As I understand it Chris is safe next week if he tops the public vote but the following week even if top the judges can place him last and thus into the DO and send him home.

What's the point of the public vote in a 2 person final ?

I always thought in the final whether it was 2 person or not, it was decided purely by the public?

We need the public vote in order to confuse people who can't grasp a frankly fairly straightforward scoring and elimination system.

It would be qutie amusing if the Colans convinced themselves there was no point in voting.

I was under the impression that when it gets down to the last 3 the result is in the hands of the public.

But the judges favourites will be the only finalists ? The public favourites will already have been eliminated?

Only if it's the final. If a couple drop out and the semi final consists of only three couples, there is still a dance off - or at least that has happened for the past two years since the dance off was introduced (and I haven't heard of a change this year).

How will the judges favourites be the only finalists? The public vote has more precedence in case of a tie and the change in voting system means no one is safe from the dance off anyway, so it is up to the public to save their favourite from the dance off. The judges have to choose between the 2 people who arent as popular with the public. If the person you wish to be kept in has or is eliminated, that is because:

a) they didnt receive enough public votes and
b) they didnt dance as well as the other person in the dance off.

Its a simple system and it works.

If I had my way, the dance-off would end at the quarter final stage.

Actually, if I had my way, there'd be no dance-off from the start!

The judges have their say when they rank the couples. The rest should be up to us. We should be allowed to decide who we'd rather see in the later stages of the contest.

Perhaps if this was the case, we wouldn't have lost Austin and Gethin prematurely (neither were my favourite but I recognise that they were better overall then the celebs they were knocked out against).

It can't be that simple since you don't seem to understand it at all going by your post.

No way would Gethin have gotten less than Matt and would have stayed.

Austin would surely have stayed too.

It's such a joke having Len make the decisions at this late stage.

OK say semi final leaderboard
Top Ali 3 + 2 (second in public) = 5
2nd Ricky 2 + 1 ( last in public) = 3
3rd Chris1+ 3 ( tops public ) = 4

Ricky and Chris in DO

Judges send publics favourite home .

This system works to select only the competitors favoured by the judges ,so again I ask what is the point of a public vote?

Care to expand on that instead of being snotty?

I agree in the later stages it could be an exercise in futility in voting, if your favourite is say Chris or Laila and are at the bottom of the leaderboard, there probably isn't a great deal of point voting as the outcome of a DO is a forgone conclusion.

I think I'll wait and see before I spend any money over the next 2 weeks.

Its down to voting for a chance. There is a chance that you can save whoever is in third place from the dance off and if people don't vote for them no chance. The most capable dancer will go through if they are at least second most popular with the public. If the most capable is least popular the most popular would go through even if they were completely hopeless.

You vote because it might matter depending on how other people vote.

I suspect they will let three through to the final and just accept it as a year when the result had nothing much to do with dancing.That way they will have a full show, their two good dancers will get to perform and the people who like to see good dancing will note that one of the better dancers got more votes.

Let's check it out

If we assume Chris is most popular with the judges, Ali 2nd most popular and Ricky 3rd most popular.

First column is judges votes on the night.

Chris 3+3=6
------------------------
Ali 2+2=4
Ricky 1+1=2

Ricky gets sent home and both judges + public get the desired result.

Chris 3+3=6
------------------------
Ali 1+2=3
Ricky 2+1=3

Ali gets sent home and judges but not viewers get desired result.

Chris 2+3=5
-----------------------
Ali 3+2=5
Ricky 1+1=2

Ricky gets sent home and both judges + public get the desired result.

Ali 3+2=5
-----------------------
Chris 1+3=4
Ricky 2+1=3

Chris gets sent home and judges but not viewers get desired result.

Chris 1+3
-----------------------
Ali 2+2
Ricky 3+1

Ricky gets sent home and the viewers get their result but the judges don't.

Chris 2+3=5
-----------------------
Ricky 3+1=4
Ali 1+2=3

Ali gets sent home and the judges their result but the viewers don't

So in 5/6 the judges get the 2 they want but in only 3/6 the public get the 2 they want.

I really don't think this is right which is why the dance-off should be scrapped at this stage.

Its been messed up because there is one person less and they changed it because there was no way Tom could be saved from the dance off. The rules were changed before we knew it was going to be a 2 person final.

The send-home option up until the final has worked fairly and fine, however with the 3 person semi happening I dont know how they are going to adapt it to make it fair and Im going to check the rules now to see if I can make it clearer in my mind.

Except neither of the last two cases is obviously true. Matt wasn't notably better or worse than Gethin. Alesha was. Tom's record wasn't quite as good as Austin's but Tom had momentum, consistency when it mattered late on and some higher marks and more votes. Its not at all clear that Lisa was worse than either and Austin's claim over Tom was arguable.

If we left it to the public vote Alesha would be the only female to probably even make a final after series 2 and we would have to change the title to Strictly Blokes Dancing

The powers that be had the chance to put things right by not having an elimination in the week that Jade dropped out. There are options on strategies to keep a 3 couple final, but obviously they have decided they don't want one.

Why?

And what is so wrong in that - the guys have a harder job than the female celebs

Right are we just going to sit and do nothing about it

Ask them!

Nah, my theory is in the semi's they will put them all through. Which is fine by me although I dont mind a 2 person final.

I wasnt on the forums in series 5 so was there such a furore over the semis with Alesha/Matt/Gethin over the unfairness of it all?

There was a huge furore.

It was totally ridiculous that the judges were able to eliminate Gethin without the public having a proper chance to save him.

What gives you that optimism

But you are not being invited to get what you want. You are invited to try and save your favourite and you have even by your figures a fair chance of getting it. If you then allow for the other possible orders of the public vote (Ali last or first and Rcicky first or last) the public vote for Chris matters more.

They don't say the public vote will decide the outcome all the time and they don't say that the judges don't matter.

You actually have a similar problem if the best dancer is least popular - if they don't pass the popularity hurdle they end up in the dance off but then beat the more popular person who is behind them in dancing ability.They get through regardless of the public. The reasoning though is obvious because winning the final with the best dancer not there at all is pretty meaningless.

I disagree.

Gethin was better than Matt in my opinion. He didn't forget his dance steps for a start, and he sold his routines far better (think Waltz, AS, Salsa).

And Austin was more of an all-rounder than Lisa who he contested the dance-off against. He could do Ballroom and Latin.