To those living in the UK, Strictly Come Dancing, or just 'Strictly' among its many fans, has been a staple of prime-time weekend television for 22 years and counting.
Millions are gripped by the performances of celebrities and their professional dance partners as they perform different variations of Latin and ballroom dancing over a three-month period, with the show climaxing just before Christmas, when the winner is announced.
And when we say a ‘staple’, we mean it.
Across 23 seasons, the BBC broadcast's minimum average weekly viewership was lowest in the opening season, but still 6.45 million per episode (UK viewers only, not international).
It peaked at 11.14 million in 2017, and all seasons between 2010 and 2020 averaged at least 10 million viewers per episode, though that number has dropped slightly over the past five seasons.
The show’s popularity isn’t limited to the UK. Over 60 different countries have adopted the theme and format under the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ title, most notably in the US.
Past celebrity winners in the US included Nicole Scherzinger of Pussycat Dolls fame, Alfonso Ribeiro (Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and Jennifer Grey, she of the famous ‘lift' in Dirty Dancing all those years ago.
In 2010, Guinness World Records named Strictly as the world's most successful reality television format.
But for the most part, we’ll just focus on the UK version of the show here.
Strictly Come Dancing – The Beginning of a Craze
A show called 'Come Dancing' aired on UK TV for almost fifty years (1950-1998), with one key difference from Strictly as we know it: contestants were neither celebrities nor professional dancers.
They were just people ‘off the street’ who fancied themselves as dancers and were happy to appear on TV dancing away.
Richard Hopkins, a producer of the highly successful Big Brother franchise in the UK, was in charge of developing the show and did so with flying colours.
He brought in popular TV personality and former model Tess Daly to present it alongside the natural treasure that was the late Bruce Forsyth, meaning the show was certainly in good hands from the outset when it came to introducing the contestants, seeking feedback and scoring from the judges, in addition to narrating proceedings in general.
Season 1 was won by (celebrity) contestant Natasha Kaplinskyi, a journalist and newsreader, alongside pro dancer Brendan Cole.
Given it’s still going and as much a part of pop culture now as ever, you could say Strictly never looked back after that first season all those years ago.
Did you know?
The title of the show is an amalgamation of the 1992 Australian film Strictly Ballroom and the long-running TV series Come Dancing.
How It Works: Impress the Judges With Your Skill, Woo the Public With Your Personality
A panel of judges and the viewing public score couples, with both contributing to the results, so in that sense it’s similar to Eurovision.
During each live show, the judges, real experts in the dances being performed, award each couple points for their dance, usually from 1 to 10 per judge.
The scores are added together to produce a leaderboard. However, the judges’ scores alone do not determine who leaves the competition.
Viewers can vote for their favourite couples by using the available voting methods, typically by phone or online.
These votes are converted into rankings and combined with the judges’ rankings. The combined result determines which couples are safe and which fall into the bottom two.
The two couples with the lowest combined scores enter the dance-off. They perform again, and the judges decide which couple to save.
In most cases, the couple receiving the majority of judges’ votes stays in the competition. If the judges’ votes are tied, the head judge’s decision breaks the tie.
As a result, though the judges value technical quality above all, the popularity of the contestants and the pro dancers shouldn’t be underestimated, since the public vote matters just as much.
Strictly Betting Markets Beyond Just the Overall Winner
Of course, what everyone really wants to know is who’s going to win the whole thing.
After all, viewers and bettors have followed it every week for the best part of three months, and in a few years, the only thing anyone will remember is who was crowned the champ of that Series, not who finished third or fourth.
But though the winner market is the most popular to bet on throughout the series, it’s certainly not the only one bookies offer.
Betting companies also break down the winner market into 'Top Male' and 'Top Female', and who will finish in the Top 3 overall.
That said, another extremely popular betting market on a weekly basis is the 'Next Elimination' market, where you’re betting on who will be the next couple to be voted off/go home.
For those who don’t want to play the long game, this weekly market keeps punters engaged in the short term because, win or lose, your bet settles that week.
Strictly in Stats
Just because Strictly is about quick feet, sequins and style while doing the cha-cha-cha, foxtrot or Paso Doble, doesn't mean we can’t apply some stats here to determine who may be the next winner of the show, the same way we would when trying to work out the winner of a football match, horse race or golf tournament.
So here are a few to steer you in the right direction.
- Ellie Leach, most famous for appearing on ITV soap opera Coronation Street, is the youngest contestant to have won it, just 22 at the time in 2023, while 2020 winner Bill Bailey, an actor and comedian, was the oldest winner at 55. The average age of Strictly winners is 33.
- I think we’ll all agree that for the most part in everyday life, women are far better dancers than men. But the record books show more male winners than female ones: 13 of the 23 winners were male and 10 female, though we should remember that the public vote plays a big part, so it’s not just about your dancing ability but also your popularity in the eyes of the voting public.
- Former footballers have the skilled feet, athleticism and stamina to be serious candidates to go on and win it. Former ‘baller’ contestants have included John Barnes, Peter Schmeichel, Robbie Savage, David James and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. But we had to wait till 2025 to finally get an ex-footballer winner, with former Arsenal and England star Karen Carney lifting the Glitterball (the trophy) alongside dance partner Carlos Gu. Ex-Chelsea and Man City star Shaun-Wright Phillips takes part in the 2026 edition.
- If you were a male celebrity between 2015 and 2021, the best strategy was to try to get partnered up with South African Oti Mabuse; she’s the only pro dancer to have won back-to-back series, partnering Kevin Fletcher in 2019 and Bill Bailey in 2020, to glory before quitting the show in 2021.
2026 Strictly: Who Are the Favourites?
There are 15 contestants officially registered to take part in the 2026 edition of Strictly Come Dancing.
Spoiler alert: you probably haven’t heard of most of them.
However, there’s Australian singer Delta Goodrem, Wright-Phillips as already mentioned, and TV personality Dani Dyer, who is the daughter of well-known actor Danny Dyer.
Oh…and another 12!
Joking aside, Strictly has never been a case of the biggest names automatically winning, and plenty of contestants have become far more famous after winning than before they even took to the dance floor.
But for the record, here are the current Top 5 in the betting and their latest odds:
- Lacey Turner: 3.0
- Tabitha Stoecker: 4.5
- Delta Goodrem: 4.5
- John Nellis: 11.0
- Cach Mercer: 12.0
