![](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SEI_171912724-cf21.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
About 10 years ago, I felt so clever when I figured out how to get the Strictly Come Dancing results spoiler.<\/p>\n
Late on a Saturday night, I\u2019d visit a betting website and see which contestant had suddenly disappeared from the bookies\u2019 markets. I felt so smug.<\/p>\n
Obviously, I wasn\u2019t nearly as smart as I thought I was \u2013 many other people had the same idea (my dad included), and the spoiler was readily available in forums and in quiet corners of social media for anyone who wanted to find it.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, bookies tend to suspend their markets altogether before the results show airs. But spoilers still run rampant, and many fans \u2013 myself guiltily included \u2013 can\u2019t help themselves.<\/p>\n
For every series since 2007 (with the exception of 2009), contestants have danced their hearts out in a live Saturday broadcast, before the public vote opens and the credits roll.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once that vote closes later the same night, the elimination programme is pre-recorded, and aired at teatime on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The advantages are plentiful: mistakes can be re-shot, rambling judges can be edited down, and \u2013 crucially \u2013 the Dance-Off performances can be presented in quick succession, without having to wait for the sets to be changed-over.<\/p>\n
But the big con? The result always, always leaks before broadcast.<\/p>\n
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video<\/p>\n
Everyone involved \u2013 from crew to on-screen talent to studio audience \u2013 is sworn to secrecy, but by midnight the identity of the eliminated couple is quite easily discoverable to anyone with a bit of 3G.<\/p>\n
One popular X (formerly Twitter) account, run by viewer Dave Thorp, is a big go-to for results-hungry viewers; and has almost 66,000 followers. Another, named simply \u2018Strictly Spoiler\u2019, has over 50,000; and several others pop up every year (shout-out to anyone who, like me, enjoys the way they are all making passive-aggressive digs at each-other throughout the series).<\/p>\n
You can see why those involved with the show are growing more and more frustrated.<\/p>\n
Judge Anton Du Beke told Metro.co.uk this month: \u2018I get irritated. I hate anybody who\u2019s a spoiler.<\/p>\n
\u2018Don\u2019t search for it, but don\u2019t put it on there. Whoever you are, Mr Spoiler \u2013 why are you doing that? What are you gaining out of that? What\u2019s the purpose of that? It\u2019s just pathetic. That\u2019s how I feel about it. I get grumpy about it.\u2019<\/p>\n
Bosses are allegedly so annoyed that measures are now being implemented. An unnamed source told MailOnline a couple of weeks ago: \u2018So now procedures are being put in place to see if the mole can be caught though it\u2019s tricky because there are so many people involved with Strictly but the bosses are determined to nail he or she.\u2019<\/p>\n
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video<\/p>\n
I know I shouldn\u2019t look. I know! I know I should sit back, tune in on Sunday and enjoy the ride. But I just can\u2019t help myself! If I know it\u2019s out there, I\u2019ll read it.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know why: I know full-well that rumoured spoilers for other shows, like Drag Race, can sometimes be found on sites like Reddit; and when watching the likes of The Traitors Australia \u2013 which aired Down Under a year ago \u2013 I knew I could just go on Wikipedia at any point and see how it all panned out.<\/p>\n
With all those other shows, though, I resist. So why is Strictly so tempting? It\u2019s probably because unlike other similar shows, it wasn\u2019t filmed months ago; it\u2019s a kind of excitement that\u2019s happening right now.<\/p>\n
Can these spoilers be stopped? If you ask me, bosses can put in place all the \u2018measures\u2019 they want \u2013 they can\u2019t stop Jimbob and Gladys in the audience from pinging Dave Thorp a line the second they get their phones back.<\/p>\n
The only real solution? To simply stop pre-recording the results shows altogether.<\/p>\n
If a Sunday night live broadcast is too expensive and logistically tricky, perhaps we need to just get the results live on the Saturday \u2013 either in a later results show, or in one, elongated main programme.<\/p>\n
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video<\/p>\n
The former is certainly how it used to be back in the day \u2013 and in 2009, the Beeb tried the latter, too; airing the results in the same show as the main dances (like they currently do with the live final in December).<\/p>\n
The obvious drawback with that is the running time: tomorrow\u2019s performance show is already slated to run at around two hours and 20 minutes. Add in time for voting, time for vote-counting, and time for a Dance-Off; and you\u2019re probably clocking in at a bum-numbing three-and-a-half.<\/p>\n
Maybe the way around that is to split the field into two alternating groups in the earlier stages of the contest; or maybe it\u2019s to ditch the Dance-Off altogether and instantly eliminate whoever\u2019s last on the combined leader-board (that, for what it\u2019s worth, is how it works on Dancing With The Stars).<\/p>\n
Whatever the workaround, Strictly spoilers can only be vanquished for good at this point if the pre-recorded element is jettisoned altogether.<\/p>\n
But hey, maybe they don\u2019t need to be vanquished. Maybe the spoilers actually aren\u2019t that big of a deal. I personally still watch the results even if I do know the outcome in advance.<\/p>\n
And the ratings are still enormous \u2013 sure, they\u2019re not quite as high as Saturdays\u2019, but according to audience measurement organisation BARB, last year only one Sunday episode logged fewer than 8million viewers. So are the spoilers even doing that much harm?<\/p>\n
What matters is that people who don\u2019t want the advanced info aren\u2019t exposed to them by accident.<\/p>\n
Thorp has said in his own defence that he avoids putting spoiler specifics in tweets\/posts, instead directing readers to his website to read the info \u2013 the upshot being that even if people retweet\/repost, they won\u2019t see the actual spoiler unless they purposely click through.<\/p>\n
Other accounts, however, put the spoiler specifics in their tweets\/posts \u2013 so once those posts are shared by followers, it\u2019s easy for folks who want to remain spoiler-free to see them by accident. That feels unfair.<\/p>\n
That issue aside, however, are they really doing that much damage? If not, maybe bosses just need to learn to live with them.<\/p>\n
And if so, maybe the only solution is to ditch the pre-record itself. That way, there\u2019ll be nothing to ruin.<\/p>\n