Darcey: You were supposed to be seducing her, but you just looked a little stiff.
Badass Decay: Some series feature a contestant who starts off brilliantly, getting scores usually not seen until the later stages as early as week 3, who then runs out of steam and is usually eliminated before the final. Austin Healey from series 6 and Scott Maslen from series 7 both spring to mind.
Tyler West in series 20 was among the best in the competition in weeks 2 and 3 and many thought he would make the final. But he never managed to quite repeat these early highs and was eliminated in week 9.
Nigel Harman in Series 21 started off strong, but his scores raised only slightly higher over the next several weeks, and as more people left, he started to find himself near or at the bottom of the leaderboard, only avoiding the dance off due to the public vote. He ended up withdrawing due to an injury right before the quarter final; it's unknown how much further he would have made it had this not happened
Designated Villain: Craig is styled as "the mean one", but will usually try to end on a positive note and can be very nice when he genuinely likes something (the simple "Fab-u-lous!" being the show's most prized accolade). He is in fact many people's favourite judge.
All the judges have a tendency to get booed when they make negative comments no matter how nice they are about it.
It is the norm for a season to have at least one. Season 2 is unique in that the worst dancer usually was eliminated every week, although you could still count Julian Clary. Season 21 also had a tendency to eliminate the worst dancer for the first few weeks.
Season 6 had both Lisa Snowdon and John Sergeant. Snowdon was rescued from the dance-off three times and yet was the first eliminated in the final. Sergeant is probably the show's most famous example. He ended up playing his own ineptitude for comedy and repeatedly dodged the bottom two. He eventually withdrew, saying that "There is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far."
Judy Murray took this to new levels in Season 12. She would continue to receive bottom marks from the judges and yet would be saved by the public vote every week. Eventually the judges just stopped sugar coating their criticisms. When she finally was eliminated, they called it a Mercy Kill.
Ed Balls in Season 14. In contrast to some of the examples above, he did genuinely strive to improve with each week, and managed at least one genuinely credible dance. Regardless, a good majority of the UK reality competition viewing audience was elated to have both him eliminated from Strictly and Honey G eliminated from The X Factor on the same Sunday.
Tony Adams in Season 20, who also tried to improve each week, kept avoiding the dance off to the public votes, most of which were from fans of his football team, Arsenal. While his performance in Week 6 was considerably better to the point where even the judges gave him good scores, some people still felt bad for the better dancers who had already been eliminated, including both of that year's same gender pairings. Things got even more heated after Week 7 when Ellie Simmonds and Molly Rainford both ended up in the dance off, with many viewers saying that neither of them should have been there while he should have done. He finally landed in the bottom two a week later - notably, while there was an Arsenal game on Saturday night when the voting window was open - but withdrew due to an injury; however, it's likely the judges would have eliminated him anyway.
Many people felt this way about Angela Rippon in Season 21, thinking that the producers were making things too easy for her by giving her mostly ballroom dances, and that the judges were overmarking her, which they thought was unfair since they didn't do the same for other contestants who were older or had mobility issues such as Les Dennis and Jody Cundy, both of whom were eliminated early on. This got even worse when Angela landed in the dance off two weeks in a row, but was saved both times. Most people agreed that the producers and judges were just trying to make sure she got through to Blackpool as she once hosted the original Come Dancing there and felt that they couldn't not have her take part that week. The fact that she was eliminated at Blackpool makes the producers and judges come off as no longer needing to keep her around now that they'd fulfilled what they wanted with her.
John Sergeant in the 2008 series, who set half of Britain on fire with controversy as the public kept voting him back in when the judges...er...strongly criticised him, shall we say.
Chris Hollins, one of 2009's dark horses, won the competition over Ricky Whittle and Ali Bastian, both of whom had been frontrunners since week 1 and were rather more technically skilled (this is not to say that Chris is terrible technically, but he is rather more on the 'performer' side of Technician Versus Performer).
And then there was Christopher Parker, from the first series. Pretty much dire, got into the final anyway. Possibly because he did a Paso Doble in the style of Dracula.
