His words seemed pretty conclusive to me without much room for interpretation.

And they are making up quotes from him he should be getting onto the PCC pretty quick.

At best, he's deluded. At worst, he's a nasty piece of work. Wonder what he said to or about Craig that he considers bad enough to have him kicked off the show.

He may have a point about Phil Tufnell going out. Phil got his highest ever score but got voted out of the show. Bit odd, that.

Phil mentioned that on It Takes Two. He was a little suprised he was voted out after his best ever dance (score wise). I accept his dance-off routine had an error but the main dance of the show was his highest score.

Never a truer word written.

If that's what he really thinks, he is, indeed, a sore loser.

You must have a very short memory.

Blue Peter - fixed phone-in competition - people kept phoning in when the winner was chosen.

Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway - fixed phone-in competition - - people kept phoning in when the winner was chosen.

GMTV - fixed phone in competition - the biggest ever fine handed out if I recall - - people kept phoning in when the winner was chosen.

BBC Cookery show - a prerecorded competition when it was supposed to be live.

Deal or No Deal - fixed phone-in competition - people kept phoning in when the winner was chosen.

Richard and Judy - fixed phone-in competition - people kept phoning in when the winner was chosen.

It's happened many times so it's easy to rig stuff, mislead the public, although it's possible the BBC and other stations have learned from the error of their ways.

SCD and The X Factor never reveal how many people have voted for a couple or singer so you'll never find out if the votes are manipulated. I'm not saying it happens but there's no transparency. Put it like this - if the BBC can rig Blue Peter they can do it for SCD!

But why would they bother in this case?

If Joe was that popular they wouldn't want to purposely get rid of him. In fact, surely they'd want him kept in for the publicity...

Oh dear. What with this and the Froch trash-talking (mate, you've retired, there's no need), my opinion of Calzaghe has really plummeted. Gutted.

Put simply..

When the series commenced, Joe got his votes as he was a novelty.
But you can't be a novelty every week.

But (I think - I'm going to look stupid now if I'm remembering the leaderboard wrongly) Phil might have got his best score for him, but he was still only third (?) from last on the board. Everyone scored really highly. Assuming Laila got a big vote from people feeling she deserved another go (and I voted for Phil after his knee operation and intended to regardless of how he danced because he was brave to go out, so I don't see anything wrong with that), then Ricky and Phil were the next two to be in the last 2. Is that strange? Phil was also first on and it's very dangerous to be in the first two or three on, and there's been a strong belief that Phil was safe, which doesn't help anyone.

And look at the consequences - GMTV/ITV/C4 were fined millions. There is no way that the BBC will be rigging the public voting. None whatsoever.

Joe wasn't a good dancer so he defeats his own argument. Had he been an amazing dancer then you could question his early exit but I doubt anyone seriously believed it was fixed so he got booted out early on. He was a poor dancer - period. Phil Tufnell's exit could have been rigged. He got his highest ever score but ended up in the bottom two. Phil seemed a popular contestant so it was surprising he got the least votes.

Chris was below him, but there are suggestions he's extremely popular so...

Not odd if you consider that he did not attract the sort of public support that week to keep him in (allied to the fact that the judges did say that it was close, and that Ricky's DO was the cleaner of the two as they saw it).

And all of that (over several years) actually caused the massive furore, with investigations, Ofcom judgements, fines, removals from posts etc. And which led to the position that we now have, and the position to which the poster was referring.

Phil's exit could not have been rigged - for precisely the reasons Lurksalot specifies (thank you for clarifying my point). That is why we are told that the results are 'independently verified' every week.

I agree that Phil was a popular contestant - but my theory is that the judges scored him well and so the section of the voting public who rush to help the underdog didn't perceive him as being at risk. Laila, however, got savaged by Craig and was clearly in a lot of pain - cue the sympathy vote heading her way. So I suspect that Phil ending up in the bottom two was a surprise for everyone (it certainly was for me) and his mistake made it possible for the judges to eliminate a potential threat to their favourites.

claire2281 - it is perfectly plausible for Joe's words to be taken out of context. What if he was being sarcastic? Or he was drunk? I would put nothing past the Daily Heil. In any case, I predict their 'story' will be picked up by other newspapers with a similar agenda to their own and perpetuated as 'fact'. I'd be very surprised if we've heard the last of this ...

Not at all surprising when you consider that both he and Ricky G were perhaps the two worst dancers left (with perhaps Natalie), so at some stage the public may very well choose the better dancers over those with previous popularity. And as the competition progresses, you can expect that Ricky G might be there again.

Sorry, floopy, but I really don't understand this comment towards Servalan as their post clearly refers to those incidents that you go on to list.

Surely the thing is that, having been caught out in their deceptions and suffered the censure and fines, no TV channel or production company would risk it again as they know they are under very close scrutiny and the consequences would be even more secure.

If Joe is being accurately reported, then he comes across as an idiot, frankly.

The whole thing would make more sense if Joe had said something about the other Craig (RH) - he was annoyed about his comments, but always talked about Craig K as his 'mate'.
I wonder if some reporter has his/her wires crossed.

Spot on. What on earth is he complaining about.

Your post shows exactly why it is so unlikely SCD 2009 is rigged!

I dont think that Phil's exit was rigged so much as possibly the dance off had some tactical voting by the judges....

Personally I was astounded that Phil was out since I thought his dances (both of them) were far superior to Ricky's. But I did wonder at the time if the judges took the opportunity to boot out Phil as it might be their only chance to get him in the dance off (and at their mercy! so to speak) before the very latter stages. I liked their partnership and Katya has certainly grown on me - but I wonder if in a moment of seriousness, the judges realised if they saved Phil he might have a bit of the "Craig Kelly popularity" factor about him and might get saved by the public for the next 3 weeks or so and together with Chris/Ola might get through the public vote and put one of their favs - Ricky W or Ali in the dance off (or possibly both)... I think its been clear that Ricky Groves has been hanging on my a thread for the last couple of weeks (possibly more) and the novelty of some of his routines and his cockney character has worn off a little so its obvious he will be in the dance off again before too long so they will get the chance to vote him off... but they may not have got the chance again with Phil.... (Its a bit like the Simon Cowell - Jedward issue - Simon had a chance to vote them off but he might rue the day he didnt and it might cost him some or all of his acts in the process before the twins are back at the bottom).... I think Len and Bruno (was it Bruno?) might have rued the day they saved Craig Kelly in the dance off with Lynda Bellingham because he stuck around much longer than they would have liked.

Same with the old Joe C factor (so Ive come a full circle and keeping this thread - sort of - on topic)!... He was obviously quite popular to begin with but at the first opportunity of getting him in the bottom 2, he was out the door... (same with Jo Wood).

He made a mistake in the dance off. Even Katya admitted that and knew it didn't bode well for them. Ricky did a good, clean VW so it was always going to be close.

I wouldn't put anything past the Mail in their anti-BBC rant but either way, Joe saying "They were really angry with me. So you can say it - Strictly Come Dancing is a fix. I don't care, we shouldn't have gone out so early" was both a damning and stupid thing to say.

If he said it - and as this is the Daily Heil, I am yet to be convinced - then yes, very stupid.

Not least because he now risks the wrath of Rihanoff!