I very much doubt that

Kara and Artem?

I think the perception from the Powers that Be - especially after Series 2 - was they were going to struggle to get a male winner ... hence the subtitle for Series 3 being 'it's harder for blokes (especially, blokey blokes).

And the other 3 winners in the last 6 years were Kara, Abby and Caroline. I'm not really seeing a trend tbh.

Alesha and Matt? I believe she told him she loved him when they were announced winners and that seemed to be so even though they would never be sexual partners.

I did say three out of the last five.

There simply wasn't a good enough male celebrity in Abbys year(none got to the final iirc) and Im not sure why Simon didn't win over Caroline-others may have an opinion.

The point is that if you were to put any of Jay/Harry/Louis into either girls year then the lads would have won in my opinion.

It drifts that way now but still time will tell. We will see how the Beeb play it this time.

Don't want to take this thread too off topic, but to the BiB: I'd guess Simon wasn't the right kind of reality show likable, plus he and Kristina didn't ooze chemistry? I've only recently watched that series and Caroline certainly didn't seem like a sure winner either. Maybe it was Pasha?

Well from my point of view his Argentine Tango was the most overrated dance in this history of Strictly (although Georgia's Samba came close on this forum), but that was just my opinion...

It's not really littered. 83% of men aged 35 and under have made it at least halfway through the competition and 67% have made at least the semi-final. The figure for women is 71% and 48% respectively.

(Middle-aged women on the other hand do much better than middle-aged men, and the above figures may partially be because of the fact that far more young women are cast than young men - almost twice as many in fact)

Another win for Jay and Aliona, making 15 in all!

Considering the competition ... this is pretty amazing. I wonder how Kellie would have fared? She definitely would have been doing the old 'Oom Pah Pah'

Oh lord don't start!
😂😂😂

Playing Linda Carter on EastEnders, this will suit her down to a tee. She would come onto the stage with a wheelbarrow - just like Ainsley who i saw yesterday doing his salsa to "don't touch my tomatoes" - and halfway through the dance expect the audience to join in with the singing, sway and clap their hands.

Simon didn't win because he wasn't all that great - I'd say the only male who stood any chance of winning last year was Jake, and he burnt out a bit towards the end of the series. Simon and Mark seemingly didn't have that much support from the public as both were in the DO three times!

Personally I didn't find Simon very likeable either, though I know others did.

Jay & Aliona winners of Sunday matinée performance in Glasgow. Great show!

Of course we have - Kara & Artem and Alesha & Matt spring to mind without me even having to really think about it.

And if you drop the bit about standard of dancing, then add in Chris & Ola too.

Yes, Jay & Aliona are a pretty special partnership, but they're certainly not the only one in Strictly history.

I'm wondering if aliona is getting more votes because she won't be on SCD next season? thus a leaving present to her. The fact people think Georgia has cheated on sean ward hasn't exactly helped her cause for votes and Anita I think is getting sympathy votes as she didn't reach the final.

Gleb has choreographed dances that have a lot of eye appeal and Aliona also tends to choreograph for audiences on Strictly (but also works a lot on technique). On the DWTS Tour 2009, Aliona showed she is good at connecting to the audiences
eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2bFz6gzZWM
and her choreography was very suitable for the Strictly Tours with Matt and Harry, so Jay and Aliona winning the most shows on the Tour is what I expected would happen.

Well aliona won't be doing SCD for much longer as in the autumn we'll see some new faces. To be fair I think SCD has got slightly stale and it needs a bit of refreshing as one would say. I'd love it if one of the judges was axed too.

The viewing figures would disagree with you there. You only have to look at what's happened to the X Factor to see what too much tinkering with a succesful format can do.

Because he was obviously terminally unpopular with the public across the whole of the series? Just a thought.

I thought Caroline was better .. and more likeable. You wanted to get up and dance with her ..prob this refers to her latin more than her ballroom but there was a connection to the audience and the partnership was great.
Simon tended to bore for England once he got in front of the judges .. bit tedious. I liked him before Strictly and was indifferent to Caroline but that changed.

Caroline had Pasha as her pro partner which probably helped her win!

That didn't help Chelsee or Kimberley win and they were both better dancers than Caroline. I think she was just the 'least worst' option in a pretty poor year.

Another win for Jay tonight but runners up Frankie and Kevin! First non Jay/Anita top 2 of the tour I believe!