An average of 10.9 million viewers tune in each Saturday to Strictly Come Dancing. Over the course of the series, loyal Strictly fans will spend around 1,970 minutes watching it. This is equal to nearly 33 hours sat in the comfort of their living room, watching the professionals and celebrities dance their way round the studio dancefloor each Saturday and Sunday.

To commemorate Strictly Come Dancing waltzing its way back onto our screens for its 20th series, Fenetic Wellbeing have looked back over the years to determine the best of the best – the UK’s favourite dance style, the most popular theme week and the most viewed Strictly performance.

The UK’s Favourite Dance STYLE

There’s no denying that sitting and watching the Strictly contestants Quickstep, Cha-Cha and Waltz around the dancefloor gets you in the mood for dancing. No matter what age or ability we all begin to wonder whether we’ve still got what it takes to make some moves on the dancefloor. But what dance is it that makes you want to get up and boogie too?

Fenetic Wellbeing have looked into the google search volume for each genre of dance that is performed on Strictly to determine the UK’s favourite style of dance. Here are the results per Google Search Volume:

1. Salsa - 20,000

2. Tango - 19,000

3. Charleston - 15,000

4. Samba - 10,000

5. Rumba - 7,800

6. Jive - 4,300,

7. Rock ‘n’ Roll - 4,200

8. Waltz - 3,400

9. Foxtrot - 3,100

10. Paso Doble - 2,600

The Salsa takes the top of the leader board – the sexy and high energy Latin American dance is a combination of a variety of Cuban and American dances. Following closely behind, the Tango is a very sensual dance and is known for it’s dramatic, vibrant and sharp movements. In contrast, the Charleston is a really fun and upbeat dance. Sophie Ellis-Bextor & Brendan Charleston to 'Rock It For Me' has had over 6 million views.

The Best Strictly Performance of all time!

Although all of the performances on Strictly are spectacular (well, nearly all of them!), we have looked at the number of YouTube views each performance has got and whittled it down to the top 10 performances over the last 5 series.

Danny Mac and his partner Oti Mabuse have taken the lead with over 6 million views! Their Samba to ‘Magalenha’ by Sergio Mendes made Strictly history as he became the first contestant to EVER score a perfect 40 for the dance! The Samba is usually considered one of the hardest dances for the celebrities to learn as it’s so fast-paced and technical, however Danny Mac defied the odds with his outstanding performance.

Professional dancer, Giovanni Pernice, features in the top 10 performances an impressive 3 times, not only for his performances with Faye Tozer but also for his moving performance with Rose Ayling-Ellis in the final. During Giovanni and Rose’s couples choice dance to ‘Symphony’, the music paused and there was around 10 seconds of complete silence while the pair kept dancing in perfect time to one another. Their breath-taking performance not only won a BAFTA for ‘Virgin Media’s Must-See Moment’, but also made headway in increasing awareness and understanding of deafness.

Dancers  VS YouTube Views

1. Danny Mac & Oti Mabuse  - 6,126,237

2. Joe Sugg & Diane Buswell  - 3,056,825

3. Karim Zeroual & Amy Dowden - 2,880,539

4. Aston Merrygold & Janette Manrara  - 2,857,287

5. Faye Tozer and Giovanni Pernice - 2,694,947

6. Kelvin Fletcher & Oti Mabuse - 2,683,035

7. Joe Sugg & Dianne Buswell - 2,457,527

8. Rose Ayling-Ellis & Giovanni Pernice - 2,376,848

9. Faye Tozer & Giovanni Pernice -   2,251,693

10. Alex Scott & Neil Jones  - 2,228,491

The UK’s Favourite Themed Week

We know just how much viewers love the Strictly themed weeks, but which one is the UK’s favourite? Looking at viewing figures over the last 5 series1, we have calculated which themed week has the highest average viewing figures. As the dancers have been unable to travel to Blackpool to perform at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, this week was excluded from the data. Having said this, viewing figures for Strictly’s week at Blackpool usually increase by around 6%.

Theme Week vs Average viewing figures

1. Final - 11,696,840

2. Musicals -  11,121,258

3. Halloween -  10,602,723

4. Semi-final - 10,985,994

5. Movie -  10,965,445

6. Launch - 10,965,445

There’s no surprise that the final achieves the highest viewing figures on Strictly, with the couples’ show dances, special guest performances, a final performance from the Strictly Class of 2021 and of course ... the crowning of the winners and the lifting of the glitter ball!

This year there is a special themed week to celebrate BBC’s 100 years of broadcasting where the BBC have said that dancers will dance to ‘’a theme tune from an iconic BBC programme or in tribute to one of the BBC’s most loved services’’.

Credits
1 https://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/most-viewed-programmes/ - NB. This data doesn’t include 2020 as the series only ran for 10 weeks due to COVID.