Strictly 2025, Week 2: Foxtrots, Fumbles and Finding Form

Note: The majority of this article was written last week, but I ended up being very busy and wasn’t able to finish it in time to publish before Week 3. Please read it as if you don’t know what happened in Movie Week!

After the glittery chaos of Week 1, Strictly Come Dancing began to find its rhythm this week. With the first-night nerves out of the way, we saw some couples settle comfortably into the competition – and others discover that a second dance can be even trickier than the first. Scores began to spread out, early frontrunners started to emerge, and the leaderboard began to take on a more familiar shape.

But as always, the numbers tell the real story. From rising average and new personal bests to unexpected dips and judging quirks, Week 2 offered plenty of movement on the scoreboard. Here’s how the statistics stack up – who’s gaining ground, who’s treading water, and what the data suggests and the competition begins to heat up.

The average score this week was 23 points exactly, a 7.81% increase on last week. Nine couples increased their score from Week 1 to Week 2 whilst six suffered a dip. No couple has earned the same score in both weeks of the competition so far. The standard deviation this week increased from 5.81 to 5.99, highlighting a more widely spread competition as the judges’ favourites start to become clear.

Of course, Week 2 does bring with it the first elimination of the series, and unfortunately Thomas & Amy failed to make it through to next week. Thomas’ Salsa scored just 13 points, the lowest score of the night and lowest Salsa score for a male celebrity of all time. He finishes with an average score of 14.5, putting him level with Tony Jacklin from Series 11, who also scored 29 points from two dances. I think it’s a shame that we didn’t get to see a ballroom dance from Thomas, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Joining Thomas in the dance-off this week were Chris & Nadiya, who scored 16 for their Viennese Waltz. This was unfortunately the lowest score for a Viennese Waltz in Strictly history, as well as the only Viennese Waltz ever to score fewer than 20 points. Chris currently has an average score of 15 points, matching past contestants including Fiona Phillips, Iwan Thomas and last year’s Toyah Willcox. After this week’s result, Nadiya has ended up in the first dance-off of the series with five of her seven Strictly partners, and has not made it through to Week 3 safely since 2021.

Ross & Jowita escaped the bottom two this week despite finishing at the bottom of the combined leaderboard with a total score of 25 points. Ross’ Waltz scored 15 points, a 50% increase on last week’s score, however still the lowest-scoring Week 2 Waltz ever and also Jowita’s lowest-scoring Waltz. The pair now have an average score of 12.5, which has raised them two places in the all-time ranking, surpassing Susannah Constantine and James Cracknell.

Stefan & Dianne’s scores took a bit of a tumble this week, with their Cha Cha Cha scoring 17 points, five fewer than their Foxtrot. This gives the couple a combined score of 39 points, also achieved by previous contestants including Chris Ramsey, Catherine Tyldesley and Pete Wicks for their first two dances. Stefan danced to “Give it Up” by KC and the Sunshine Band, also used by Craig Kelly in Series 7 for his Samba, which fared slightly better than this dance, scoring 18 points.

Just ahead of Stefan are Ellie & Vito, with a combined score of 40 points. This week’s Waltz scored six more points than last week’s Cha Cha Cha, matching this week’s average score of 23. Unfortunately, it was the lowest-scoring of the three Waltzes we’ve seen performed to this song, with Darren Gough and Saffron Barker outscoring Ellie. Ellie’s score of 40 from her first two dances is matched by past contestants including Esther Rantzen and Kirsty Gallacher.

La Voix was another contestant whose scores fell this week, with her Jive scoring 19. Rather confusingly, this was danced to a song called “Tango”, which has been used once before for an actual Tango, by Jill Halfpenny in Series 2. This was Aljaž’s lowest-scoring Jive in his time on Strictly. La Voix’s score of 43 from her first two dances puts her on the same level as two of the three most recent first eliminations: Kaye Adams and Tom Dean, whilst her average score of 21.5 leaves her joint 247^th in the all-time ranking.

Harry & Karen improved significantly this week, with their Quickstep scoring 26, seven more points than last week. They danced to “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”, a song that has been used before, most recently by Dan Walker in 2021, but Harry achieved the highest score of the three routines. His score of 45 from his first two dances is matched by contestants including Patsy Palmer, Melvin Odoom and Vick Hope – but is, astonishingly, only one more than Ed Balls!

