As anyone who has ever opened a rubbish Christmas present will tell you, sometimes the anticipation delivers bigger rewards than the main event. The guessing games, the gentle jiggling of the box, the peeling back of corners to take a tiny peek. By the time Christmas Day comes, expectations are off the scale and inevitable disappointment is just a layer of penguin wrapping paper away.
Creating a buzz around appointment-to-view TV runs the same gauntlet – drop a little hint here and there and draw out the anticipation just enough to keep the audience hooked – but not too long or they’ll transfer their affections to Flockstars on ITV (OK, extreme example). And, right now, Strictly Come Dancing deserves a special glitter ball for being the biggest tease of them all.
The countdown to Strictly begins each year in April or May – the announcement of new professional dancers (three newbies this year), the Digital Spy celebrity rumour threads (every year featuring Richard and Judy), the tabloid speculation, the talk of secret meetings and behind-the-scenes rehearsal-room catfights. Then, in August, there’s the first celebrity announcement, followed by a carefully planned drip-feed of names, announced across the BBC live estate from Radio 2 to The One Show. Once all the names are out there and we’ve picked apart each contestant’s Samba potential, there’s a red-carpet event and launch show in early September, followed by three weeks of rehearsal sneak peeks before the weekly live shows kick off later in the month and the countdown to Christmas begins.
With my marketing professional hat on, I can’t help but applaud this approach. Admittedly, they’ve had 12 series to perfect the launch strategy, but it’s as slick as it gets – a masterclass in multi-channel TV tease. By the time the launch show kicks off in a couple of weeks, the audience will be well and truly gussied up and ready to Cha-cha-cha.
It’s a mark of the show’s success that, even in its 13th series, it can still sustain a five-month warm-up without feeling like the sequins have come a little unstuck, then maintain that momentum seven days a week (including It Takes Two) for a further 12 weeks. The combination of Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman at the helm last year gave the show a new lease of life, and this year’s celebrities are thus far looking very promising.
First up was Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine, and since then we’ve heard about nine more, including boxer Anthony Ogogo, chef Ainsley Harriot, actresses Kellie Bright from Eastenders and Georgia May Foote from Corrie, BBC Proms presenter Katie Derham, smiley weatherperson Carol Kirkwood and the Wanted boybander Jay McGuiness. And then, just when you wondered who they might wheel out next, they announced 90s pop-star-cum-tabloid-fodder Peter Andre and the crooning legend that is Daniel O’Donnell. If only my nan was still with us ...
The remaining five celebs are anyone’s guess – history tells us that we’re still lacking a girl-band member for the dads, a disgraced politician (take your pick), the former spouse of someone famous and the traditional Russell Grant-style comedy turn. Rumours include Shane Ritchie, Michelle Heaton and (gasp) Andrew Ridgeley, but there are still a couple of weeks to go before the big launch on 5 September. And, of course, if all else fails, there will always be Richard and Judy.
