Eighteen months after losing the Morley and Outwood constituency on a 1.6% swing from Labour to Conservative, Ed Balls has suffered another heavily televised defeat – going down 0-4 on the vote of the Strictly Come Dancing judges in a dance-off with TV legal expert Judge Rinder.
On this occasion, as on that, Balls made a dignified speech in defeat. But, whereas the loss of the previous vote looked life-shattering and was met with delight in large sections of the media, this time the politician has a huge number of career possibilities and it will be generally felt that Strictly has now lost its most pleasurable 2016 element.
Given events this year, terpsichorean TV triumph for the former education secretary had come to seem an almost inevitable conclusion to a period in which the odds-on has repeatedly been beaten by the oddest one: President-Elect Trump, Brexit, Leicester City, Chicago Cubs, Bob Dylan.
Balls’ unexpected survival until week ten was based in the defiance of experts and bookmakers that underlay the earlier surprises. He is not even the only example in talent television. Honey G, a wacky parody rapper, has dominated Strictly’s ratings rival, ITV’s The X Factor, despite being to the larynx what the former shadow chancellor is to the feet.
In this, the phone-in vote crosses lines with the ballot box. Although the potential consequences are far less, the people voting for Balls on Strictly Come Dancing and Honey G on The X Factor are challenging the system and ridiculing conventional wisdom in a way similar to backers of Farage and Trump. It amuses some viewers to threaten BBC bosses with a Balls-up on Strictly, or to secure Simon Cowell’s talent shows for acts from which his record company will struggle to make money.
There had been red-top talk last week of a so-called BBC plot to stop Balls winning, although, in reality, there was nothing the judges could do for as long as the public failed to include him in the bottom two dancers who go to the mercy of the judges. However, media interviews in which the most generally liked judge, Darcey Bussell, in effect said, “Ed’s been fun but now let a real dancer win”, may have had some effect.
The panel had also set a second bar for the politician to get over this weekend – an unrehearsed cha-cha challenge – in which they pointedly placed Balls and dance partner Katya last, as they had a few minutes earlier when he showed off his tango. Finally, the public seemed to get the hint. And so, 24 hours after head judge Len Goodman had called Balls “the people’s champion”, he was gone. It is unclear if there will be pleas for recounts or appeals to the supreme court.
It will be intriguing now to see how Balls chooses to use his new fame with – and apparent fondness from – the UK population. The Apprentice has just become the first TV franchise to have one of its alumni elected US president, and there were a couple of days this summer when it seemed that Have I Got New For You?, crucial in moulding the persona of Boris Johnson as a classless charmer, would be the first British entertainment series to put a cast-member in No 10.
Balls is surely too much of a politician not to have wondered if Strictly can do for him something like The Apprentice has done for Trump, although, in any return to frontline politics, the advantage of warm recognisability would have to be balanced against the possibilities offered to opponents for metaphors about falling over, being held up by partners or being voted out.
Further broadcasting opportunities seem assured, although he will need to be very strict with suggested titles punning on the surname that caused him trouble both at school and in Westminster.
But, while Balls and Honey G have been publicity boons for producers, TV reality and talent franchises are going to have to look carefully at their rule-books to protect themselves against viewers who see fun in trying to Trump the production.
