Week 4: Where have all the points gone?

Last week, after Delta & Kai received their scores, Johannes mentioned that Motsi’s ‘nine’ was the first one to be awarded this series. With no other ‘nines’ throughout the rest of the show, I thought I would see how the overall scoring of series 24 compared with previous years.

On cloud ‘nine’

Firstly, I looked at how many individual scores of ‘nine’ or ‘ten’ had been awarded at the end of week three in each series?

As you can see, the current series has only bettered series 10, which saw it’s first ‘nines’ awarded in week four to the eventual champion Louis Smith.

So, series 24, has clearly been found lacking on the number of high scoring paddles, but how does it compare when looking at the average score awarded? Again, this year’s contestants should probably look away…

*Scores awarded by the three person-panel in s18 have been adjusted to a 40-point scale to enable a fair comparison.

Unfortunately, series 24 is ranked as the lowest scoring Strictly series of all time and is close to ‘two points per routine’ less than what we’ve seen in an ‘average’ series.

Who are we to judge?

Digging a little deeper, is it one specific judge who has caused this decline in scoring, or are all the judges equally culpable?

Let’s focus on the scores from the last six series, which is when Anton joined the panel as a full-time judge.

• It’s interesting to note that despite the average score decreasing compared to series 23, Anton’s scoring has increased marginally this year
• Anton can now hold sole claim to being Strictly’s most ‘generous’ judge, scoring on average half a point higher than Motsi, when in previous year’s they were virtually ‘neck-and-neck’
• Compared to series 20 (which included Hamza Yassin, Helen Skelton & Fleur East), the average scores of both Motsi & Shirley are a full point lower this year

It ‘themes’ too good to be true

Next, I wanted to check whether the decrease in scoring had affected every week of the competition.

* Movie Week

These scores show that the scoring boost that a ‘theme week’ usually generates ended up being less pronounced than normal this year. I would argue that this was an unforeseen consequence of rescheduling ‘Movie Week’ to week two.

Mind the gap

I then checked how the ‘top performers’ of series 24 (Delta & Kai, Lacey & Vito, Tabby & Mark) compared to the highest scoring contestants from previous years.

As you will see, the ‘class of 2026’ have some catching up to do, with Delta the only contestant inside the top 50, and Lacey and Tabby both currently outside of the top 100.

Before this series started, much was made in the press of the previous dance experience that this year’s cast had. Perhaps one reason the judges have been sparing with their use of their ‘eight’ paddles to the likes of Cach, Dani & Lawrence is down to pre-conceived expectations of how well they could already dance?

One final point I wanted to highlight is that the 11-point gap, after three routines, between our current points leader (Delta) and second place (Lacey & Tabby) is the second largest in Strictly history.

So, to answer my opening question of, ‘where have all the points gone?’

• Shirley and Motsi have become progressively tougher with their scoring
• Bringing ‘Movie week’ forward to week two largely nullified the themed week ‘scoring inflation’ we usually see
• A greater level of perceived ‘dance experience’ with our celebrity cast may have altered the expectations of the judging panel

Of course, the low scoring start to series 24, won’t be helped by the sad absence of Kai and Delta in ‘Icons week’. It will be fascinating to see which partnerships use this unforeseen opportunity to step up and fill the void.