Could YouTube star Joe Sugg win Strictly Come Dancing?
When Strictly Come Dancing unveiled its 2018 lineup, I imagine there would have been more than a couple of blank faces at the name Joe Sugg.
While reality stars frequently feature on the show, Sugg is the first social media celebrity to ever appear. But if Strictly’s core fanbase aren’t familiar with him, plenty of others are.
The 27-year-old vlogger has more than 13m YouTube subscribers, and is the younger brother of Zoe Sugg – better known as Zoella, who is arguably the country’s biggest social media star, with almost 17m subscribers across her two channels.
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Sugg’s huge following has translated into some incredible viewing figures so far. On the official Strictly YouTube channel, the videos of all of the dances in the second show have between 42,000 to 106,000 views. Sugg is way ahead with one million views. His followers are clearly just as interested in watching him dance as they are watching him do anything else.
This popularity is vindication for booking someone so outside the usual Strictly comfort zone, and with statistics like that, he might just be the most popular contestant of all time.
Traditionally, this would make him a predictable winner. The British public are known for keeping their favourites in the competition based on personality rather than ability – John Sergeant had to disqualify himself in 2008 out of fear that his two left feet might actually win, which even for him “would be a joke too far”.
Whether Sugg’s popularity will translate into votes remains to be seen. Should he and Zoella galvanise their millions of young fans, they would have a force to be reckoned with. And let’s be honest, they probably will.
Yet will his legion of young fans be watching anywhere but online? Although viewers can vote through the BBC’s website, the voting is only open for a couple of hours following the end of the Saturday night show. So if his fans are only watching YouTube videos the following week, rather than live, this fanbase may not translate into an automatic win.
Alternatively, will his influence be strong enough to attract new, young viewers to the family-favourite show?
It will be very interesting to see how the show’s viewing figures develop over the coming weeks. Perhaps Strictly will see a surge in ratings, bolstered by a younger audience. Perhaps that was the producers’ plan all along.
Or maybe Sugg will find that, for his following of digital natives, the switch to prime time is a cha cha cha step too far.
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