TV as we know it was dying a slow death, until new series of Strictly recorded ratings bonanza – here’s how they did it
CELEBRITIES sweeping on to the dancefloor for the first time probably marked the moment that Strictly’s 2023 launch show hit peak brilliance.
Channel 4 news anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy, 53 — shoehorned into coral pink trousers — kicked things off by waving his arms in the air like a desert island castaway trying to flag down a distant ship on the horizon.
Next came sassy telly presenter Angela Scanlon, 39, in a purple sequin bodysuit, galloping on the spot like a racehorse in a starting gate.
Then the cameras panned to Emmerdale actor Adam Thomas, 35 — who has boasted that his signature dance move is “the robot” — desperately trying not to let his tiny routine on Saturday slip into a mechanical number.
Inspirational Angela Rippon did her best for a 78-year-old, swinging her leg up onto pro partner Kai Widdrington like she was trying to mount him (I swear I heard a creak).
And fellow TV veteran Les Dennis, 69, doddered into frame like a granddad getting brave at a wedding disco.
Some — like EastEnders’ Bobby Brazier, 20, Sherlock star Amanda Abbington, 49, and 26-year-old documentary maker Zara McDermott — appear quite good, others quite bad.
Better still, some look to be so awful they’ll probably end up becoming an Ed Balls-style sensation.
But what’s obvious is that this year, perhaps more than any other, Strictly bosses have struck the perfect balance of celebrities.
And, in the process, they have struck gold.
They have the cute kid, the old timers, the sexy stunners, the brassy soap star, the serious actor.
There’s also the little-known underdogs who are often dismissed as nobodies but usually turn into the dark horses who take home the glitterball.
(Remember the last two winners, Hamza Yassin and Rose Ayling-Ellis?)
As a result of this epic bit of alchemy, they’ve been rewarded with a million more viewers than in 2022 — which is something of a miracle in today’s competitive telly market.
Even without the awesome pro dancer Nadiya Bychkova, 34, having a celeb partner (a crying shame), it wouldn’t surprise me if the upward trend continued throughout this series.
The bounceback isn’t just a bonus — it is crucial for Strictly.
Like any big budget show, it risks foxtrotting into the night if it doesn’t remain good value for money.
And judging by the huge production the BBC put on, it really does cost A LOT.
Against that backdrop, the combination of catch-up and Covid might have just sent it on a disastrous downward spin not seen since Ann Widdecombe’s paso doble.
After the pandemic eased and lockdown lifted, everyone headed back out on a Saturday night and the ratings dipped.
It wasn’t that Strictly had gone downhill. People went out because, well, they could.
And the dance show could have fallen prey to that vicious circle that TV favourites often get caught in where people stop watching certain programmes because they think no one else is tuning in.
‘FAMILAR FORMAT’
With really big shows that create a national buzz, any whiff of negativity can snowball — the most obvious example being this year’s Love Island, which saw ratings among the worst in its history.
Like Strictly, it was a live show that had the country talking, but also tuning in at the same time.
Last year it was still topping 2million a night, but that has dropped dramatically despite the fact that they haven’t really been doing anything differently.
There was just a SENSE that fewer people were watching — so fewer people did.
Poolside conversations about fake nails and chat-up lines inevitably withered on the vine too, of course.
And the fact that every year we get the same gaggle of gym-honed clones means that the novelty quickly wears off.
To be fair, Strictly has maintained a familiar format too. They don’t tinker unnecessarily.
There’s the reassurance of seeing the same hosts — Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly — not to mention judges Shirley Ballas, Anton du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.
Let’s face it, the programme has barely changed at all and, next year, it celebrates 20 years on our screens, which is a staggering feat.
Particularly given that, since it started, Saturday night rivals such as X Factor, Saturday Night Takeaway and Britain’s Got Talent have either waned or been axed completely.
But the difference between the likes of Love Island and Strictly is the cleverly- selected renewal of stars every series — and this year they have really nailed it.
What they’ve done in the process is effectively proven that shared experience telly isn’t dead.
We still want to chat in front of the watercooler the next day.
We still love the anticipation of the weekly show, rather than the bingeable big drop.
The catch-up and streaming millennials will tell you different, naturally.
But they have an innate snobbery about “linear telly” and treat it like a fossil.
Yet there we were, all 6.6million of us, squeezing onto the sofa at the weekend (just as we did for the finale of BBC1 drama Happy Valley earlier in the year).
It proved that if you can make a programme that’s worthy of attention, Brits will still sit down together and watch it on a certain day, at a certain time, for anything up to an hour or two.
And there remains something thrilling about the realisation that millions of people are perched in front of their telly watching the same thing as you — and feeling the same emotions.
So those cockle-warming memories of sitting down with your family to watch TV needn’t be consigned to the past.
Thankfully, Strictly has proved that “appointment TV” still has a future.