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
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.
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