PLEASE not Chris + Ola, but it will happen.
Heck! I'd rather see Ricky lift the trophy than him, at least we wouldn't have two terrible winners in a row!

Both righteously champion gurners though.

We can't be absolutely certain that they won't arrange an "everyone gets through" week to ensure a 3-person final.

But assuming that doesn't happen, I predict an Ali/Chris/Ricky semi, and I further predict that Ali and Ricky will score equally, to make sure that Chris scores no more than four points and goes out in the DO.

Why listen to my prediction? Well, here's what I wrote about Jade on Thursday:

"I think it'll be another stalling announcement tomorrow, and we'll be told the bad news at the start of Saturday's show. After all, they want to maximise their audience."

Spooky, huh?

Producers at the Beeb should be sweating about now cos with a two couples final the judges now do have a good chance to keep a public favourite out of a final. I might be wrong, but although a Ricky W v Ali final might please the purists, I suspect it'll be a bit of a snoozefest and tune-out for a sizable chunk of the audience.

Natalie and Laila get kicked out in the next two weeks. Semi of Ricky W, Ali and Chris. Then the conspiracy theorists can have fun ... if the judges know over previous weeks which one of Ali or Ricky W are doing better in the public vote, they place that one first on the judges leaderboard. They come second on the public vote and get 5 total points. Chris comes bottom on judges leaderboard and gets 1 point - even if he tops public vote, his max is 4. So he's in the DO and chucked out against the other judge's favourite. Ricky v Ali final .... not a broad audience pleaser.

I've been wondering about that too. Perhaps she isn't returning to EE for long.

Your prediction is cobblers because under the new scoring system Chris would stay if he topped the vote.

That can't happen. Tom topped the public vote but came last with the judges so all three couples had to go through to the final. They are not going to let that happen again.

She's only going back temporarily for the 25th anniversary story.

Sure it can. Public vote only takes precedence in case of ties. Let's say Ali is getting more public votes than Ricky W every week and the judges know it. An assumption, but let's say they do:

Judges Score this way:
Ali - 3
Ricky - 2
Chris - 1

Public vote this way
Chris - 3
Ali - 2
Ricky - 1

Totals:
Ali 3 + 2 = 5
Ricky 2 +1 = 3
Chris 1 + 3 = 4

Ali's in the final. DO is Ricky v Chris. Judges save Ricky. Final is Ali v Ricky. The only way they can avoid it is if they drop the dance-off for the semi and have two highest combined scores through ... OR if the judges place their two favourites the wrong way round, in terms of first and second, on their own leaderboard. If they do the latter, all couples likely end with a combined score of 4, and the public vote favourite (probably being Chris and Ola) would go through with public vote taking precedence.

My scenario was for the conspiracy theorists. If the judges know who does better each week in the public vote between Ali and Ricky, they can easily engineer a Ricky v Ali final.

I want to vote now rather than have to endure more boring weeks and then end up with Ali and Ricky in the final anyway....I have loved strictly but something changed tonight....its gone on too long, I have lost interest in the couples.......very disappointed.....I worry that this may be the last strictly.......
I would like to vote now for a winner out of the final 5......

What I am saying is that the producers of the show will not allow the person who tops the public vote go out.

I don't think there is any conspiracy. Why would they want an Ali v Ricky final if they are not the two most popular dancers?

They tried pretty hard to engineer a Lisa/Rachel final last year and they sure weren't topping the public vote.

Ah, well that's a different thing. It seemed you were saying it couldn't mathematically happen ... when what you were actually saying was the same as me - ie, the producers ought to be sweating right now.

Unless we're prepared to accept the producers can tell the judges which way to score, then they are facing the very real possibility of a final that is gonna lose a large chunk of their audience. Their best way out of it is a non-elimination rollover week and to get back to a three couples final. Three couples final gives them the chance to please purists and broad public ... current two persons final could be a ratings dis-ahhhh-ster.

I think that with brand new dances next week, this would be the best time to have a rollover week and keep a 3 couple final.

