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!
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