We now come to a leaderboard tie, with two couples earning 47 points across the two weeks. The first of those is Vicky & Kai, who are so far one of the series’ most consistent couples with just one point between their two scores. Their dance scored 24 points, an improvement on last week yet Kai’s lowest-scoring of the three Foxtrots he has performed, all in Week 2. Other contestants to score 47 from their first two dances include 2019 finalist Emma Barton and semi-finalists Gavin Henson and Lauren Steadman.

Balvinder & Julian also have a combined score of 47 points, but a much greater spread in their individual marks. Their Charleston scored 30 points, 13 more than their Samba in Week 1 – this is the highest score increase of any couple both in raw terms and proportionally. In fact, the only contestant to have a bigger jump from their first score to their second is Sara Davies, who increased her score by 17 points. This was the first Charleston of the series, and only three contestants have scored higher for a Week 2 Charleston: Joe Sugg, Tilly Ramsay and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Next on the leaderboard were last week’s chart-toppers Karen & Carlos, who suffered a bit of a fall from grace performing the first Tango of the series. Having scored 31 for their opening Jive, they fell eleven points to just 20, the largest score decrease in both raw and proportional terms. Karen therefore joins Adam Peaty as the contestant with the joint-largest fall from their first score to their second. Her combined score of 51 puts her on a par with 2017 winner Joe McFadden, as well as Gethin Jones, Alex Jones and Mark Wright (amongst others).

Entering the top five of the judges’ leaderboard, we come to another tie. The first couple with a combined score of 52 points is Jimmy & Lauren, who took a slight dip with this week’s Cha Cha Cha. It was, however, Lauren’s highest-scoring Cha Cha Cha and better than her last Week 2 outing. Other contestants to score 52 from their first two dances include Georgia May Foote, Angela Scanlon and previous winners Bill Bailey (adjusted) and Chris McCausland.

Tied with Jimmy & Lauren were Alex & Johannes, although their scores have been somewhat more disparate. This week’s Samba earned them the highest score of the night, with 31 – breaking Johannes’ own record for the highest-scoring Week 2 Samba of all time and becoming the first such dance to top the leaderboard. Alex improved her score by a whopping ten points this week; including Balvinder, only eleven contestants have had a larger jump from their first performance to their second.

Third place overall went to George & Alexis, with a 30-scoring Paso Doble giving them a combined total of 54. Only Alexandra Burke and Sarah Hadland have scored higher for a Week 2 Paso Doble, and this dance also outscored AJ Odudu’s Paso Doble which was performed to the same song, despite AJ dancing six weeks further into the competition. Several previous finalists have scored 54 from their first two dances, including Lisa Snowdon, Kimberley Walsh, Kellie Bright and Series 14 winner Ore Oduba.

Lewis & Katya snuck into second place with 55 points overall, despite their score taking a slight dip for this week’s Viennese Waltz. This is the third consecutive year in which Katya and her partner have performed the Viennese Waltz in Week 2, and on only one occasion has she managed to improve on the couple’s Week 1 score. At the moment, Lewis is on a level with, to name but a few, Tilly Ramsay, Lisa Riley, Patrick Robinson and Series 11 winner Harry Judd.

And finally, Amber & Nikita currently sit at the top of the series leaderboard with 56 points.  At this stage in proceedings, this is the lowest ‘top score’ for any Strictly series; every previous series had at least one contestant score 57 or more from their first two dances. For a bit of astonishing comparison, this was the score achieved by Montell Douglas and Wynne Evans in Weeks 1 and 2 last year – they were joint-fourth on the leaderboard. Amber is also the first contestant since Debbie McGee in 2017 to top the combined leaderboard without ‘winning’ either Week 1 or Week 2; she and Nikita finished joint-third last week and fourth this week.

The competition truly began this week, and hopefully these numbers indicate quite how low the scores have been so far this year. The early jitters have faded, consistency is starting to count, and a few couples are already gliding ahead. If the statistics are anything to go by, the coming weeks are going to be very interesting indeed.