TV

There’s a new favourite to win Strictly Come Dancing

And it might be a surprise

The Strictly semi-final is rapidly approaching, and beyond that the chance at the famous Glitterball trophy.

And with the end in sight, the remaining Strictly celebs will be busting a gut to stay in the competition right until the end.

An unexpected dark horse this series has been Debbie McGee, with the 59-year-old winning plaudits from both the judges and audiences for her smooth moves.

However, she’s recently been overtaken as favourite to win the series – by Holby City hunk Joe McFadden.

His odds have been slashed in recent weeks, with bookmaker OddsMonkey placing him at 9/4 to win the series.

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Peter Watton, a spokesman from OddsMonkey, told OK!: “This is a dramatic change in the market, Joe was as long as 20/1 just a couple of weeks ago.

“But now, he is as short as 9/4, a remarkable turnaround – although that is still on a 30% probability of winning, so not a certainty by any stretch.”

Peter added: “With Joe becoming favourite, taking over from Debbie McGee we have seen some of the odds on the other contenders come out, and the 10/3 on offer for Alexandra Burke would have been unthinkable just weeks ago.”

At various times in the series Alexandra Burke has been favourite to win, along with Aston Merrygold.

Although Aston was controversially voted off in early November, with some fans threatening to boycott the show unless he was reinstated.

Gemma Atkinson has also seen her odds improve recently, and now stands at 6/1 to take the trophy – the fourth favourite, largely due to her impressive showing in Blackpool.

Mollie King finds herself bottom of the rankings at 16/1, and Davood Ghadami stands at 7/1 to win.

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Of course, there’s a good long while to go before the final, so anything could happen – Strictly does love a dramatic twist, after all!


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor