I have this problem with the show...as I do all of these public vote farces.

Its this

In a show like last night's there was about 7-8 minutes between the voting closing and the winners being announced.

OK thats a long time in the electronic processing world.....

But how come ,liitle more than 60 seconds after the lines "closed" the director told the crew who the finalists were ?

Are you taking Dermots, "We now know who has come third" literally?

Not taking anything literally , just stating the facts

The delay is most likely down to building up tension and to make the whole thing more dramatic. The results would be available immediately so that the producers can get all the obligatory camera shots ready for the announcement.

Considering the millions that ITV have been fined for previous scandals they would ensure that the vote is valid and above board.

I think you miss the point.....

The votes are collected , invigilated , verified and checked in less than 60 seconds ?


Even if everything is automated as it surely is , there still has to be verification.

Forget the tension aspect , thats just feeding the basic desires of the that watch and vote .

Also how do we know they dont stop the vote just when their favourite is in the lead. Maybe if the let it go for 1 more minute someone else would go through.

They can't. There was an issue of this happening with I'm A Celebrity due to human error at the phone company. IIRC, the phone company receives a set time to cut the voting (Big Brother actually displays on screen the time that the voting will close). Everything is quite strictly timed, it's not like they can just say to Dermot "could you stall for a few minutes, we're going to sit and wait and hope that the result changes".

The voting is tested and checked throughout. Both ITV and the platform providers test the lines and monitor the patterns of votes to ensure there isn't any unusual activity that would indicate some betting syndicate trying to manipulate the result. This is probably what they mean when they say verified.

A tele-com expert posted on the BB forum a few years ago and explained how it all worked....They posted their explanation after the usual shouts and moans that FM`s could`t vote for their favourite because the line was engaged and hence the result must be a fix.....I seem to recall even his/her explanation was`t enough for some posters....there then followed the usual countless conspiracy posts...Basically; even when the whole process was explained by someone in the know, many posters still did`t believe everything was above board and it was all a fix...Anyway...as another poster has already pointed out tele-voting has to be 100% above board these days....any hint of manipulation or wrong doing would result in massive fines/executives loosing their jobs and in the current climate, Government intervention and the possibility of shows were there is a public vote being taken off the air....Why do you think we have to listen to countless explanations of the voting process and rules on shows such as BB;XF and Strictly these days.?...Well it`s because the regulators and Government have put a very tight set of rules in place....and anyone found to have broken them is going to find themselves in a very deep pile of shit.

The votes are counted and verified by Murs Ltd. They are a family run company based in Witham, Essex.

I believe it is all 100% above board, especially after the number of TV Shows and Radio programmes who have been fined for wrong procedures with competitions and such!

oh, i need a wee.

How do you know the director told the crew the result within 60 seconds?

Simple , the information came through the headphones of one of the floor crew