You can draw your own conclusions, but like any other television series where the public are allowed to vote to save or eliminate, you would need to know the demographic. I've only just recently started watching SCD, but for those that have been viewing over the whole 7 series, maybe they can predict couples in danger based on previous series. For instance gender, age, program preferences (Olympics or Soaps in this case), and probably to a far lesser extent dance experience/expertise. How many people watch Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and so forth compared to the Olympics?

Create a survey of a 1000 people and ask them who they've heard of, or who they recognise, and that might be part of the answer.

I'll make a guess, but I imagine most voters are female which will slew the results in favour of the male celebs.

I agree, anyone who watched all their clips from training would know they have a great partnership and you are only human to throw a strop once in awhile.

Te BBC did a real hatchet job on them with that VT that's for ure.

I don't think the VT will have made much difference. Jade & Ian, like Zoe & James last week, were placed in a vulnerable position by the new scoring system. Couples near the top now need votes as much as those near the bottom. Probably the public was too focussed on saving Craig and Tuffers. It might just as easily have been Ricky & Natalie in the dance off. For me, Jade & Ian's samba was easily the best of the night and they seem to be popular on here. Perhaps, at this stage in the competition it's time to stop voting 'to save' rather than for the best dances of the night.

I'd prefer the celebrities to be judged on their dancing. Unfortunately they're not and people seem to have wierd and wonderful ideas about who deserves their votes.

I find Jade smug and unappealing and I don't like the way she keeps touching Ian - she folds herself into him whilst standing there waiting for feedback and there is something about her which to me seems quite unpleasant. I love Ian's dancing though and wished he had another partner.

"Strictly" voting is now about the viewer demographics and the popularity of the contestants rather than a proper consideration of their performance as assessed by the viewers.
Perhaps the decisions should be more weighted towards the expert panel with say a 25% public input.
I suppose it would remove the uncertainty of the unexpected swing, but the contestants put a lot of effort into their training and should be judged on their on-the-night showing.

I do wonder if the VT clip was an attempt by the producers to give Jade another dimension...I've loved her and Ian so far this series, but she has seemed a bit 'robotic sportswoman' at times, so perhaps this was an effort to show she has feelings and stresses like everyone else.

They'll be getting my vote next week...there are people I'd far rather lose than those two!

No point in writing it all again so here's one I made earlier
People (like my mum lol) watch all the nice dancing and lovely colourful costumes and think that the Judges' marks are etched in stone - high up the leaderboard is untouchable.
Those kind of viewers don't watch ITT or read forums (my mum doesn't even watch the training clips )

This year's scoring method means no one can be regarded as safe as we saw the last two weeks.

I personally am glad that a good dancing couple were in the dance off along with a 'not so good' pair - that way the correct couple were eliminated.

I couldn't believe it when I checked in on here and I "eventually" found out that she had been in the bottom two. So instead of going to bed I went over to iplayer to check her dance, and the moment I saw she had been on first I thought that's why! To be honest anyone who watched Jade and Ian on ITT knows that they have a firey relationship but, it does seem to work, but I suppose if you had seen her "strop" for the first time it could stop you from voting for her. I also didn't like the dress but, that's not enough to stop me from knowing it was a very good Samba and by my marking second only to Ricky's. Hopefully next week the judges will give her the kind of "build-up" they've been giving to some of the others but sadly, if the public can't warm to her there's not really a lot they can do.

I think viewers still assume the top half of the board is safe - clearly not the case. It makes the dance off a real no-brainer though - a top 3 couple versus the bottom couple, 2 weeks running......

On the other hand, beautiful Jade in that revealing dress might have not attracted votes because some male viewers wanted to see her dance again??????

The index shows a post written by Laura after mine but it's not here

Edit: Cancel that ....it's here now...must have been the clock change
Last edited by Bonnie96 : 25-10-2009 at 09:20

DS has been wierd with some posts not appearing until another post has been made the last few weeks.

Ian and Jade's samba was my favourite last night.

jade comes across as big-headed and a diva me thinks

She did get frustrated in what was I think a heavily edited VT, and as an athlete she will always be looking for a better performance, but it's not Jade who harps on about getting perfect 10's!

