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At last, we have it. A Strictly Come Dancing star has finally been awarded the first 40 of the series.
Tasha Ghouri and Ajlaz Škorjanec closed Saturday night’s main performances with an impeccable American Smooth. The routine had it all: ambitious and perfectly executed lifts, suitably smooth footwork and emotional storytelling, as it was dedicated to the professional dancer’s daughter Lyra, who he shares with former Strictly pro Janette Manrara.
It’s far from the first time Tasha has impressed the judges but thanks to Craig Revel Horwood’s picky marking, she’s never quite managed the top score and instead walked away with (still incredible) 39s on three occasions.
Her first 39 (and the series’ first 10s) came way back in week four, when she closed the show with a Charleston. The second was in Icons Week, when she performed her poignant Couple’s Choice to P!nk’s “What About Us”, and the third came last Saturday, after her Paso Doble in Blackpool.
Fast forward to now, week 10, and she finally has a 40 to her name. But how late is it? In 2022, Fleur East and Vito Coppola were awarded the top score in Blackpool but last year, it took until the quarterfinal, when Layton William and Nikita Kuzmin landed the top mark for their incredible Moulin Rouge!-inspired Paso Doble. Which is to say, this 40 has been awarded at a precisely average time, compared to the past two series.
The elusive score has felt late thanks to how impressive many of the celebrities’ routines have been. Plenty have been show-stopping and perhaps should have been scored higher (such as Sarah Hadland’s Blackpool performance), but nobody has been more consistent than the former Love Island star.
While it’s often been close, or tied, at the top of the leaderboard, Ghouri and Škorjanec have frequently had the edge on their rivals, and have come out on top in eight of the show’s 11 weeks so far, a feat no other 2024 contestant has managed more than twice (there have been a lot of joint first places).
Will Ghouri win Strictly? That remains unclear. JB Gill has topped the leaderboard three times, while Hadland and Jamie Borthwick have done so twice. McCausland’s moving performances have frequently left the judges, and viewers, in tears and Montell Douglas has upped her game week-on-week. But whatever happens in the next few live shows, Ghouri will always have the title of being the first of the Class of 2024 to land the top score — and nobody deserves it more.
