COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Ore Oduba has won Strictly Come Dancing 2016.



Ore and his partner Joanne Clifton won the vote to be crowned the winner, beating out competition from favourites Danny Mac and Louise Redknapp in tonight's (December 17) final.

He scored the highest with the judges, with a total that's just one point shy of a perfect score of 120. His showdance and final jive both earned him perfect scores of 40 from the judges, and his American smooth foxtrot won him a standing ovation from Len Goodman.

"I love you with all of my heart," Ore told Joanne as the crowd cheered. "I'm so speechless. I just want to say thank you for everything you've given me."

Known for being emotional throughout the series, Ore's voice cracked as he continued: "This is the best experience of my life. I've learnt to dance, I've made a best friend, and I've got to be on a show I've loved for 12 years."

"I just can't believe it," Joanne said through her tears. "Thank you for working so hard. You're a dancer. You're a dancer."

Ore and Joanne were crying, Tess was crying, Claudia was crying, Kevin was crying at his sister winning the show, the judges were crying, and honestly, we were crying at home too.

Strictly Come Dancing viewers peak at 13.1 million to watch Ore Oduba win

A whole lot of you tuned in to see Ore Oduba and Joanne Clifton's surprise Strictly Come Dancing win last night (December 17).

Ore triumphed over favourites Danny Mac and Louise Redknapp after two perfect scores for his showdance and jive, while his American Smooth picked up 39 points from the judges.

And a whopping 11.8 million people were watching along on average, with a huge peak of 13.1m viewers. Needless to say, it meant Strictly dominated Saturday night TV with a 53.5% audience share.

Ahead of the final, it was revealed that this series was the most popular one EVER with an average of 11.3m viewers every Saturday night.

But while we know how many of you were watching, it seems we won't be getting the voting figures like we do for I'm a Celebrity and The X Factor.

According to the Mirror, show bosses keep the figures a secret throughout the series to avoid influencing the public vote.

"Releasing voting figures could affect the way that people vote, and also have an impact on the participants," a BBC spokesperson explained. "We therefore do not disclose the exact voting figures."

And if you haven't had enough of Strictly figures, we were lucky enough to be among those watching along in the studio last night where it was revealed almost five million people applied for audience tickets this series.

So, you know, if you missed out this time around, you weren't the only one.

Last night saw the show bid a fond farewell to the legend that is Len Goodman, but we'll get one final glimpse of him with his fellow judges on Strictly's Christmas special, airing at 6.45pm on BBC One on Christmas Day.