Kelvin Fletcher, 35, is preparing to dazzle Strictly Come Dancing fans this weekend with his third performance of the competition with professional dancer, Oti Mabuse, 29. The pair will take to the dance floor with a Charleston routine as the BBC dance show transports viewers to the big screen for movie week. With 14 celebrities remaining to fight it out for victory, it sees like bad news could be on the horizon for the former Emmerdale star as his place in dancing on the live show schedule could play as an advantage for another.
Kelvin was a late addition to this year’s line-up, only joining the show two weeks before the celebrities were set to dance for the first time with his introduction given in the first live show.
The former soap star didn’t disappoint as the performed a sensational Samba with Oti, with the judging panel awarding the couple a score of 34 out of 40.
Following the first show, bookmakers received record-breaking amounts of bets placed on the actor to win the competition and take the title from 2018 champion, Stacey Dooley, 32.
Last weekend, the pair dropped by 4 marks with their Viennese Waltz and after the scores were combined with the week one ahead of the first elimination, the couple placed third overall.
READ MORE: Charley Webb details how she knew Strictly Kelvin Fletcher could dance
This was because CBBC presenter Karim Zeroual and his partner Amy Dowden, 28, topped the leaderboard with an overall score of 63.
The young pair have risen as one of the favourites also in contention in for the Strictly crown, and a trend has been spotted regarding the contestant’s dance in the live show schedule which could work in their advantage.
Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams of Economics and Finance at Nottingham Business School contributed to research conducted on Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing With The Stars over a 15 year period which analysed whether there was an effect on the order in which contestants danced during the live show.
Analysis was conducted to highlight which place in the schedule would be the best to perform to achieve optimum results from the judges and the viewing public.
Kelvin has only performed once in the second half of the live show, therefore, could Karim have an upper hand on the end goal?
Karim came up top of the leaderboard air scoring both a 31 and a 32 for his first two performances, just giving him the headspace from fan favourite Kelvin.
In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Professor Vaughan Williams explained the details of the research further, stating: “There is a clear advantage, we found, in performing later in the show, and especially performing last, and this advantage applies to the judges’ scores as well as in the public vote.
“The least successful place perform, we found, was second.”
Whether contestants were placed in such an order because they were the favourite to win, the researcher said: “We applied sophisticated statistical tests to determine whether better performers were being favoured with later slots, and we were able to eliminate this theory.”
“The only artificial bias we found was that the first performance slot tended to be occupied by one of the better performers,” Professor Vaughan Williams added.
Kelvin has not yet performed in last place of opened the show, therefore it is clear this conclusion is not subject to the production having any part to play in the results.
Have the first two live shows determined who could have already emerged as the champion?
Strictly Come Dancing 2019 continues Saturday at 7.10pm on BBC One.
