Hi everyone

I was wondering if anyone had noticed in these shows (I'm talking about ADWD and IDA, and upto now, OTR) that whenever the contestants are divided into two groups in a particular week (eg; during the Top 6, and Top 4 in particular), that the bottom two that week always consists of one contestant from each group. It never happened in Maria as the girls never were in groups.

1. In ADWD, when there were six left they were divided into two groups of three each (Lewis, Ben and Keith in one, and Lee, Daniel and Craig in the second). That week, Lewis from group one and Daniel from group two were in the bottom two. When there were four, it was Lee and Lewis in one, and Keith and Ben in the other. The bottom two then were Lewis (from the first group) and Ben (from the second)

2. In IDA the final six were divided into two groups with Rachel, Ashley and Jodie in one, and Niamh, Jessie and Sam in the other. the bottom two were Ashley and Niamh (both from seperate groups). When there were four, it was Jodie and Samantha against Jessie and Rachel. Samantha and Rachel were in the bottom two.

3. Last week, the bottom two were Sophie (from the Oklahoma Outlaws) and Emily (Deadwood Dames), two seperate groups.

Also, the winner and runner-up in ADWD and IDA were always in the different groups.

Am I being silly or do I sense a rather weird pattern here?

I am utterly amazed at peoples memories .! I can barely recall the girls , never mind which group the bottom two were in
I struggle to remember the show once its over !! But that just me .
The only coincedence that struck me was the going in alphabetical order this year .

lol, it was when I was watching IDA that I noticed it (when Rachel and Sam who had been in seperate groups were in the bottom two) and then I remembered it happening in ADWD too (i have some of the performances on my Ipod). So when I saw the two groups last Saturday, I wondered if it would happen again, and it did. It would be interesting to see what happens when there are six remaining

There's actually more than a 50-50 chance of it happening this way (rather than 2 girls from the same group). If there are n girls, then the chances of the 2 in the sing-off being in different groups is n/(2n-2). So when there's 8 there's a 57% chance and when there's 6 there's a 67% chance. And I know that this officially identifies me as sad.

Perhaps they split the groups based on either perceived ability or voting popularity.

I think it was more who they were better friends with.

I would guess that it would be the former. If they did it randomly, they may end up with Steph, Stephanie, Danielle and Lauren in one group, and Jessica, Emilie, Sophie and Jenny in the other, making the first group way stronger. I think the group examples I have given were split evenly, and I don't think it was a coincidence.

I agree with Menk, I think they were split so 2 of the strongest were in each group, meaning that no matter which way round they were, there would have been a very high chance that one of the weaker girls from each group would be in the bottom two

Or very impressive - I learnt something like that 37 years ago and promptly forgot it within months after the additional maths O level..........

I think there is a strong chance ALW's groups are not coincidental - I would want some people to shine and not want other people in the limelight or one of my potential Dorothies outshining my first choice. You also can use the groups to show some people as weak when they might look good themselves against weaker people. If you are even more suspicious, there's only so many favourites you can stick in the front row in the choregraphy so you need to spread them around.