That cant happen with the new scoring system.....if ali and ricky got 3 points each chris would get 2 and if he had top vote he would avoid the dance off. if its 3 2 1 (chris with the 1) he would need the person with 3 points to get the lowest vote and for them all to be on 4 points and he would avoid the dance off having the highest vote.....so the first scenario would actually be better for him. she says thinking its all cut and dried

I'd prefer they do it sooner rather than later too. If they don't do it at all, then I think they'll make a bad misjudgment.

They've supposedly got written in to their rules the chance to bring back an eliminated couple. My guess is that would cause more moaning than a non-elimination rollover week. I still quite like the idea of it though, and even though I'm the only one seemingly who thinks it's a good idea, I'd scrap half the filler we get now in later shows, invite all eliminated couples back one week, let them dance any ballroom/latin they like, let judges score, public vote, combine the two scores and put whoever tops the board back in. They wouldn't last longer probably than the following week, cos lots of folks would reckon it wasn't so fair. They'd have been kicked out once anyway, so wouldn't have a big following. But it'd liven up one of the later shows for me.

Calm down people......I think there's a new rule.

A couple is allowed to miss one week due to injury, but after that if they have to come out of the competition because the injury is more severe, THEN the last eliminated couple is allowed back on the show. That should mean that Ricky and Erin are back next week. I cant understand why that wasnt said at the end of the show

I'm sure I'm not making this up am I? I havent been dreaming?

I'm very cross that this wasnt decided much earlier last week, surely Jade's injury was severe enough that Tuffers should have been in training just in case she was unable to make it.

Strictly producers what are you up to?

Yes the public will have their say as they always do in the voting. However what I do not understand is the way everybody assumes almost daily that Ricky W and Ali are not popular with the public. Ricky has never been in a dance off and Ali only in one which was when more people were in the competition and the public probably thought she was safe with her score etc.
I would love to know how everyone thinks that Ricky particularly is not popular as the public is a different kettle of fish to DS posters.

I tried for about 5 mins to vote for Ricky and could not get through so he was obviously getting votes.

I think it's a given that Chris is most popular with the public atm so, in a final against Ricky or Ali, would that still be the case?

Would the public vote for a personality vs a stronger dancer?

I know that happened in Darren vs. Colin days but haven't we moved on? (& I acknowledge arguments re. Rachel & Tom but surely we accept Tom was a little higher on the danceometer than Chris - much as I love Chris's SOH)

Surely they will just do what they did last year and roll the votes over one week?! 2 person finals are soooooooooooooooo boring and mega predictable!

I wish the tame statistician from ITT would explain to the producers why the dance-off doesn't work when there are only three (or even four) couples left.

I would be extremely surprised to learn that Gethin and Austin didn't top the viewers' vote in the weeks they went out. In each case they were bottom with the judges and because (presumably) the public didn't exactly reverse the leaderboard they were doomed to a dance-off they couldn't win. They both had to do a dance that didn't suit them, Austin because the Ballroom unexpectedly didn't outscore the Latin and Gethin because he was left with a Latin dance and the Argentine Tango, which is a dance that doesn't even suit Camilla. Had they got into the finals, they might well have won.

Jimmy Tarbuck had to withdraw right at the beginning of series 4, when there was plenty of time to come up with a solution. I'm amazed that three years later they still can't work out how to avoid a two-person final.

I do hope that it will be an Ali & Ricky final, they are the best two dancers, although I guess the great british public will have other ideas

I've no objection to Ricky and Ali being in the final if it's a three-person one, but if it's just going to be the two of them I'm not sure I'll bother to watch. The way things are going at the moment the final line-up appears to be a foregone conclusion.

I think it's almost a bang-on certainty, with the new voting system, that Chris will be in the final 'cos he'll always top the public vote & I can't argue with that.

Who he'll be against is the big question

If the judges want the best dancer in both disciplines to go against Chris then it has to be Ricky W. I know Ali is popular on here but we're not the GBP - I love RW so hope his popularity is greater out there than on here.

Chris can top the public vote in the semis and still not make a two person final. I did the scenario with points earlier in thread.