The BBC announced a major shake-up to the way people can vote
Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton Du Beke has urged BBC bosses to consider making a change to the voting rules ahead of the upcoming series. A change has already been made for viewers this year. It has been confirmed that voting for BBC shows will only be available online from now on after describing the traditional phone system as “outdated”.
This series will see an end to premium phone lines for votes. Viewers watching on Saturday nights will have a small window when online voting is open. The lines close shortly after and the Sunday results show is filmed late on Saturday night to go out the following day, reports The Mirror.
Judge Anton, 59, wants the show to allow fans to vote throughout week for their favourite couples, as opposed to solely on a Saturday night. The professional dancer said that many fans stream the show during the week on BBC iPlayer.
He believes it would be better to have votes allowed from Monday to Saturday, even if that would arguably turn the show into a popularity contest. There would be more votes, but they would be less focussed on the weekend performance.
According to The Mirror, Anton said: “I think the show works because we re-cast it every year and now we have a couple of new pros. There is an extraordinary amount of enthusiasm for it. The room is always enthused and I think that transfers to people watching it.
“You can like it for different reasons. You can like it for the frocks, the group dances, the couples or want to see how people are getting on. You can like the judges or not like the judges. The integral part is that you vote. If you did not vote it would not be as interesting.
“I remember when we started the show you could vote all week. So for 13 weeks it was open for the whole week. Now you have a little window and I think that is a shame because some people can’t watch it on a Saturday night.
“They might be working or may go out. I would like people to be able to vote during the week as everyone is invested even if they watch it on catch-up so give them the opportunity to vote.”
Anton also said having dance experience was a “slight advantage”. Actor Lewis Cope joined Strictly this year as a last-minute replacement and has prior dance experience, including a West End role in Billy Elliot and a hip-hop background, though he feels the ballroom style will be very different.
Speaking at an event to promote his new novel Monte Carlo by Moonlight, Anton said: “Some people might have done some dancing but it wont have been fox trots and cha-chas. It will be mainly musical theatre or commercial.
“It will help them a bit. There is a small advantage to it really. But I have not seen many of those who have actually won. The deciding vote it always yours. You know what becomes difficult, they come out week one and they are really good and they get to week ten and they are sort of a bit the same. They have not improved much.”
At the talk, Anton said as a judge you could always tell the couples who were not getting on by any tension in the performance. He said: “The waltz is always lovely to judge. You can always see how good and bad their week has been by how long they stay in hold.
“It makes me laugh. As I sit there I know exactly what has been going on. I can see by this routine what sort of a week you have had and I laugh. If they start at the top of the stairs and walk down, they have had a very difficult week like they are wasting as much time as they can until they get on the floor and have to take hold.”
The new series kicks off with a launch show this weekend on Saturday at 6.40pm with the competition kicking off the weekend after on BBC One and iPlayer.
