Strictly Come Dancing 2018 Finalists – Ashley and Pasha

It’s Final day and here we are with the  delayed final part in my series where I take a look at the 2018 finalists journeys so far in Strictly. Continuing in the (no particular) order of qualification that means it is the turn of Ashley and Pasha

Image BBC

Best Dance

Ashley and Pasha have had all four judges reaching for their 10 paddles twice this series. The first time was in Blackpool during week 9 when Craig dusted the cobwebs off his 10 paddle and awarded full marks along with the rest of the judges (10,10,10,10)

They hit the dizzy heights of a maximum score once again in last week’s semi final for their American Smooth (10,10,10,10)

Worst Dance

As you would expect we have to travel all the way back to week 1 for their worst scoring routine when their Viennese Waltz scored 29 points with the judges (7,8,7,7)

Average Score

Not including the carnage that was the Lindy Hop athon Ashley and Pasha have scored a total of 471 points across 13 routines making for an average of 36.2, the highest of the four finalists

Number Of Times In The Dance Off

Ashley and Pasha are the only finalists to have faced a dance off and they’ve faced 3 of them.

The first came in week 10 following their Samba (8,9,9,10). Dancing off against Graeme and Oti, Ashley and Pasha easily survived being saved unanimously by the judges.

They landed up again in the Dance Off during the following week’s Quarter Final after their Quickstep (9,10,9,10). This time Charles and Karen were pushed to one side as Ashley and Pasha were again unanimously saved.

Their final dance off came during last weekend’s Semi Final after their Paso Doble (9,9,9,9) and their American Smooth (10,10,10,10). Performing their perfect scoring American Smooth meant that Lauren and AJ had no chance to survive and once again Ashley and Pasha were saved unanimously.

Odds Of Winning

Ashley and Pasha are rank outsiders to lift the glitterball tonight with Paddy Power offering 33/1 which for those who aren’t familiar with bookies means if you put £1 on them to win you will lose £1

Can They Win?

No

Ok I need to flesh this out a bit. Frankly although they are the strongest couple on paper they simply are not getting the public vote as evidenced by them being in the last 3 dance offs and landing there from top or near the top of the leaderboard.

A lot of the issues with her public vote stem from people considering she has previous dance experience, because just as I covered with Faye yesterday being in the Pussycat Dolls is identical to dancing ballroom and latin dances with a partner(!). Plus she was a judge on Dancing On Ice and though she was there to judge the performance aspect only and not the technical aspect that makes her too experienced for Strictly in the eyes of some.

Personally I don’t buy into this as Strictly always has people of varying ability on the show and part of the fun of it (for me anyway) is seeing the people with poorer dance skills stumble along, at least in the first few weeks, whilst seeing people who can dance actually get out there and dance. Of all the routines this series too it is Ashley and Pasha’s contemporary couples choice that sticks in my mind as a standout dance of the series at least for me anyway. I know it attracted mixed comments from you guys.

It’s kind of funny too because in other series people have complained that comedy contestants who can’t dance have overstayed their welcome at the expense of better dancers and this series people have been gunning for the best dancer in the series.

None of this matters though because they don’t have the public vote and unless there is a turnaround in public feeling that translates into votes and unless Joe’s legion of fans go into hibernation there is no chance that Ashley and Pasha will be crowned champions. There’s more chance of the BBC admitting me into a recording of Strictly than there is of Ashley and Pasha lifting the glitterball tonight

What do you think of Ashley and Pasha, are you supporting them and do you think they will lift the glitterball tonight? You can let me know in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter as normal

That’s it for this series and whilst there’s no spoiler tonight there will be a lot to do here at the home of The Strictly Spoiler. Polls will be running throughout the course of the final so you can get involved with them and join the discussion as usual right here or over on the social networks. 

Operating and hosting this site has cost me close to £1000 this series. If I’ve provided you with a valuable service and you can afford to and want to help me out with these costs or just want to thank me with a beer or a Christmas present you can do so using THIS LINK or the button below.

Strictly Come Dancing 2018 Finalists – Faye and Giovanni

Here we are with the slightly delayed penultimate part in my series where I take a look at the 2018 finalists journeys so far in Strictly. Continuing in the (no particular) order of qualification that means it is the turn of Faye and Giovanni

Picture BBC

Best Dance

Faye and Giovanni are one of two couples this series to achieve a perfect score managing it in two weekends ago in the Quarter Final where their Charleston impressed all the judges to get their 10 paddles out (10,10,10,10)

Worst Dance

Faye and Giovanni’s worst routines came first of all in week one where their Cha Cha scored 29 points with the judges (7,8,7,7)

They also hit 29 points again in week 4 with their Rumba (7,7,7,8)

Average Score

Faye and Giovanni have amassed a total of 464 points across 13 routines on their way to the final making for an average of 35.7. The second highest of all the finalists. We are obviously discounting the car crash that was the Lindy Hop athon in those stats

Number Of Times In The Dance Off

Like two other finalists covered earlier in this series, Faye and Giovanni have never faced a dance off on route to the final

Odds Of Winning

Faye and Giovanni are currently 8-1 with bookmakers Paddy Power to lift the Glitterball tomorrow.

