They should of had a no elimination week the week Jade left they we wouldn't be in the mess we are now and we could of had a three person final you would have thought they would have realised earlier changing the rules at this late stage would have upset people just as much as not changing the rules would

Errrrm, because that would mean that the BBC would actually have to plan ahead and use some common sense? *shakes head sadly* Not gonna happen, I'm afraid

I would have been much happier if there was no elimination at all this week. That way even though Chris would still win we would at least have the benefit of seeing 2 good dancers compete in the final as well as him.

Because that would've meant that they would've lost viewers at the end of that week's show (more than usual I mean). Viewers are far more important than common sense.

Not if they'd had the vote anyway and then announced after the lines had closed that they were rolling over the votes to the next week.

I can speculate but I'm not really sure. They had one when it was forced on them.

What might be nice is someone from the BBC actually explaining why. Such a radical idea I know.

Now that's just crazy talk

That would have been a far better solution, imo.


Perhaps. But now they may lose viewers in the final.

They've lost this one for the semi and final

I feel if they had had no elimination the week Jade had to pull out the drop in viewers due to there being no elimination would not have been as noticeable still only halfway through the series.

I don't know why they can't think about these things.

I have to admit I'm really disappointed that it's not a three couple final. Not because I particularly like three couple finals but, I really wanted to see Ricky and Natalie's show-dance. I will of course vote for him on Saturday but, I do feel as if it will be like spitting in the wind.

I want to see it too. He may not be in with a chance of winning now but I feel cheated that we may not see a fantastic dancer show us what he is capable of. Very disappointing

There wouldn't have been a mess had the BBC announced as soon as Jade withdrew that they'd opted to have a three person semi-final with no dance off and then a two person final. There might have been some disagreement with the decision but at least everyone would have known what was going to happen and would have had a few weeks to get used to the idea.

I'm just glad I'm working nights over the weekend so will have to be dealing with hypochondriacs and avoid the inevitable result of losing a decent dancer. I will be leaving the phone in MrBol's hands to obsessively vote on my behalf but I fear the result is set in stone. Ah well, I'm a WWW to the bitter end and am suprisingly amused at the multitude of 'na na na na na' thread that are flooding the boards now The Dreaded Fix has been Fixed

Surely that's what is happening - no dance off - no elimination - or have I misunderstood?

You never know he may get through. Things can change from one week to the next.

Why didn't they have one extra couple than they need at the start of the show to fill in for any dropouts - and if nobody dropped out, have a 5-person semi with two kick-outs? We can all come up with better could have, should haves. Forward planning has not been the, errrr, strongest part of anything Strictly production related for years.

Well you've misunderstood the same as me. Apparently the lowest combined score is going home. Which means even if Ricky performs the dances of his life the public vote will save Ali and Chris.

They hadn't written the rule and it would probably take months for them to agree it. They would also need to find something else to do and find some rules for a carry over.They don't seem up to deciding all that - just as they couldn't get their programming or crisis management right with the car racing and had 8 million people watching rain falling.

Basically they have a big problem with the public vote. They think people want to vote someone out every week and, although they know the public vote has given them all sorts of problems, they can't get up the courage to change its purpose or not have one some weeks.

The practical problem is that rolling over votes and marks means you have to reveal the voting order - unless you just add the marks and then the votes and tell people to trust you to add them correctly.

You could quite easily write the rules to ensure 3 in the final.

"If someone is forced to leave the show there will be a rollover of marks and votes from that week into next week's results."

If you also changed the voting to "the judges will award marks and the public will be invited to save one of the three people at the bottom of the leaderboard each week with a dance off to decide which of the others stays, " the public could always keep the most popular and the judges could always save the best performers. People could save money voting for everyone else each week, good people who now go early would have more chances to develop and two of the top dancers would have a much better chance of reaching the final...........

No. What if Chris gets more form the judges than Ali does, for example? (Then Ali goes.)

Ali is my fav so I want to see her show dance too!

That is disappointing - there is no reason at all why there shouldn't be a 3 person final.

I can't pretend avid interest since Jade left, but whilst agreeing that both Ricky and Ali have performed well, Ricky shows far more capability of portraying the character of the dance than Ali does.

I assume this means we'll miss Ricky and Natalie's showdance - which could have been spectacular.

Had they had no elimination the week Jade was a "doubt" but not a definite "out" they could have had a double elimination at a later stage if she HAD recovered in time, which could have been quite exciting!

I have resigned myself to the worst dancer of the 3 winning but I am disappointed that the BBC won't let the 2 better dancers both give us their showdances. It would be a consolation at least.

On another note, if the final is a 2 person, how many dances will each have to do?

Sadly I think you are right Laura. However I hope that Ricky still does perform the dances of his life that us RW fans can enjoy. As you said before I am so glad he did his amazing life in the AS. I shall be voting like mad for him and Natalie. I was rooting for Ali as well but I am dissapointed in her and feel she has failed to perform in the laten and am fed up of the showmance.