Ricky Whittle is by far the most accomplished male dancer ever on SCD and so far ahead of this bunch it is almost ridiculous. However, as the popularity poll on here demonstrates, he clearly lacks the public appeal of Darren Gough or Mark Ramprakash.
When it comes to the final and it is all about the public vote, I just don't see how Ricky can win.
I never know what it is about the British, but we love to punish people who are just too good at something.

Do you really believe that the relatively small number of posters on this forum is representative of the public at large? Because I don't. And certainly there are some who have not express3ed an opinion (I am one of that number).

So to state that he is not popular is rather odd.

A travesty for who ? In my opinion SCD is about many things , and dance is one facet , Its about our enjoyment of the dancers .

Sorry double post ,.

How do you know he isn't popular? Noone knows how many votes he isn't getting, he could be top.

Just because he isn't the most popular on here, doesn't mean he isn't popular with voters. Tom wasn't the most popular on the polls here last year but he creamed the votes.

Firstly I dont agree that he is the most accomplished male dancer in SCD history I could name you at least 3 that I consider better. His fast latin has been very so so indeed and he hasnt been pushed yet by learning 2 dances in a week (he finds it hard to find the time to learn 1)

Secondly if he doesnt win it wont be any more of a travesty than any of the other people who were good and in with a shout of winning but for whatever reason were either not popular or binned in a dance off by the judges.

I dont agree that he is 'so far ahead' of the others dont overlook Jade she is creeping up under the radar.

i wouldnt be so sure he isnt getting the public vote this forum isnt always representive of the whole public i remember tom not being popular on here also .....

Was there the need to start another thread about Rickys lack of popularity

He's never been in the dance off, the piece on his day a few weeks back showed him on a photoshoot where the ladies mag said they'd been inundated with mail about him - so where exactly is the evidence he's unpopular?

If it's this forum then I'd say that shows simply that nothing changes, as whoever is top with the judges/dances the best will always be brought down with nasty posts and negativity. It's happened every year since Series 2.

If Strictly was just about the being the best dancer, we might as well fast-forward the next 6 weeks and just crown Ricky W winner.

But there are two parts to this game.

Yes you need to be talented, but you also have to connect with public. Hence why we are given a say in who progresses from week to week and who we want to see lift the trophy.

It would save those who are overly precious about the dancing a lot of angst if they could get to grips with the format of the show. It's not purely a dance contest.

We don't have solid proof that he isn't popular though, this forum doesn't necessarily represent the whole country. He's never been in the dance-off, unlike other good dancers such as Ali, Zoe and Jade, and he hasn't been top of the leader board every week either, so he could have been in the dance-off when he was top-mid table, but he wasn't.
I think you're probably right but I'm just wondering what you base that on other than this forum.

We have no idea how popular he is just that the three best girls are/were suffering from the common anti-girl bias. He could be safe or comfortable or behind Ali. The DS polls don't show the anti-girl bias either though its undeniable when the three top females are behind hopeless males some of whom have no story and barely visible charisma.

The other big issue is we have no idea who votes on SCD or even who is watching . It could be largely people Brucie's age. I doubt if there are many younger people and its obviously not people who go out on Saturday night. Voting may have a class bias and a sex bias or even a regional bias - late night phone in shows do. You have to ask who is left voting after some people have defected to ITV. It may be the same people who vote on Big Brother - in which case anyone middle class or southern sounding might as well go home. The difference is that Big Brother usually avoids pleasant attractive males because they know the female audience would vote for them. It may be people who think Billy Eliot is a good musical or who want the Full Monty but settle for SCD. It could be an I'm a Celebrity vote - in which case anyone not called Phil might as well go home.

The voting doesn't reflect youtube hits or online polls which may suggest something. We also know that the bigger audience isn't the same as the people interested enough to pay to watch the tour because the tour audience watched the same dances last year and completely rebersed the first two. Apart from that, all we know is that the results don't reflect ability or performance or the judges or the other pro's views and that they must reflect a particular view of whats entertaining and a particular appreciation of what is personality.

I wouldn't quite agree that Ricky has to win. He's not matching the people who grabbed the record for the best performances of any dance yet and he hasn't produced a routine yet that is as memorable as Austin , Rachel or Tom did last series. He could still be beaten by a Jade who completed the transformation from shot putter to dancing princess - unlikely as that is. He's also not clearly a better actor or mover than Ali if she can get her act together. I agree it would be farce if another male won as I don't see any of them getting within light years or going far enough for a worthwhile journey. If Ali or Jade go as well as Zoe Ricky W's win will be undermined anyway as we will never know what his competition would have achieved.

It does matter that one of the top dancers wins either because they are best or second best but with a strong achievement story. Not least because there's no way the BBC can defend mounting a show where the skill is irrelevant to the outcome. If its a beauty competition or decided on clearly non dancing grounds, it looks like I'm' a Celebrity - minus the grubs and rats - and there's no excuse for the BBC showing it.

