The Strictly Spoiler - The home of the Strictly Spoiler

25th June 202025th June 2020

2020 Series Of Strictly Come Dancing To Be Shorter

The BBC announced last night that when the 2020 series of Strictly happens it will be a “slightly” shorter series than normal.

The BBC did not announce how much shorter the series would be and also did not announce whether this means the start of the series would be put back, the end of the series brought forwards or some kind of combination of the two. More information will be released by the BBC in due course.

With Kevin and AJ both leaving the pro line up it is possible (though this is speculation) that they would not be replaced and the series would be 2 weeks shorter to accommodate this. It is highly likely that attracting replacement pros in the current climate could prove to be difficult and this may be a factor in the decision to have a shorter series though it is also probably down to difficulties in maintain social distancing for participants over several weeks and a smaller cast will also aid with distancing in the studio.

While I’ve got you guys on the site I may as well update you guys on what will be happening with the spoiler this year. As you are aware the spoiler each week is leaked by a member of the studio audience to either myself or other groups I work with. With the current pandemic there is a possibility that Strictly may be done without an audience this series. No audience means no moles which means no spoiler. Right?

Well not necessarily. I’ve been looking into other ways to bring you a spoiler and am currently looking at making use of my polling data from the weekly polls I run to bring you a result. I’ve tested this with the historic data from 2016 and 2017 and whilst a margin for error does exist the results were right or at least had the elimination right the vast majority of the time.

I polled you guys on Twitter and you were pretty split but a majority of you would prefer to get a spoiler that may be wrong some of the time rather than no spoiler. In all honesty I can’t just shut up shop for a year if there isn’t a studio audience because this is my job and no one in their right mind would not work for a year and receive no income if there was an alternative. This pandemic has affected countless businesses and even as the lockdown eases we won’t be back to normal for a long time. My business is no different and has to move with the times.

I’ve also had to take what is a very difficult decision and have to say that I cannot run any form of regular competition on this website or my social networking channels during the 2020 series. This announcement that the series will be shorter has compounded that decision as I’m now guaranteed to be losing a few weeks of income this year and the prizes each series are paid for out of my own income. Not to mention that income comes mainly from advertising and advertisers pockets are a lot shallower this year so there is likely to be a hit on my income anyway.

This isn’t to say there will be zero competitions. I run competitions as a way of rewarding the more active members of the community who join in with the discussions but I would rather say there won’t be any competitions and then run the occasional surprise one if my income will allow it than promise regular weekly prizes only to have to pull the competitions because I can’t afford to pay out the prizes. Hopefully you guys can understand this decision.

I won’t lie however and due to my income likely being reduced I think donations will be a rather big necessity to keep this site up at peak times whether we have a normal spoiler from audience moles or we have one calculated from my polls. I understand that many people are in similar or maybe even worse situations than I am because of this pandemic and not everyone will be able to help me out but I will be eternally grateful to anyone who can either make a one off donation or a regular one. You can use THIS LINK or the button below to make a one off donation.

Or you can set up a regular donation to help support me every month using the button below. You can choose to donate any amount from £5 a month. You are free to cancel your regular donations at any time but will be automatically charged your selected amount every month if you donate using the button below. If you’d rather make a one time donation you should use the PayPal link/button above!

Set up a regular monthly donation

If you can’t make a donation then please, please, please take two minutes out of your time to check your energy prices. If you switch to green energy with 100% renewable electricity from Octopus Energy using my link not only could you save £100s on your energy prices but you get £50, I get £50, everyone wins and it will help me out massively!

I know it’s been pretty quiet around here during the last few months not helped by the off season combined with the pandemic but things should start getting busier again now with more content especially as more details about what the 2020 series of Strictly will look like emerge and we also learn who will be participating which should start in a few weeks. In the meantime I hope you have all been keeping well and safe during the pandemic

17th February 202029th March 2020

Caroline Flack – A Tribute

No doubt, unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, you will have all have heard that sadly former Strictly Champion Caroline Flack died at the weekend. In this post I’ll be taking a look at her journey to becoming Strictly Champion during the memorable 2014 series when she was partnered with Pasha.

The format of this post will be similar to my finalist previews at least at first. So we begin with

Worst Dance

It’s kind of funny to call something her worst dance give she was a strong participant throughout the 2014 series. Lowest scoring dance might be more appropriate and as we’ll see in her best dances she actually got the chance to improve on this dance.

Anyway her lowest scoring dance was her Cha Cha Cha from Week 1 which opened the 2014 series and scored a still very respectable 27 points (6,7,7,7)

Best Dances

Caroline and Pasha had all four judges reaching for their 10 paddles on 4 occasions during the 2014 series. Once in the semi final and three times in the final becoming the first couple in Strictly history to have a perfect 3 dances in the final and the first couple to score 40 across four consecutive dances.