I actually think when it comes to dance she has it just right. She gives 100%, she takes on board all Ian's teaching, she doesn't keep whinging that she can't do it and she doesn't bang on about heading the leader.

Hope this week's debacle makes her fans sit up and vote for her.

I think so too and it is probably what has made her a top sportswoman but it doesn't translate well to a show like Strictly.

That's why I was glad she was in the dance off

Hmm ... this is an interesting theory.

But I think there is more to it than that on this occasion. The 'Get Craig to Blackpool' bandwagon is obviously gaining momentum and bled sympathy votes away from Jo. Add to that Phil Tufnell's lacklustre latin and the judges being mean to Lailla and you had more dents in her voting block. So that, along with an obviously terrible samba, is why, I would guess, Jo and Brendan ended up in the dance-off.

As for Jade: I would say she is one of four contestants whose dancing is stronger than their personality. We all know that the public tend to vote primarily for who they like - and that is what is keeping Phil, Chris, Natalie and Ricky G afloat. Some of them dance better than others, sure, but they are all Strictly characters with easily identifiable personalities.

I would guess out of the 'top four' (Ali, Zoe, Jade and Ricky W), Zoe and Jade are particularly vulnerable because - rightly or wrongly - they are associated with a hard, determined image. Nothing wrong with that - hell, what do you expect from an Olympic athlete and an actress best known for playing 'queen bitch' - but it means that they both need to start competing as characters, making themselves attractive/amusing/entertaing to the audience. As well as learning the dances ... so no pressure, then!

I don't think this is quite comparable with last year, where we had two contestants who the public had little or no interest in but the judges adored, in one case massively overmarking whilst deliberately underscoring viewers' favourites. Neither Zoe nor Jade have the 'Rach-bot' issues that dogged Rachel Stevens, nor do they unattractively simper like Lisa Snowdon did.

Jade and Zoe do, however, have charm offensives to launch. The trick is whether we, as the audience, will see them coming. If they are indeed pending, my advice would be to gag the judges: the more they rave about people the public don't engage with, the more the public dig their heels in. Nobody likes to be told how they should vote. We saw that last year - and we don't want a repeat of SCD6!

I really like Jade and Ian. They have good chemistry and their dancing always entertains me. Expected them to be in the bottom 2 though when I realised they were first up.

Jade is not as well known to the public as some of the other celebs so wouldn't have as many automatic votes as someone like Natalie. She performed really well but 8's across the board wouldn't have made the performance memorable to many voters and I think she would have lost votes to other couples who danced later and received gushing comments from the judges. I think she also fell victim to the goldfish memory syndrome that seems to prevail in the early weeks of these types of shows.

She doesn't have a big enough personality.

I think dancing first was part of the problem. It usually puts couples at a disadvantage.

I think it's because she was wearing somebody else's dress.

Spot on ! The only thing I would take issue with is your comment about viewers only voting for people they like.
I don't think the majority of viewers join any particular "camp", however they do vote for couples that "entertain". As SCD progresses, the real no-hopers are weeded out, then it comes down to a vote for the couple who can produce something a little bit special. Tom Chambers managed that, he was a good dancer who was also able to produce the odd "wow factor" performance.

[quote=BIDIE-IN;36234597]I think viewers still assume the top half of the board is safe - clearly not the case. It makes the dance off a real no-brainer though - a top 3 couple versus the bottom couple, 2 weeks running......

[quote]

Its better then last year and the year before where two people at the top of the leaderboard were sometimes in the bottom 2.
Im sure were due a "shock" eviction sooner or later...

I haven't warmed to her as a personality or wormed to the partnetshp betwen her and Ian , possibly because I didn 't know her before this , but I also did't know RW , ZL or Laila

I think she comes across as over confident ( a trait that an athlete would need to have ) but this makes her appear hard ( for me ).
I have to say , Jo made me smile last night and whilst I dont have sympathy for I just want to get to Blackpool , I really do want Craig to do one dance well .

I think the reasons of not being known enough, appearing hard and not having a beleivable partnership with Ian meant that she did not get enough votes

After all as well as a dance competion it is a popularity contest and she appears to have struggled with that part last night !