Strictly Come Dancing Results Recorded and not Live

Here’s a question… Is the Strictly Come Dancing results show live?
Well here’s the answer. No. It’s recorded on Saturday night.
Previously, Strictly Come Dancing has been an all Saturday affair. After the main programme, viewers were invited to vote while they watched the National Lottery show. Then the programme returned for the results. All done and dusted in one evening.
This year, for reasons no way related to increasing Sunday night ratings, the results show has been bulked up a bit, with a dance off, and moved to Sunday.
Now it’s perfectly possible that Brucie, and audience, and all the judges could all come back on Sunday for the results. But there’s a problem with this. Two of the judges (Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli), and possibly the voiceover guy and one or two producers, all need to get over to the US for Tuesday night’s Dancing With The Stars on ABC. They have a results show on Wednesday – mainly because with a variety of timezones, fitting everything over one evening isn’t possible (Hawaiians would never get to vote, and East coast audiences would probably have to stay up until midnight to discover the winner).
So for Len Goodman, the senior judge, he’s probably looking at a schedule something like this:
Friday – Rehearsals at the BBC
Saturday – Record show at the BBC
Sunday – Rest
Monday – Fly to LA and attend rehearsals
Tuesday – Record show at ABC
Wednesday – Record results show at ABC
Thursday – Fly to London
You could remove that Sunday rest day, but he’s 65, so he needs a little time off, even if he is traipsing back and forth across the Atlantic in first class.
So why is it obvious that it’s not live on Sunday, and recorded after 9pm on Saturday evening? Well, that’s because 9pm is the cut-off time for getting your votes in on Saturday night.
That, and the fact that tickets to the show are only distributed for Saturdays.
The major problem with recording a reality show like this is that the losers (and winners) are bound to leak in advance. I guess that if you care about the programme you’ll just have to learn not to read the Sunday tabloids (or broadsheets) and avoid internet message boards.


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6 responses to “Strictly Come Dancing Results Recorded and not Live”

  1. diane avatar
    diane

    I have thought for a long time how do we know how the voting works does anybody really know the results or are we being connedd

  2. Hazel avatar
    Hazel

    You are of course correct in suspecting filming of Strictly is done entirely on a Saturday. I suspected as much and then when Gabbi got voted out she said ‘I cried all Sunday’ – it was obviously confirmed. The point is, can we find out somewhere the result before the show goes out on Sunday????

  3. wendy avatar
    wendy

    if the strictly results programme is filmed on a saturday which with all the costume changes for the professionals is obviously the only way it can be done then cut together to give us a great programme on the sunday night how to they stop the results leaking out from the public audiance?
    Despite all this the progrmme is great entertainment well done.

  4. Adam Bowie avatar

    Wendy,
    I wrote this piece a year ago, but it’s still true.
    Yes – it is all recorded on Saturday, and as for leaking… Well the results do leak.
    For whatever reason, the Sunday tabloids don’t print the results, although from what I can gather, recording goes late on into Saturday night meaning that results come through too late for early editions anyway. I guess it’s in the interests of both newspapers and the BBC to not ruin it for the public (quite why we have to know when major characters depart big dramas or soaps on the other hand, is a good question).
    If you do want to spoil it for yourself, there are various forums and even betting sites where you can find out the results early.

  5. Jon avatar
    Jon

    can you name a website where i can find out?

  6. Adam Bowie avatar

    Digital Spy: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=100
    The “spoiler” in their spoiler thread came in at 22:40ish last night, although I’ve never bothered checking it out in advance, and just looked to see.