Former Strictly Come Dancing pros James and Ola Jordan predict the 2020 winners
The former Strictly stars feel that the young men have the advantage on this series.
James and Ola Jordan have the kind of dance floor form that entitles their opinions to be taken seriously and the couple have strong favourites to win the Glitterball Trophy in this year's series of Strictly Come Dancing: James thinks Max George will do it, while Ola predicts HRVY is the champion in waiting.
Interestingly, both feel that hot favourite Maisie Smith may be too much of a "gym freak" to win the title.
The Jordans spoke to HELLO! about this year's crop of celebrity dancers and explained why they thought the males might dominate Strictly Come Dancing 2020.
Ola said: "We're both in agreement about who the three to watch are, aren't we? It's the youngest ones who we think are going to do best."
James agreed: "Yes! We reckon it's going to be between Maisie, HRVY and Max this year. And it's true – if you look at all the years of Strictly, all the young ones do better."
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James was a Strictly professional from 2006-2013 while Ola was an ever-present on the show from 2006-2015, winning the trophy with Chris Hollins in 2009.
While Ola pointed out it's "hard to tell this early on" she felt Max George could follow in the footsteps of his bandmate in The Wanted, Jay McGuinness, who won the trophy in 2015.
But Max wasn't her first choice. "I'm going with HRVY because he's got Janette Manrara," she said. "She's always brilliant and when she gets someone with a little bit of talent it's always amazing so I've got really high hopes for them. I'm nicely surprised that she got HRVY, I'm really pleased for her. It's going to be a really good pairing."
James felt that Max's pairing with Australian professional Dianne Buswell was crucial. "I think they're going to be one of the front runners," he said. "I think it's a brilliant pairing."
Maisie didn't fare quite so well in the Jordans' analysis, despite winning the Children in Need Strictly special in 2019.
According to James, "Maisie and Gorka [Marquez] are both fitness fanatics so I think that's a brilliant pairing because they're both gym freaks but it's hard to say with her. Because she is really into her gym, the only thing that I'd worry about is maybe she won't have the softness".
Ola agreed: "True, maybe she'll be a bit stiff."
James felt that in ballroom and Latin dancing, you really need the long muscles and softness "but if she has had a lot of dance training than she could still show that. And the acting will help – if someone says to her 'right, this week your character is romantic,' she's going to be able to get into that persona a lot easier than other people".
Maisie is currently hot favourite to win Strictly Come Dancing 2020, around 6/4 with most bookmakers, while HRVY is 9/2 second favourite and Max is 6/1 third favourite.
Watch the Strictly Come Dancing 2020 couples make their debuts on Saturday 24th October at 7.25pm on BBC One.
While you’re waiting visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight, or check out our guide to new TV shows 2020 to find out what's airing this autumn and beyond.