Their semi final routine was a Salsa to Maria by Ricky Martin

In the final they performed the above Cha Cha Cha from week 1 improving it to the point that all four judges scored it a perfect score

They also re-performed their Charleston from Around The World Week in Week 10 which previously had just Craig denying it a perfect score. However Craig brushed off the cobwebs on his 10 paddle in the final to give it that extra point

It’s their show dance that is probably going to be remembered now especially in the context of the recent tragedy. An emotional piece performed to “Angels” by Robbie Williams and it’s hard for the routine not to take on new meaning now she is with the Angels and it’s hard to watch the routine without a tear in your eye. I was welling up watching it while I was getting this piece ready believe me. Oh it scored a perfect 40 too but you guys knew that.

Honourable Mentions

A couple of honourable mentions from Caroline’s Strictly experience. Firstly her Argentine Tango which in week 11 wowed all the judges apart from Craig who gave it a 9

Finally we’re going back to Movie Week in Week 3 when they did a Rumba to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”. It was a good performance, especially as Rumba can be hard for a celeb, and given the emotion she brought to her later routines I wonder what they could have done with it if it had been brought back for the final. Discounting Donny Osmond it scored 33, including him it scored 42 (8,8,(9),8,9)

Number Of Times In The Dance Off

It’s been a rarity for the last couple of series for a finalist, or indeed a champion, to find themselves in the Dance Off but it actually happened for Caroline and Pasha.

In week 7 their Waltz saw them languishing in the bottom two but they were more than good enough to see off Alison and Aljaž

Winning Moment

And here is the moment they were announced champions in 2014

At this point I was going to add a few words of my own but I don’t think there is anything I could say that would be better than the emotional tribute that close friend of Caroline’s Laura Whitmore said on BBC Radio yesterday.

Normally it’s at this point in a post that you’d see a ton of monetisation as I ask you to help out with my hosting costs, or switch energy supplier or one of the many other things that allows me to cover the costs of providing this site and also provide an income for myself. I’m not going to do that today on this post! There’s something much more important

Since about 9am yesterday morning I’ve been running a fundraising campaign on Facebook to try and raise money for The Samaritans. I’m sure I don’t need to say too much about The Samaritans and the work they do both for people who might find themselves in crisis and struggling to go on like Caroline did and for people who have more minor problems but still need a friendly person to talk to.

At the time of writing this post the fundraiser has made £884 in about 24 hours. The initial target of £400 got smashed in a couple of hours. Caroline’s tragic death has resonated with so many of you and so many of you have helped out for a cause dedicated to always having someone there you can turn to if you ever find yourself in a situation like Caroline did.

If you are willing to, can afford to and have Facebook as it is being done through Facebook’s donations system so all the money goes to the charity you can visit my fundraiser right here and give as much or as little as you like and can afford. If you don’t have Facebook but still want to get involved get in touch with me in the comments below (only visible on individual posts) or over on Twitter and I’ll sort out another means you can donate

With that all that’s left for me to say is RIP Caroline Flack 1979-2020

5th January 202021st January 2020

Dancing On Ice 2020 – Week One Discussion/Poll

As promised on Twitter I’m going to attempt to do content for Dancing On Ice again.

Firstly I need to mention a couple of caveats, if this ends up not being worth my time I may stop doing it like I did when I tried it in 2018. Also commentary and other content will only be available on Twitter due to the issues with me linking this site on Facebook

Ok disclaimers done, the greatest show on ice is back for 2020 with 12 couples all trying to lift the trophy at the end of the series. And a new judge in the form of John Barrowman. 6 couples are skating for your votes tonight and one of them will end up in next week’s skate off.

But who was slick and who should just skate away? You can let me know your thoughts about that or anything else right here in the comments section or over on Twitter. No prizes (unless this takes off massively), your comments are just for fun.

A poll will open when all the couples have skated so check back for that for your chance to vote and tell me who your favourites were this week. As always I’ll let you pick up to three

[poll id=”121″]

We’re in the off season but I incur costs all year round. If you want to and can afford to make a one time donation and want to help me out with these costs or if you just want to buy me a cool refreshing beer you can do so using THIS LINK or the button below.

Set up a regular monthly donation

It’s freezing and chances are you have your heating on! This is the best possible time for you to check your energy prices and make sure you are on a good deal. Switching takes 2 minutes and if you switch using MY LINK you can earn yourself £50 and you also support me for free. Octopus do not charge any exit fees so you are always free to switch if you aren’t happy with them (and you get to keep the £50) and have green energy at low prices. Win for the planet and win for your pocket!

You can also read about the numerous other ways you can support me and the work I do including more free ways to support me (and maybe earn yourself a few quid in the process) and additional ways to make a cash donation that do not attract fees like the PayPal donations do HERE

You can’t share links to this website on Facebook at the moment because Facebook don’t want you to. But you can give this post a good old like and share on a number of other popular social networks using the buttons above and below. Your likes and shares help spread the word about The Strictly Spoiler and really do help me out!