Here we go with the first part in my series where I’ll be taking a look at each of the finalists and their Strictly journeys so far. I will be taking them in the order of qualification which means we duck for cover as we continue with Layton and Nikita
Worst Routine
We have to journey back to week 3 for Layton and Nikita’s lowest scoring routine. Their Movie Week Viennese Waltz scored 28 (7,7,7,7).
Best Routine
Layton and Nikita are the only finalists to have Craig dust the cobwebs off his 10 paddle achieving a perfect score in both parts of the semi final. The first came in week 11 when their Musical’s Week Paso Doble meant Craig could resist the chants of 10 no longer resulting in a perfect 40 (10,10,10,10)
Their next maximum came one week later in the second part of the semi final. This time their Charleston achieved the perfect score of 40 (10,10,10,10)
Average Score
Layton and Nikita have amassed a total of 469 points across 13 routines making for an average score of 36.1. This is the highest average of the three finalists
Number of times in the dance off
Layton and Nikita have survived one dance off. In week 10 their American Smooth scored 34 (8,9,8,9) and they found themselves dancing off against Angela S and Carlos however a split judges decision saw them through
Can they win?
Oh where do I start with this one. On paper Layton and Nikita are the strongest dancers in the final but the strongest dancers on paper rarely lift the glitterball with the final being purely down to the public vote. Layton and Nikita have been polling poorly on my polls for a number of weeks now and I don’t think they have enough support for the win.
Then there’s the “dance experience” issue. Regulars will know that I don’t really buy into the whole “xxxxx went to stage school/has done musical theatre/were in a pop group in 1992 and therefore have no place taking part in Strictly and should instead take their place on the judging panel where their expertise can be put to better use” thing. But a lot of Strictly voters do and some people only seem to be happy when we have a series full of people like Les Dennis, Anne Widdecombe or Susannah Constantines and its a bit sad because the whole point of Strictly is that celebrities with a mix of dance backgrounds learn specific Ballroom and Latin routines which very few if any of the line up will have done before.
Layton and Nikita also seem to be getting far more brunt of the whole “dance experience” thing than others have and I have no doubt that some, though I must stress not all, of that is probably coming at them for entirely different reasons that I really shouldn’t have to mention in 2023 and being done in a way that makes it hard for me to hand out bans on the site/socials as it is impossible to tell which of the comments are due to a geuine belief that they have an unfair advantage due to his musical theatre background and which are plain racist or homophobic!
I therefore think it is highly unlikely we will be seeing a Layton and Nikita win irrespecitive of how well they dance tonight!
Do you agree? Will you be supporting Layton and Nikita? You can let me know your thoughts over on Facebook, X, Instagram and Threads. All this series I’ve been running a competition where you can take the prize for that week or hand it back for a place in the final to be held before the end of the year where one of you will be winning a £500 voucher. But for the final weekend there are no more vouchers to be won and no more decisions to be made. But three of you who get involved in the discussion this weekend will be joining the other finalists to potentially win a £500 amazon voucher. Full competition details can be found here!
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Stay tuned as later today I’ll be releasing the final part in this series and taking a look at Bobby and Dianne