Can They Win?

Faye and Giovanni are a tricky one to place. Like 2 other finalists they have never been in the Dance Off and so we have no clue how much public vote they are getting other than the fact that they are getting more votes than Ashley and Pasha who I’ll be previewing later today.

As far as my polls have gone they’ve polled well but not as well as some of the other finalists. Their problem may stem from her previous career in Steps and Musical Theatre though they aren’t picking up as much flack for that as another couple I’ll be talking about tonight. They get some flack for previous dance experience because of course dancing in music videos to 5678 and Tragedy is identical to dancing on Strictly.

12% of visitors to this website wanted them to win after the semi final which places them 3rd out of the finalists.

Truthfully it would probably take a really good final, a slight change in the public mood and the judges scoring being consistent for all 4 finalists in order for Faye and Giovanni to pick up the win. Plus Joe’s fans will all have to be asleep because as I’ve covered before I strongly believe they may be the deciding factor tomorrow night

What do you think of Faye and Giovanni, are you supporting them and do you think they will lift the glitterball tomorrow? You can let me know in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter as normal

The final part of this series should land later on today where I will be looking at Ashley and Pasha. Shortly after which I will be ducking for cover!

Operating and hosting this site has cost me close to £1000 this series. If I’ve provided you with a valuable service and you can afford to and want to help me out with these costs or just want to thank me with a beer or a Christmas present you can do so using THIS LINK or the button below.

Strictly Come Dancing 2018 Finalists – Stacey and Kevin

Here we are with the second part in my four part series taking a look at each of the finalists. Taking them in order of qualification it is time for Stacey and Kevin

Image BBC

Best Dance

Stacey and Kevin’s best routines were their Paso Doble from week 10 which only Craig prevented receiving a perfect mark as it scored 39 (9,10,10,10)

Their Charleston in last week’s Semi Final also fell one point short of a perfect score with once again Craig denying them (9,10,10,10)

Worst Dance

You have to go all the way back to week 2 for Stacey and Kevin’s worst performing dance. Their Cha Cha did not impress and scored just 20 points (4,5,5,6) with the judges. This is the lowest scoring worst dance of all the finalists

Average Score

Not including the Lindy Hop athon because why would you include it (and the judges are still deciding on their scores for it) Stacey and Kevin have amassed a total of 430 points across 13 routines making for an average score of 33.1. This is the second lowest average of the 4 finalists

Number Of Times In The Dance Off

Stacey and Kevin join 2 of the other finalists in never facing a dance off at any point in their journey to the final

Odds Of Winning

Stacey and Kevin are 2/5 odds on favourites with bookmaker Paddy Power (at the time of writing) to lift the Glitterball

Can They Win?

They have a lot going for them. They are sitting top of my latest poll asking who you want to win. They aren’t laden with the curse of “previous dance experience” which a couple of the other finalists seem to have. Is this finally going to be Kevin’s year after finishing as runner up 4 times during his previous 4 finals.

It’s certainly one of his best chances to win. He’s got a very likeable partner and has built up a good partnership with Stacey. The question for me again simply comes down to whether or not Joe’s fans will vote for him in any kind of the numbers that he has and I covered this at length in my analysis yesterday.

Stacey has been one of the journey contestants this series and certainly has come a long way from her week 2 cha cha which scored 20 and is the lowest score any of the finalists have received by some way and I know a lot of people will be voting for them from the comments I have received and from the votes they have received in my polls

Stacey and Kevin are one of two couples in the final that have a realistic chance of winning in my opinion but I’ve been wrong before (just not about spoilers – except that one time in 2015)

What do you think of Stacey and Kevin, are you supporting them and do you think they will lift the glitterball next weekend? You can let me know in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter as normal

Stay tuned for the next part in this series tomorrow where I’ll be looking at Faye and Giovanni

Operating and hosting this site has cost me close to £1000 this series. If I’ve provided you with a valuable service and you can afford to and want to help me out with these costs or just want to thank me with a beer or a Christmas present you can do so using THIS LINK or the button below.