Kelly Brook in the 2007 series; prior to that she had been regarded as quite good looking but utterly talentless by just about everyone in Britain. When she appeared on the show however, she actually proved to be a very good dancer; maybe not good enough to actually win that year's prize (she dropped out near the end of the series after her father died), but her performance was still pretty impressive by any standards.
Chelsee Healey, much like Kelly Brook she had bags more talent than would've been expected, however the judges paid little attention to her as a competitor until relatively late in the contest.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy became popular in the 2023 series due to being one of the few contestants with no prior dance experience, with many believing that a serious newsreader taking part in an entertainment show is the sort of thing Strictly should be about. The fact that it was pro dancer Lauren Oakley's first time being partnered on the show, which many had anticipated, also helped.
On the side of the pros, largely due to her partnership with Danny Mac, Oti Mabuse quickly went from just being a Token Minority to being embraced as one of the most popular pros currently on the show. Gorka Marquez, Neil Jones, Dianne Buswell, and Johannes Radebe have also acquired healthy fanbases.
Fandom Rivalry: With The X Factor fans. In fact, both shows had a ratings battle. The battle was conclusively won by Strictly in the 2010s.
Fridge Brilliance: In the 2017 series, Mollie King wore a yellow dress for the launch show, perhaps an allusion to how she was coded in yellow in the videos for both of her group's first two singles, "If This is Love" and "Up" (as well as on the cover of the Chasing Lights album). Yellow also happens to be her pro partner AJ Pritchard's favorite color, too...
Some of the celebrities may end up developing a romance or a strong friendship with the pros they've been paired with, making their introductions to each other and any difficulties they had getting along at first become easier to rewatch with the knowledge that their relationship will change.
The same goes for any of the other pros or celebrities who become friends or lovers, especially since they're competing against each other. For example, in the 2022 series Tyler West was eliminated after losing a dance off to Molly Rainford; some time after that series ended, the two started dating each other.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Brucie, in Series 10, once said that they would seeing many kinds of dance, "except Gangnam Style". That one would show up four years later as the soundtrack to Ed Balls' much talked about Salsa.
Ho Yay: The male professionals. They're dancers, they can't help it.
On the Wembley show in 2011, a VT consisting of Artem being more interested in dancing recently booted professional, Brendan Cole than his own sexy partner (Holly Valance).
Artem and James on the Botafogo Challenge final. They came down the ITT stairs holding hands, Artem attempted to hug James twice...let's face it, every time Artem interacts with other male pros, this trope comes into effect.
Tess Daly's flirty presenting style sometimes leads to this with female contestants. Something Claudia clearly noticed and began playing into when she became Tess' co-host.
The Week 3 results show in 2022 had Carlos and Nikita dancing together during Adam Lambert's performance of 'Mad About The Boy'.
Nikita gets this quite a bit. In the 2023 series, he was paired with Layton Williams and seemed to hit it off well, with a few people even suggesting they could fall under the "Strictly Curse" (though this largely went away after they described themselves as being more like brothers). Also, the Week 4 results show opened with a pro dance where Nikita and Vito were the central dancers acting out a love story; the fact that the two pros go way back doesn't help matters.
I Knew It!: From the moment Stacey Dooley was partnered with Kevin Clifton in 2018, and even before, many predicted she'd go on to win, and win she did.
Lowest Common Denominator: People vote for "contestants" who are not good because they are funny or entertaining, or sometimes attractive, despite the fact that the show is sold as a Dance Competition, not an Entertainer Competition. This has resulted in many an Elimination Houdini.
Gavin Henson got through to the semi-finals, based on... well. Use your imagination.
Most of the judge's catchphrases count, such as Len's "Se-VUHN!" and Craig's "Fab-u-lous!"
Halfway through Season 20, four of the six eliminated couples so far had done a Charleston that week, with three of them happening in a row, leading to some people saying it must be a curse. It was even acknowledged in It Takes Two as the "Dance of Death".
The VT's played before each routine can count as this. While they are introduced as being about the contestant's training, they often feature the professional dancer meeting the contestant's friends and / or family, the professional visiting the contestant's work or the two hanging out somewhere. Sometimes the VT's would also feature them in funny skits, though nowadays those are usually saved for the themed weeks.
