Week 7 marks the near midpoint of a Strictly series which must mean it’s time for our annual quick stats and facts review.

Here we explore six facts and stats from the first seven weeks of the show – some you may know, others you may not and one or two will probably surprise you, as they did us!

2024 is Samba Season

Very unusually, with 11 routines Samba is the most performed dance in the first seven weeks of the Series. This is 1 more than the normally ubiquitous Cha Cha Cha, and 3 more than either the Tango or the Viennese Waltz (the most performed ballroom styles). Never before have 11 Sambas been danced in the first seven shows and 11 Sambas is, in fact, the most ever performed in a whole Series (Series 16, 19 and 20).

So far this year, the notorious danger dance has resulted in 3 bottom placings on the judges’ leaderboard and 2 eliminations (Toyah and Paul).

JB remains the only celebrity still standing who has yet to perform the dance; his Samba with Lauren will be performed in Week 8 making Series 22 the year with the most ever Sambas danced, reaching a total of 12 in all. Perhaps it’s fair that almost all the celebrities this year have had to perform the routine that is Strictly’s toughest nut to crack. We wish JB & Lauren the very best of luck and hope they can avoid a repeat of Series 21, where in the first 8 weeks there were 3 Samba eliminations (Les, Eddie & Krishnan) – an unfortunate Strictly first.

Hundreds and Thousands

In Week 1, dancing an American Smooth with Paul, Karen became the third pro dancer to perform 100 competitive routines (following Anton on 127 and Brendan on 120) and the first female pro to achieve this amazing milestone.

Aljaž is dancing his 96th routine in Week 8 – and will have the chance to reach his century if he and Tasha manage to survive until this year’s Semi-Final (which seems highly probable).

However, we think it’s also worth mentioning that despite these long service achievements, no-one on the show (except maybe Dave Arch and the Strictly Singers) can top Craig’s commitment. In his 20 years, he has scored an incredible 2,557 dances and missed just one show in 2019 due to illness. He remains the only judge to have scored more than 2000 performances, an achievement Bruno just missed out on with his total of 1,959 scored dances.

Balance of Ballroom, Latin and Speciality Routines

The distribution of Ballroom, Latin and Speciality routines is less balanced than at the same point last year; 37 Latin, 31 Ballroom and 20 Speciality routines have been performed in Weeks 1-7 – it must be all those Sambas and Cha Cha Chas!

Though with only a single Quickstep this week, together with 3 Latin dances and 5 Speciality dances, by Blackpool we will have seen 40 Latin performances compared to 32 Ballroom styles. Interestingly though, the average score for a Ballroom dance is up over 1 point from last year’s dip; in 2024, Ballroom styles have an average score of 28.55 compared to 27.53 for the same 7 weeks last year.

Ten Trends

Twenty-one 10s have been awarded to 5 partnerships so far this year; this is the highest number in Weeks 1-7 of any Series ever. Tasha & Aljaž, 7; Sarah & Vito, 3; Jamie & Michelle, 5; Montell & Johannes, 3; JB & Lauren, 3. Either the class of 2024 is the best class ever or the judges are being more generous earlier on. Thoughts on that in the comments below please!

The second highest number of 10s awarded in Weeks 1-7 was nineteen 10s during Series 19 in 2021. These were awarded to 5 couples: John & Johannes, 6; Rose & Giovanni, 5; AJ & Kai, 5; Tom & Amy, 2; Rhys & Nancy, 1.

In third place, Series 15 in 2017 saw sixteen 10s awarded in the first seven shows. These were awarded to 4 couples; Alexandra & Gorka, 6; Joe & Katya, 1; Aston & Janette, 2; Debbie & Giovanni, 7.

This increase in early 10s appears to have coincided at least partly with Shirley joining as Head Judge in 2017 – an impression reinforced by her favourite catchphrase; however our research has shown Shirley to be slightly less generous than Motsi in awarding 10s.

Seven 10s in Seven Weeks

If you’ve been reading carefully so far, you’ll already know this stat but it’s worth repeating in case you missed it. Tasha Ghouri and Debbie McGee (Series 15) are the only two celebrities to earn seven tens in the first seven weeks of a Series.

Debbie achieved this by dancing 2 great routines on the trot; a 39-scoring Charleston in Halloween week followed by a perfect Tango in Week 7. Tasha has yet to achieve a perfect score but two 39s for her Week 4 Coachella Charleston and her Week 7 P!nk Couple’s Choice have helped her to reach this rare set of results.

Controversial Couple’s Choice

Whether you’re a fan or a sceptic when it comes to Couple’s Choice dances, it’s certainly a dance style that sets some Strictly records. With the awarding of 3 scores of 39 (for Montell & Johannes’ carnival dance in Week 5, as well as Tasha’s P!nk and JB’s Bruno Mars tribute routines from Icons week), this dance style becomes the only one in Strictly history to receive three 39s in the first seven weeks of a Series.

No other style comes close to this high level of early scoring; the next dance to receive the same score three times in Weeks 1-7 is the Viennese Waltz, with 33 awarded 3 times so far in 2024 (for Montell, Shayne and Sarah). The addition of the high-scoring, no-rules style back in 2018 certainly seems to be related to the trend of seeing earlier 10s being awarded.

With Chris and Pete both performing their Couple’s Choice routines in Week 8, is it possible we’ll see more new records made this weekend?

Photo credits: BBC embeddable video thumbnails from YouTube