2024 Week Three: Look ahead
The first celebration week is upon us, and it's the most excellent Movie Week!
This is the week when we hit a lot of firsts! It's usually when we see our first Couple's Choice dance, our first Rumba (except this year!) and the first outing for the fab-u-lous 10 paddle (except for Craig, for whom we normally see the 9 paddle - 2023 being the exception when we had one in Week Two for Layton and Nikita).
Tasha and Aljaz are dancing the Rumba. Will they take the top spot two weeks in a row?
Chris & Dianne are dancing a Jive to the excellent Wayne's World!
It's our first Couple's Choice of the series, and they normally score quite high!
More Couples Choice statsWeek Three is also when we normally see an uptick in the average scores as the celebs start to find their dancing feet. In 2023 both Motsi and Anton gave an average of 7.29, up from 6.4 and 6.87 respectively on Week 2 for last year. This year I think we'll see the same pattern as whilst Week One for 2024 was down on year-on-year averages, Week Two shot us back up for all except Craig, who's average score was still below his 2023 scores. For example, Shirley had an average of 6.00 for Week Two 2023, but went up to 6.4 average for Week Two 2024 - so we're expecting an uplift.
Montell & Johannes are dancing a Tango to One Night Only from Dreamgirls, and it's the first Tango in Week Three for a long time - it's certainly not appeared for the past few years. We've also got our first Couple's Choice of the year, with Punam & Gorka dancing to Bole Chudiyan from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. The one we're really looking forward to is Chris & Dianne and their Jive, to the excellent Wayne's World - No Way! - Way! - We’re not worthy... we’re not worthy!
Week 3 Fun fact: Since 2021 we've seen the 10 paddle .... Seven times! We've had three from Motsi, three from Shirley and just the one from Anton - strange statistic, as I'd expect to see more from Anton and less from Shirley. There's one anomaly in these stats - as one of the 10's from Shirley went to Eddie & Karen for their Couples Choice in 2023. The anomaly being that the other judges all scored the dance an 8. And, one of Motsi's 10 paddles was for a Couples Choice too - Rhys and Nancy in 2021 received a 10 from Motsi, where the other judges all scored a 9... slightly less of an jump.
Tasha and Aljaz topped the leaderboard in Week Two with a Viennese Waltz that scored them a fantastic 35 points. In Week One they were just one point off the top, so can they keep it going and take the top spot in Week Three? Well, they're dancing a Rumba, which over the past four years has only scored an average of 25 points. They'll need to do much better than the previous highest Rumba in Week Three, which was Amanda and Giovanni who scored 30 points in Week Three 2023.
The highest scoring dance type in Week Three is Couple's Choice, coming out at 34 points, then it's the Charleston at 32 points, tied with the Waltz, also at 32 points. In terms of Judge's scoring, going by the previous weeks, we can expect Craig to come in at around 6.5, Motsi around 7.3, Shirley 7.2 and Anton a 7.4. For those keeping score, last week we expected a 5.4 from Craig, 6.2 from Motsi, 5.8 from Shirley and a 6.2 from Anton. We were close for Craig who came in at 5.47 and Motsi who came in at 6.4, but for Shirley we were off by .6 as she scored an average of 6.4, and Anton scored an average of 6.8 - again a difference of .6 - way above our estimates.
| Pairing Name | Dance Type | Song Name | Film | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Montell & Johannes | Tango | One Night Only | Dreamgirls |
 |
Punam & Gorka | Couple’s Choice | Bole Chudiyan | Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham |
 |
Sam & Nikita | Paso Doble | Elevation | Tomb Raider |
 |
Sarah & Vito | Viennese Waltz | Hedwig’s Theme | Harry Potter |
|
Tasha & Aljaz | Rumba | What Was I Made For? | Barbie |
 |
Toyah & Neil | Samba | Poor Unfortunate Souls | Little Mermaid |
 |
Jamie & Michelle | Quickstep | I’m Still Standing | Rocketman |
 |
JB & Amy | American Smooth | Pure Imagination | Wonka |
 |
Nick & Luba | Charleston | Rain on the Roof | Paddington 2 |
 |
Paul & Karen | Cha Cha | The Magnificent Seven Theme | The Magnificent Seven |
 |
Pete & Jowita | Samba | George Of The Jungle Theme | George Of The Jungle |
 |
Shayne & Nancy | Viennese Waltz | If I Can Dream | Elvis |
 |
Wynne & Katya | Cha Cha | Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag | Mrs Doubtfire |
 |
Chris & Dianne | Jive | Wayne’s World Theme | Wayne’s World |
