every episode of Strictly Come Dancing and there’s still several things I think the show needs to sort out if it’s even going to return at all in 2025.
Kill the Strictly mole: No more fake Sunday night results shows
BBC, if you’re reading this, it’s over. Nobody believes the results show is live on Sunday. We all know the results show is filmed on a Saturday night. Why must we go through this farce?
The level of deception here is genuinely concerning. Show runners make all the judges change their clothes, hair and makeup. The subtitles are added live, as if it’s not been pre-recorded, to make it seem more live, and then Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman start talking about ‘last night’ as if we’re really meant to buy in to the chicanery, knowing full well they’re stood in the same studio with the same audience, two hours after Saturday’s dances.
Even on Strictly It Takes Two, the weekday spinoff show, every contestant doggedly sticks to the script, saying things like ‘on Sunday night’ when we know it was on Saturday.
But the worst thing about it is the mole. Someone, somewhere in the Strictly studio is leaking the result EVERY week. It must be a crew member or someone inside the channel because surely the audience is changed every week, yet the result always leaks. Either that or the Strictly spoiler has got so big that someone from the audience of a few hundred people inside the studio on Saturday night goes out of their way to track down the Strictly spoiler email or Twitter with the result.
BBC: You’re a public service broadcaster, funded by the TV Licence. You don’t need to chase ratings. You don’t need to choke out ITV1 on a Sunday night by spreading Strictly over two nights. Just put it on Saturday night at 10pm or send the audience home before the results. The spoiler is ruining it for everyone, and even those who don’t want to know the result are accidentally catching some moron tweeting PETE WICKS LOST THE DANCE OFF TO TASHA in an un-spoiler-tagged tweet.
Tasha Ghouri in tears during the 2024 final alongside Tess Daly and Aljaz Skorjanec (Image: BBC)
All the judges should be more like Craig Revel Horwood
Yes, really. Craig Revel Horwood is the only one with a calm head on his shoulders. Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas all lose their heads in the moment every week. “This dance redefines the concept of dance at a spiritual level! 10”
“People will be talking about this dance as turning point in the evolution of mankind! You had so much energy!”
And then Craig, the only sane one on the panel, will roll in with his “Well, to be honest your shape could have been a little better, your left foot kept slipping out of line, and the hold felt a little wooden”, to boos and hissing from the audience like a Christmas panto. He isn’t just mean for mean’s sake, often he is the only one offering some actual useful critique.
And another thing: Craig should vote last. It totally ruins the suspense of ‘Will they get 40 omg!?!” when Craig goes first and throws up a 9 paddle (or worse, an 8!).
Craig Revel Horwood is the best judge on Strictly Come Dancing (Image: BBC)
Dancers like Tasha Ghouri should not be allowed to compete
Chris McCausland won, and anyone could see it coming a mile off, the blind comedian having been jammed at the top of the bookies’ favourites for weeks.
And the reason he won is the same reason Pete made it so deep into the contest. Both are not dancers. Both are people who couldn’t dance, had never danced, and had learned how to dance slowly, week by week, in front of our eyes. Chris being blind obviously made it even more difficult for him and it’s obvious audiences loved seeing him overcome that and flourish as he learned to dance and he’s definitely a deserving winner.
Others like Tasha Ghouri had a leg up from the start (and not just because, well, she can see). Tasha is a trained dancer with dance experience, and every year Strictly invites celebrities with dance experience onto the show, and every year somebody without dance experience wins it. The public have spoken – we want to see amateurs making mistakes, learning the steps, and finding their feet in real time, not people who look polished and professional from week one.
But regardless of its problems, Strictly Come Dancing remains one of the most popular shows on TV for a reason and I can’t imagine a world where we’re not hooked on Strictly every Saturday for three months of 2025.
