I have become increasingly sceptical about the truth behind the "survivees" being announced in no particular order. Why did they leave Anton & Lalia until last if that was true, I would have thought the beeb would have been looking to avoid the kind of controversy that's followed (regarding should/shouldnt lalia have danced etc) and taken Anton & lalia out of the equation early on. I realise they want the most drama from these moments, but we have seen top couples in the DO a few times already so it would never be lost IMO.
However, then the next logical part of my next question would have to be - if they do announce it in actual order, why would they pretend they don't?! !

because if they announced it in order everyone would know who's winning in the public vote and in fact which order the public vote is in

which would ruin the suspense as you get further into the show

All they mean is not in descending order of votes or points...which some viewers would otherwise assume.

However the order isn't random...it's obviously selected to maximise 'tension'.

They can't very well announce "we're announcing this in the best order to maximise drama" but they also have to point out that the votes aren't being read out in overall score order because if they don't people will asume they are (I've actually seen more than one person assuming the bottom 3 is an actual bottom 3 scores wise even with the disclaimer).

It's slightly iffy phrasing but I'm sure they're covered for it legally. Or they actually ARE reading them out in random order, and people are just liable to see things that aren't there.

Why? What evidence do you have?


Because it was the luck of the draw, or they were creating tension? The "no particular order" comment is always taken to refer to the number of votes cast, positions on the final leaderboard.


Then it would have been in a particular (chosen) order, even if partially. And why should there be any controversy anyway? No-one was forced to dance (at gunpoint/family members kidnapped etc). They are consenting adults, of sound mind and mature thinking.


But they say that they don't. Are you now speculating that they are not telling the truth? Why would you not believe them?

Summarising - your question assumes that they are lying. There is no evidence for this (and no reason that they would do this anyway), therefore the last part of your question is invalid in my view.

I readily accept i am not particularly busy at the moment
I definitely tend to agree with the bottom 3 being the bottom 3 after Saturday, I cant see any other reason why they would have left L&A until the end. I wonder if this is true and the couples know this?
Yes, I know, I need to find something to do!

The way I see it is they left L&A to the end because that was the way to create most drama as people would have been wondering how she would cope in the dance off.

Similarly one of the weeks that James & Zoe were in the dance off they left Chris & Ola to third from last because it would have made people think about the chance of having Ola & James against each other.

For cryin' out loud you do bang on about other people's opinions don't you?

All this close disection of posters' comments by you make me laugh. You must have a lot of time on your hands.

I'll spell it out for you.

Do they say; "Random order?"

No they don't, because it isn't!

It's "show business" and it's obvious it's done for effect,

Only you can't recognise it,

"In no particular order" = 'How much torture do we want to inflict on a particular couple (or fans of same) this week'

But that's part of "the appeal" as far as the BBC are concerned.
It's a question of what they should of should not do to keep the ratings up, "the only measurement of quality" the BBC recognise.
Come Dancing in the original format was to them "in it's death-throes" and they moved it around the schedules to kill it off.

No. I just reply stating MY opinion, and expanding upon the points raised by others. And if I wish to dissect a post as you describe it, I will do. That is not against the Ts & Cs. If you see that as "banging on" then that is up to you, you can quite easily ignore my posts, otherwise feel free to actually post something constructive AND on topic (rather than having a go at other posters for daring to express opinions that you don't share on a discussion forum). It's a tough world sometimes.


As I stated:

The "no particular order" comment is always taken to refer to the number of votes cast, positions on the final leaderboard.

Indeed! Although I did find it particularly cruel to leave Laila until the final three this week. Maybe I'm just not as sadistically minded as the Strictly producers!

I'm "stating" that doesn't make sense.

No particular order means exactly what it says.
The order isn't one that's used each week.
The producers will choose the order they like each week for maximum impact.

The choice of words was most deliberate by the BBC, in many things as in this, they aren't daft.

Yes, a reasonable explanation. It certainly worked for me! And if, as stated previously, the 2no particular order" statement refers to leaderboard positions, then why not create more tension that way?

I think that THIS week the bottom three left standing WERE the bottom three on combined scores and this is how I think this.

The MAXIMUM points that Laila could have had was 9 and that is assuming she got the highest public vote score of 7 points to add to her 2 from the judges........and frankly this is the way it probably went down......this would mean that Phils vote must have collapsed or someone above him on the leaderboard would have been in the dance off rather than him, newspapers led us to believe that he was second to Chris in the voting but he couldnt have been on Saturday or he would have had 9 or 10 points and therefore that would have put Laila in the dance off.....his total points had to be equal to or less than 9 (with a lower public vote than Laila)

So this week the bottom 3 left standing WERE the bottom three in the combined scores.

That's exactly how I see it, too.

That makes sense to me. Laila's vote amounts were probably highly inflated this week due to the 'sympathy vote' so it's quite conceivable she topped the voting. I think the GBP were starting to get a little bit fed up of 'not taking it seriously' Phil.

My first post so be kind to me

Back in series 4, when there were 5 couples left in the dance off, it was possible to work out the how the telephoning went due to who was in the bottom two and who had the lowest combined scores (pre dance off!!). In that case the couples were read out in the exact order of their combined scores. It has never happened since I think - mainly because we don't actually now know who was actually bottom.

Back to lurking

The BBC will never reveal the number of votes cast or the percentage for each contestant.

They say it's "sensitive information and could be of use to a competitive channel."

That's "BBC speak" for; "We don't want you, or anyone else to know how few people actually vote."