Who knows how an Ali vs Chris final will work out - assuming that's the almost certain outcome now.

You say that in jest, but you couldn't be more right.

No real need for any of them to learn their dances this week is there?

What is unfair here is changing the rules during a competition. Didn't all these dancers enter a competition where there would be a dance off in the semi-final?

Shame the voting % has been leaked - makes the final less exciting.

Er......... because they didn't say anything until today. Bit of a give away that

I don't mind who wins out of the three of them now - I just think this is fairer.

I'm not even going to bother watch this week I'll record it and watch it later at least then I can fast forward through all the crud

They also entered a competition in which the dance off would go with three couples left.

As Jade's withdrawal has made it impossible to keep both policies, I think (unlike previous years) that they've kept the correct one as it's closest to the original intent.

But it isn't going to be a three couple final .

At least now Chris's fans can be confident that he'll get through on popularity although I think he'd have made it anyway and the DO would have been between Ricky & Ali.

so do we just have a week of showdancing as there is no need to vote this week for the people who do?

Brilliant! This is how it should be. No DO.

no change there then

Considering that Ali has been in the dance-off recently and that Chris has never been in the dance-off I'd say it would take a swing in votes of epic proportions for her to beat Chris in the Final, and I can't see that happening tbh.

As for Ricky, he wouldn't stand a chance against Chris even if he included levitation in his dancing

I can't remember which series they brought in the DO but imo it's much fairer to let the judges and public have an equal say even though I may not like the end result. I would like the Do to go in the next series. I think this would cause less discontent. I'm thinking particularly of Gethin and Austin who were very popular with the public and would probably have gone further without a DO.

Brilliant! This is what they should have done all along.

I'm supporting Team Cola, so I'm bouncing around with happiness at this decision - I didn't want to see Chris eliminated this weekend because of voting technicalities (I was seriously thinking of sending some votes the way of whoever was 2nd on the leaderboard, assuming Chris was bottom )

But .. I don't think anyone should assume Chris has won. I'm sure a lot of the "this is a dancing competition" people will transfer their votes from [enter who leaves this Saturday] to whoever [not Chris] is left.

I do think this is the fairest decision. This is what would have happened had Jade not sadly had to leave. I agree with other posters in other threads, someone has had to leave early in a lot of years, the BBC should do something about it. Thought .. wouldn't a 4 couple final be better than a 2 couple final, i.e. assume that at least one couple will drop out before the final?

do you have a link to this please?

Because everyone knows how powerful the DS forum members are with the BBC ......

Two person finals rarely are edge-of-the-seat. Ramps had a phenomenal lead as well as being the better dancer. Alesha was bound to beat Matt. The only difference is that this time some people do not think the run away winner is worthy of the glitterball.

I would have preferred if they had said no eliminaton and had a 3 way final.

That way you do get a dead semifinal, but a better final.

They were told on the forum over the last few years that not having planned a double elimination for the semifinal stage was likely to come back and bite them when someone dropped out.

This looks like favouring Chris at Ricky's expense.

Voting can change for the final. Julian Clarey had massive support, it fell away on the final night though as people suddenly voted for the best dancer instead. (Not meaning to compare him to Chris, but it's the closest situation i can think of)

Please everyone take a deep breath and think about this........no matter who you support.


The final should in normal circumstance be 3 couples. I think most of us still wanted this even though Jade had to withdraw......certainly at the time people were asking for there to be a non elimination week. So really we are only getting what we asked for then. I wish they had done it then myself but they didnt.

Without actually saying so they have made this week and next week the final of strictly come dancing. In a 3 person final they eliminate one (by public vote) at the end of the first stage. The 2 left go on to do a show dance and then the public vote decides the winner. Doing this over 2 weeks now means the first stage is a week before the second and the BBC do not get in any bother over phone votes and then announcing no elimination.

Whilst I am a Chris fan I am not stupid enough to think he has this completely in the bag, who know what vote people will give when it actually comes down to the wire.

So lets all look forward to 2 weeks of enjoyment whoever you support and just think of it as the 3 person final we all wanted in the first place but elongated.

I'm glad there will be no dance off and that the decision is out of the judges hands, we the voting public pay for our votes after all.

recently .. as in 6 weeks ago you mean!?!

Much as I'm happy for Team Cola supporters that this has happened - I think we all know who has won, so it's kinda ruined the rest of this series for me as Ali and Ricky will know it's hardly worth their while turning up when Chris is going to win anyway.

I don't think we have got what we wanted just a small concession i.e. no dance off this week. I would have preferred them to roll over the votes (judges + public) until next week.