Strictly Come Dancing final result hit by voting 'leak' claims as fans left angry
There have been claims that the BBC announced who came second and third in this year's Strictly Come Dancing final
by Simon Duke · ChronicleLiveThere has been some major confusion in the aftermath of this year's Strictly Come Dancing final, after some fans claimed that, for the first time in years, the BBC revealed who came second and third, sparking complaints from fans, with the broadcaster since confirming that wasn't the case and they have no plans to release any figures.
After three months of ballroom competition, just Ellie Leach, Bobby Brazier and Layton Williams were left standing in the battle for the Glitterball trophy, with each of them performing three times in Saturday's live finale, as viewers voted for the final time this year. Ellie and pro partner Vito Coppola went into the decider as one of the most heavily backed favourites in Strictly history and, while they actually finished bottom of the leaderboard on the night, they, as expected, did claim victory over Bobby and Dianne and Layton and Nikita.
In the earlier days of Strictly, where there had been three or four couples in the final and one was eliminated before the last dance, viewers watching at home at least found out who polled the lowest number of votes from the public. However, in more recent series that hasn't been the case and, even when there have been four couples in the final, the positions of the couples, other than the winners, have been kept a closely guarded secret, as well as the voting percentages.
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Other primetime programmes like I'm A Celebrity and Britain's Got Talent, always reveal the voting figures for their finals, with BGT also releasing the voting data from each of its live semi finals as well, fuelling calls from Strictly fans for the BBC to do the same.
And there has now been some confusion online, when a few fans flocked to social media to claim they'd heard on Radio 2 that Bobby was second and Layton was third. One post read: "The original post about what was said on Radio 2 read: "On BBC Radio 2 they announced that Bobby came 2nd and Layton was 3rd, by a big margin. Layton was the best dancer, he'd improved so much and his partnership with Nikita was beyond special. I don't understand why loving them puts me in the minority."
The posts about the apparent voting 'leak' on X quickly got plenty of attention and although it's since been reported that there was no 'confirmation' of any positions and voting stats won't be published; those who were backing Layton and Nikita are not happy with the suggestion that, despite topping the leaderboard on a near perfect score of 119 out of 120, they only finished third, with fans polls heading into the final having them adrift of their rivals by some distance.
One reacted: "That’s my frustration that the show is a dance competition until the final then it’s a popularity contest. Layton is clearly the best and I’d argue the most talented contestant to ever appear on the show," as another wrote: "I think Layton was perhaps the best contestant that I have ever seen on Strictly.
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