Dani Dyer and Nikita Kuzmin top the Strictly Come Dancing leaderboard with 36 points, after an American smooth to It Had to Be You on Saturday night. It is a seventh different couple at the top of this series, and it is four points more than the 32 they scored last week. Motsi Mabuse gave them a 10. Head judge Shirley Ballas stood to applaud and called the dance exceptional, with choreography and footwork she said Dyer should be proud of. The public vote is open. The result waits until tonight. BBC One's results show is at 7.10pm tonight.
Two couples will dance off for the last place in next week's show. The judges decide. Until the vote is counted, the bottom of the board is the only public clue, and it is shared. Cach Mercer and Maddie Ingoldsby scored 26 for a waltz to That Ain't You. John Nellis and Katya Jones also scored 26, for a salsa to Get Lucky. Craig Revel Horwood gave both men a 4. He told Mercer the posture was poor, the frame was not there, and there was not a single heel lead. Anton Du Beke gave an 8 and said the posture was improving. The Telegraph counted Craig's average across the nine dances at 5.9, and Anton's at 8.4. That gap is now part of the argument going into the dance-off.
The board, from 36 down to 26
Tabby Stoecker and Mark Karmalita are second on 33, a paso doble to Supermassive Black Hole. A week ago they were joint bottom on 25. Motsi said the Olympic skeleton champion had come back with a vengeance. Delta Goodrem and Kai Widdrington scored 31 for a cha cha to Let's Get Loud. Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola scored 30 for a rumba to Yellow. Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu also scored 30, a foxtrot to Bleeding Love. Will Best and Dianne Buswell scored 29 for a quickstep to This Love. Graeme Hall and Lauren Oakley scored 28 for a Couple's Choice to The Book of Love. Craig gave Hall a 5. Anton gave him an 8.
Jaime Winstone does not dance this weekend. On medical advice she and Carlos Gu have a bye into week eight, when the BBC hopes they can return. That removes one couple from tonight's danger, and it leaves nine performances for the vote to sort. Saturday's preview called this the halfway show. The series has already lost Dame Sarah Storey, Shaun Wright-Phillips and, in the first three-couple dance-off, Lawrence Robb. Tonight decides who is next.
Saturday's Leaderboard
- 36: Dani Dyer and Nikita Kuzmin, American smooth.
- 33: Tabby Stoecker and Mark Karmalita, paso doble.
- 31: Delta Goodrem and Kai Widdrington, cha cha.
- 30: Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola; Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu.
- 26: John Nellis and Katya Jones; Cach Mercer and Maddie Ingoldsby. Jaime Winstone has a bye.
A Remembrance results show
Tonight's programme is built around the day. The professionals dance a group routine on the women who kept the country going in the Second World War. Gregory Porter sings. Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe host. Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke keep the paddles. The dance-off is two routines, danced again, and a decision that does not have to follow the leaderboard. A high public vote can save a 26. A quiet one can put a 30 in the bottom two. That is the only honest line on a Sunday morning: the scores are known, and the name is not.
I'm a Celebrity still sits behind this. ITV has not confirmed a line-up, and the launch remains 16 November at 9pm. For the next ten hours the question on BBC One is narrower. Two couples dance. Four judges choose. One couple leaves.