The results show also includes a lot of this in the form of opening routines and guest performances, among other things. It can be especially frustrating if your favourite couple is the first to be announced in the dance off and you have to wait to find out who they're up against and who the judges will save.
As more and more people leave the show, there's extra time to fill on It Takes Two, which includes a variety of things such as activities the pros and judges have been up to, trivia about the show and the pros, interviews with various other people, and, of course, the Pro Challenge, complete with the total count and disqualifications being dragged out for dramatic effect.
Portmanteau Couple Name: Tends to happen to the more popular couples; e.g Chris Hollins + Ola Jordan = Cola. They even had matching "Team Cola" t-shirts made up once the name started to catch on. Series 20 has Tydie (Tyler and Dianne) and Jellie (Ellie and Johannes).
Jimi Mistry who was eliminated in week six, the same week he had gotten the best score of the season.
Pixie Lott who was eliminated by Len Goodman despite receiving top marks nearly every week. That was her only week in the dance off too.
Aston Merrygold in the 2017 Series. Eliminated in week seven despite being hyped up as one of the best dancers to ever be on the show.
Dev Griffin in 2019 series, who was voted out in week 4 after being believed to be a finalist.
The 2022 series had quite a few of these, starting with Richie Anderson in week 3 despite his decent scores in the previous two episodes. The judges outright acknowledged that this was mostly down to the public vote, but people still continued to vote for lower scoring dancers like Tony Adams, and to a lesser extent Ellie Taylor, whose routines kept alternating between good and bad, not helped by the fact that she was paired with fan favourite Johannes. When Ellie Simmonds and Molly Rainford ended up in Week 7's dance off after getting decent scores from the judges, loads of people complained that neither of them should have been there. Week 9 then had Tyler West, who many thought would make it to the final.
Many people expected Angela Scanlon in the 2023 series to make it to at least the quarter final, especially after scoring 3 10's at Blackpool, but she was eliminated the following week after landing in the dance off with Layton Williams (who himself would have been an example as he was speculated to be a finalist).
Unexpected Character: Nobody expected Seann Walsh to ever be associated with Strictly, but not only did he take part in 2018 but was also at the center of a tabloid storm alongside dance partner Katya Jones, following the release of paparazzi pictures of the two drunkenly making out in the street.
Craig Kelly in the 2009 series. He lasted one week after one of the better dancers (Zoe Lucker) in the competition had a shocking exit (or not so shocking, considering she was paired with James Jordan, the unluckiest professional ever) and the judges tore him, specifically, to pieces. Even though it wasn't actually his fault that Zoe had left, it was the fault of the voting audience. In his hometown, which he'd been saying for the last four weeks that he would do anything to get to (one of the shows that year was filmed in Blackpool Tower Ballroom).
AJ. He seems to have succeeded Kevin and Pasha as the resident Always Second Best pro, having been eliminated on the semifinals with all three of his partners so far, and towards the end of 2018, he and his brother Curtis were brutally beaten up at a nightclub, with Curtis having to miss out on the first few weeks of the Irish version of Dancing with the Stars due to the gravity of his injuries.
Speaking of people named AJ, there was AJ Odudu in the 2021 series, who made it all the way to the final, only to have to drop out after she tore a ligament in her right ankle, leaving her unable to take part.
Angela Scanlon was devastated after being eliminated in Week 10 of the 2023 series, so much that she could hardly keep it together during her interview on It Takes Two the following day. Not helped by the fact that Nigel Harman was forced to pull out at the last minute in Week 11, but by then it was too late to invite her back as many viewers demanded when news of the withdrawal got out.
WTH, Costuming Department?: There have been many costumes over the years, usually for Movie Week or Halloween, that will make you wonder why the costume designers thought they were a good idea. One notable example is from Week 3 of the 2022 series, where Richie Anderson and Giovanni were dressed as Timon and Pumbaa for their Lion King Samba; the outfits were basically onesies designed to look like the characters. Some people think that since the pair didn't seem to mesh well together, the producers might have been intentionally trying to get them eliminated.
and "Up"