(Post written jointly by Liv and James)

Series 22 of Strictly was an incredible one for lovers of facts and figures.  Better late than never (sometimes life gets in the way!), here are some of our favourite from the last series.

Enjoy!

Respect Your Elders

Historically, it has mostly been contestants aged in their twenties and thirties who reach the Strictly Final; however, Series 22 reversed this trend.

• At 47, Chris McCausland became the second oldest contestant to win (behind Bill Bailey); and the fifth oldest contestant to reach the Final.
• At 53, Sarah Hadland became the fourth oldest contestant to reach the Final.
• Even the comparatively young JB Gill (38) is now the nineteenth oldest Finalist!
• Series 22 therefore has the highest average age of any set of Finalists. Including Tasha, the average age was 41.1 years (edging out the previous record of 40.7 years in Series 15 with Alexandra Burke, Debbie McGee, Gemma Atkinson & Joe McFadden).

Sensational Centuries

This Series saw a number of ‘century’ milestones racked up.

• In Week 1, Karen Hauer became the first female professional to perform in 100 routines.
• In Week 12, Aljaž Škorjanec matched this feat; becoming the fourth professional (following Brendan Cole, Anton DuBeke & Karen) to reach triple digits.
• In Week 12, Anton became the sixth judge (and the second quickest, after Motsi) to have awarded 100 ‘tens’. This came in the 536th routine that he judged (JB & Lauren’s Salsa).
• One week later, Craig also reached the milestone of awarding his 100th ‘ten’. This came in the 2,603rd routine he judged (Tasha & Aljaž’s Showdance).
• The last dance performed in the Final (Sarah & Vito’s Cha Cha Cha) was the 100th routine to receive a perfect score (91 have scored 40, 3 have scored 50 and 6 scored 30 in 2020) .
• Finally, Series 22 was the first ever Series to see 100 tens awarded; in fact 104 were handed out by the judges (6 more than the previous high of 98 in Series 20).

Tasha – Simply the Best?

Despite not lifting the glitterball, Tasha’s Strictly records leave us wondering if her scores can ever be bettered?

• Tasha became the thirteenth member of the exclusive ‘thirty dancing’ club, having received a score of 30, or more, for each of her 16 routines.
• She takes the record for the highest number of tens received in a Series (33, beating the record of 32 held jointly by Alexandra Burke & Ashley Roberts).
• Finally, her average score of 37.25 is the highest ever (beating Ashley’s average of 36.94).

‘Just Brilliant’ JB

Though his 27-scoring Week 2 Cha Cha Cha is the one routine keeping JB out of the ‘thirty dancing’ club, he can lay claim to a few interesting Strictly firsts himself.

• JB is the only contestant to have danced a perfect Salsa and a perfect Samba in one series and becomes the first male celebrity in 18 years to achieve a perfect Salsa score (the first was danced in 2006 by Mark Ramprakash and Karen Hardy).
• He also scored the first ever 40 for a Viennese Waltz by a male celebrity proving himself to be equally brilliant at both Ballroom and Latin routines.
• While other celebrities have danced with different pros (Series 9 Anita Dobson danced with Robin Windsor and Brendan Cole while Holly Valance partnered Artem Chigvintsev and Brendan; Series 14 put Gorka and Anastacia together to Quickstep when Brendan was injured and Series 17 had Alex Scott paired with both Neil Jones and Kevin Clifton), no-one but JB has topped the Leaderboard with two different partners in the same Series.

Hats Off to Hauer

Two-time Finalist and Strictly centenarian Karen Hauer is not only the longest serving current pro dancer (joint with Aljaž), but also Strictly’s very own ‘Dance-Off’ Queen; it may not be a record the pros enjoy but any celebrity partnered with Karen should feel reassured by her success rate.

• Karen has danced in 27 of the 171 dance-offs to date (that’s 15.8% of them).
• She has won 17 of these and been eliminated 10 times; her record for wins in one Series was with Jamie Laing in 2020, when they reached the Final after surviving 4 dance-offs.
• Her elimination after a dance-off with Paul Merson in Week 5 of Series 22 completed an unfortunate hat-trick of Week 5 dance-off departures in the last 3 Series (in 2022 with Jayde Adams and 2023 with Eddie Kadi); we’re really hoping she can buck this trend in 2025.

Ballroom Did Better

In 2023, we hoped that 2024 might bring back some ballroom brilliance after that year saw only 6 tens awarded to 2 ballroom routines across the whole series (Layton & Nikita’s Quickstep, 40 and Bobby & Dianne’s Quickstep, 38). Did our wish come true?

• 19 tens were awarded to 6 Ballroom routines (Motsi: 6; Shirley: 5; Anton: 5; Craig: 3).
• 3 perfect Ballroom dances this year (Tasha & Aljaz’s Waltz, Chris & Dianne’s Waltz and JB & Lauren’s Viennese Waltz) has only been bettered in one previous Series back in 2008; that year saw 4 with Rachel & Vincent’s double 40 Foxtrot, plus Lisa & Brendan’s perfect Quickstep and Foxtrot.
• 46 ballroom routines in 2024 is the highest number since Series 16 (2018) which saw 47.
• 30.63 was the average Ballroom score compared to 28.85 last year, halting a previous three-year decline.

Mind the (Gender) Gap

Female celebrities were a minority in 2024 (6 women to 9 men) but partners dancing with male pros continued to dominate the judges’ leaderboard.

• Tens awarded: Female celebs 58; Male celebs 46.
• Perfect routines: Female celebs 5; Male celebs 4.
• Leaderboard toppers: Female celebs 11; Male celebs 9.

However, with this imbalance it is perhaps not surprising that – as a group – the male celebrities of 2024 achieved their own Strictly first.

• For the first time ever, at least one 10 was awarded to 4 different male celebrities in a Series: Pete (1); Jamie (5); Chris (12) and JB (28).
• Of the female contestants, 3 earned at least one 10: Montell (5); Sarah (20); and Tasha (33).
• Consequently, Series 22 joins Series 7 (2009), 5 (2007) and 3 (2005) as just the 4th ever in which more male than female celebrities were awarded a 10.
• Only one other year in Strictly history (Series 20 in 2022) has seen 7 celebrities awarded at least 1 ten.

On a final note, here at StrictlyDB we couldn’t have been happier that the prediction we made early on in Series 22 (that a male celeb partnering a female pro would lift the glitterball despite the scoring dominance of male pros) turned out to be correct.

Chris & Dianne’s win makes it a lucky thirteen for Strictly’s female pros, who continue to dominate on the only stat that really counts!

Photo credits: BBC embeddable video thumbnails from YouTube