It's all been said really, already. Strictly is not just a dance competition.

The point of strictly for me (and hopefully a lot of others) is that it's about taking people who are not natural dancers and discovering if they have hidden talent along with stamina, determination and discpline enough to learn a new skill from a professional.

Unfortunately Ricky's talent wasn't hidden enough, not his fault, but it hardly inspires me to watch him improve or work really hard to try and get something right.

I don't think he's unpopular as such, just that he doesn't seem to need support, he doesn't inspire people to care about whether he does a good dance or not. No one is worried about him being in the dance off, no one is worried about him not making it to Blackpool or the final, it's a done deal, so there is no light and shade in supporting him IMO.

As others have said any polls on this forum mean nothing. As was shown last Sat he is more popular then Ali or Zoe. You just cannot say how the public will vote in the semi or final.

I love the fact that people jump to conclusions from a few polls on DS (in which not even all of those posting on here vote). For all we know he is the MOST popular with the voting public.

You really do seem to have a problem with any northerner or product of the working class showing talent.

How dare anyone who pronounces an 'a' as it it written (e.g. lass not larss), or the offspring of a southern common labourer exhibit the endowment of gifts denied to their 'superiors.'

For the record:
Series 1. Winner Natasha Kaplinsky - a very middle class girl who was born in Brighton.
Series 2. Winner Jill Halfpenny - shock horror a northern lass from a working class background with a Geordie accent. Some argue that she is the best Strictly contest ever. The audacity of the girl.
Series 3. Winner Darren Gough. Some feel that Welsh Colin Jackson or southerner Zoe Ball should have won (me included), but another bloody upstart from the north nicked the title - and this time spoke with an ee bah gum Yorkshire accent. When will the common folk learn their place?
Series 4. Winner Mark Ramprakash - and sighs of relief all round - he hails from Hertfordshire and played his cricket for Middlesex and Surrey: no grating northern vowels there then.
Series 5. Winner Alesha Dixon - another southerner - so that's OK. Hold on though; she danced superbly, but is let down by her working class roots and her inability to distinguish between 'was' and 'were.' Go back where you belong girl - the only place you're entitled to amongst the gentle folk is serving their cocktails and canapés.
Series 6. Winner Tom Chambers from Derbyshire. Now although northerners regard Derbyshire as the Midlands, some southerners regard anything north of Watford Gap as northern. Sorry Tom - you're one of the common folk!

But wait, someone has whispered in my ear that Tom was schooled at this worthy seat of learning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repton_School.
That establishes him firmly in the middle classes.

Phew that was close - for a minute I though another oik had invaded the ranks of the civilised.

So what do the stats tell us?
That 1 midlander, 3 southerners and 2 northerners have won the contest and that neither class nor accent is an indicator of talent or success.

What more could we ask?

I really enjoy BB and vote, but funnily enough the last two series I supported the upper class contestants such as Freddie and Rex and Im a working class gal from the North West.

You cannot generalise like that. Not all people who want Ricky W to win are doing it because he's from Oop North, or because he's a good looking male, or because they like him on Hollyoaks.

I want him to win because IMO he is the best dancer.

It won't be a travesty if he doesn't win, and I actually think he's very popular even though I'm not a hugemungous fan myself.

He could very well be extremely popular. As someone pointed out, Tom won (by all accounts by some margin) despite not topping the DS polls every week. But I have to say, in the past it has been a pretty decent indicator. The year that Ramps won, he was general favourite each week on DS pretty much from the get-go.

I don't like Ricky Whittle, but AT THE MOMENT if anybody else wins it won't be right. I'm caught, I always said Rachel should have won because she was without a doubt the best dancer - Ricky is the best dancer but I don't like him.

I guess it doesn't work both ways.

For me Ricky only lacks one thing. A likeable personality.

In my opinion, the strictly 'balance' has tipped far too far towards the 'journey/story/offstage/'personality' factor and away from the dancing. As a result, most soap stars can expect to do reasonably well, and most athletes (especially female) can expect to reasonably poorly. Anyone who doesn't come up with a hook/sob story can also expect to be overlooked.

If he's that great a dancer, why has he fluffed his steps at least once most weeks?

I don't know why forum members have been suggesting RW is not popular. We don't know how popular he is, as he's never been in the dance off.

Anyway, what's wrong with people not voting for him simply because there are more interesting people in the competition. I don't think its about punishing someone for being good, its just about voting for the people you like the most. In any case, there wouldn't be any point in having a public vote if the public simply voted for the ones at the top of the leaderboard.

She was also pretty boring! I'm not bothered whether Ricky wins or not to be honest, but I'm not shelling out my money to keep him in. Actually, I haven't voted at all for anybody, so I'm all fair and square.