With last year's Strictly Come Dancing having the best-ever final, has the show now peaked?

Strictly Come Dancing is once again dominating our screens every weekend, with the surprise early elimination of second-favourite Aston Merrygold causing a storm.

The data shows that this year's controversial Strictly has a tough act to follow. Last year's Strictly Come Dancing was the fifth series that ran for 13 weeks, starting with a bang as it achieved the highest average score - of 25.1/40 points per dance - in its first week.

Not only that, but its final concluded with an average score of 39 points per dance - a record in the show - as Ore Oduba and his dance partner Joanne were crowned champions.

Strictly Come Dancing dancers almost always improve over the course of a show

This follows a pattern seen in the BBC show, where longer series have the best finals - as proven in later series which have been generally longer and concluded with higher-scoring finals.

The longer the series, the better the final

Unsurprisingly, points go up each round of Strictly Come Dancing - with the poor dancers generally being voted out in favour of better performers who get to spend more time practicing.

Far from Natasha and Brendan's series one, the lowest scoring and joint-shortest series, Strictly has gone onto increase its number of contestants, length and highest average score for the finals. 

The last series, number 14, enjoyed the highest scoring final to date - knocking up an average of 39 points out of 40 per dance.

It beat series 10, the next highest, which was driven by Louis and Flavia and their fellow finallists. 

The best winners to date

We could look at other metrics to see which series is best.

Jill and Darren, the winning partners of series two, have reason to claim they are the most successful winners of Strictly Come Dancing. They won six of the eight weeks of their competition, giving them a success rate of 75 per cent. 

Out of the longer series that Strictly has ran, both Abbey and Alja? (series 11) and Caroline & Pasha (series 12) managed to win 38.5 per cent of shows - five out of the total 13 weeks. 

The winners of series three and seven - Darren and Lilia, and Chris and Ola - must have been incredibly popular with the public. Both pairs failed to be the highest-scoring couple in a single week of their competitions, and yet they managed to win. 

Weekly finishing positions by Strictly winners

Which shows had the most development?

Series 10 saw the largest difference in the average scores of its first and last week.

Its stars scored an average of 22.1 points in week one, while week 12 saw an average of 38.7 points.

Strictly Come Dancing series 10 had the most progress overall

This gives it an average improvement of 1.4 points per week, the second largest seen in Strictly so far. 

The highest average improvement per week was enjoyed by series three, which saw a weekly average of 1.5 points' improvement across its short 10-week period.

The winners, Darren and Lilia, went from scoring just 19 points in week one to an average of 36 points per dance in the final.

Strictly Come Dancing series three and 10’s dancers enjoyed the quickest progress

So has Strictly Come Dancing peaked?

Series 14 and series 10 both have good reason to claim the crown for the best Strictly yet - 14 because of its highest-ever opening and final show's average score, and 10 owing to its highest progression to date.

Last year, 15 contestants battled it out to lift the show's fourteenth glitter ball trophy. BBC Sports presenter Ore Oduba and dance partner Joanne Clifton ended up as the champions, scoring 39, 40 and 40 in their three dances on the night.

It led to an overall average of 39 points per dance in its final - the highest to date. And while the series' first live show received 500,000 fewer viewers than 2015 (at 7.2 million viewers), it has set a high bar for this year's show.

With this year's show about to begin, speculation is increasing over this year's contestants and whether they will compare to former years' crops of talent.

 Note:  We have amalgamated weeks when only half of the contestants participated. When there have been guest judges, scores have been standardised to four judges with a score of 10 (maximum score 40)