Lots of bitterness about past injustices on the SCD boards.

Austin (ROBBED), Gethin (ROBBED) and Rachel (SO ROBBED) are often mentioned as dancers who didn't go as far as they should have.

I just wonder why so few seem to mention Ricky Whittle's loss to Chris Hollins last year, given he was technically as good as any of the dancers mentioned in the start of my post.

Possibly because he managed to get to the final and actually was beaten by someone popular

I think it's probably because of the shady circumstances around the situation.

Austin - Questionably eliminated over somebody who'd already been in the bottom two three times.
Gethin - Didn't make the final even though Matt forgot routines.
Rachel - Do I need to say anymore? lol.

Because he was a boring phart?

for me Ricky had a personality that I found dull, I didnt like
Rachel either for the same reason. Although technically good, didnt do anything for me

However, when we're talking Gethin and Austin, both had lots of personality and could dance really well..

Ricky Whittle bored me senseless.

You have to actually care about someone to be bitter and upset when they lose. Probably why there is such dismay at Jimi being knocked out.

In addition it was the Judges and dance off that caused the annoyance with previous series hence the "Robbed" comments.

Ricky was just meh and at the time Nat came across as too competitive for the UK voters.

Would it be fair to say as well that relatively few people honestly believed Ricky would even get into the final last year, whereas both Austin and Gethin were either the favourite or one of the favourites to win when they went out? Ricky fans had more preparation for his defeat than either Austin or Gethin fans did. Rachel falls in the middle of those as I think that although people were aware that she hadn't been as popular as the two boys, her fans probably hoped that ultimately if people hated Lisa and didn't think it fair that Tom should be in the final anyway/ could see that he was the poorest dancer of the three, then Rachel had a good chance. Only Chris supporters were remotely worried going into the final last year- everyone else was pretty certain that he'd win from what I remember.

I agree with TylerTango as well though. Ricky was just beaten fair and square in the popular vote, where there were controversies around the exits of the other three. Ricky's fans were probably more disappointed than bitter.

I liked both Ricky and Chris so I didn't really mind who won. So as a Ricky fan that's why I don't think that.

Cos he wasn't as good a dancer as Austin, Rachel or Gethin? Ricky was just best of a bad year IMO.

I started to watch on Austin tom's year. That year I supported Tom and Austin, because as a amateur flamenco dancer what I look is first and foremost a passion for dance and that year without a doubt Tom was the most passionate about it before even the show started and was able to communicate that to me as a viewer.
Austin was very good technically and had a lot of personality too so he was also my favourite. Rachel did nothing for me as I saw her as a bit lacking in the passion department, but still I always thought that she was far superior to Lisa and the real travesty was that she got to the final instead of Austin.

Last year I found much more entertaining chris than Ricky, but Ricky as dull as he was, he was at least passionate on the dance floor and technically really good. But I knew he could not win and that chris was going to. Why be bitter? Annoyed, yes.
What I was annoyed at (and still i am) was that that the production removed the dance off on the semi finals before hand and people seem ok with that but not when it happened on the go. You see the year before happened on the go because something had happened that was not expected, a tie in the top that implied that one couple could not be saved with the public vote, the premise of the show. Then last year they changed the scoring to avoid that situation and on top of that, then with premeditation, they remove the dance off in the semifinal, which could only mean one thing, chris was going to go for sure through the final.
In Tom case was a decision on the go, after the realization that the premise of the show (public votes saves one couple of the dance off) was not viable which could take them to court, in chris was with premeditation.
So, I am still annoyed but mostly with people who are bitter about tom being in the final and not with chris. It is something I can't understand. Either you are against both, accept both, or you understand that an decision taken on the go is less irregular that something preplanned to give a highly likely outcome.

But I think, the main point would be that there are far less Ricky fans than there are Austin, gethin or even rachels fans in this forum. And that ricky's fans knew that he was not going to win the popularity contesnt against chris, so to get to the final was the prize rather than to win it all.

And by the way, I preferred chris show dance to ricky's, so in the final I would have probably voted for chris.

Austin was both amazing technically and he became an incredible performer and I loved him for that.

From Hayley

I don't associate not winning (the final) with not going "as far as they should have", which is possibly why Austin and Gethin's failure to get to the final (and I would add Louisa to that list) has made people more bitter than Ricky getting to the final and not winning.

I think people want their favourites to do as many dances as possible more than they want them to win.

I haven't detected much bitterness about Rachel not winning; more people seemed to be upset about Austin not being in the final.

A strange lumping together of celebs who left for quite different reasons.

Austin was robbed by the judges (and their paymasters, the producers), who were desperate to promote Lisa, even though her latin was constantly overmarked. The Series 6 final we should have had was Austin/Tom/Rachel.

Gethin was also robbed of a place in the final by the judges who didn't have the courage to admit the four tens they gave Matt for his waltz were excessive. Indeed, on ITT Matt's mistakes in the dance-off were made clear.

Rachel was not robbed because she didn't tick one of the essential boxes for a Strictly winner: her personality didn't engage a sufficient number of viewers. She didn't end up in the dance-off for nothing.

And that is also why Ricky lost to Chris last year. Viewers want to see celebrities they can engage with and relate to, not someone who is technically perfect and very little else. (I would say in Ricky's defence that his chances at projecting his personality were probably nixed by Lime Pictures, who refused to give him any time off from Hollyoaks, so training was pretty much all he had time to do).

Agreed! I still think that who was out of place in the final was not Tom, but Lisa. Austin, Tom and Rachel would have been a far better final. I wish I could have seen Austin dance more and Lisa less.

Fans feel more emotive about Austin and Gethin because neither of them made it to the final and both went out in controversial circumstances......so as far as I am concerned it will always be what might have been. Ricky got to the final and was beaten fair and square by a more popular contestant I think fans of Austin and Gethin could have lived with that its the never knowing thats the issue.

I was gutted when Louisa left - and spent way too much money. How odd to think more people voted for Emma bloody Bunton than her? Oh well.

I'm bitter enough about Rachel for it to count.

I didn't support Ricky last year, I just find it interesting his name never crops up in the "robbed" posts. Ever. Despite being a much more talented dancer than Chris (whom I voted for, quite a bit).

From the responses, for a dancer to be robbed, they mustn't make the final.

Gethin was also the victim of a daft decision to have a two-couple final/not evict someone that week after Kelly Brook pulled out.

A final with him, Matt, and Alesha would have been great. Can't really go along with the Gethin was robbed thing because I thought Matt was a worthy finalist (and said so at the time).

Was a crowded year though; Kelly could have made the final if she hadn't pulled out.

(a lot of people think Colin or Zoe were robbed, and they made it to the final)

Monkseal pointed out in another thread that Zoe topped the leaderboard in seven separate weeks, also coming 2nd and third in two others. That's gotta be gutting.

Maybe some fans are more understanding on how the game is than others and they are more accepting of the outcome too. And waste less time making posts about who was robbed or not. At the end, no one that wins the public vote can be called that they were robbed. However if it was a decision from the dance off, then I think it can be said he was robbed. So Austin and gethin were robbed, but not Rachel or Ricky.

I wonder if we'll feel the same about that if Ann lifts the glitterball over Kara/Matt/Scott?

I don't think Kelly would have made the final as I'd don't think she was liked enough. What a semi (her and the three actual semi-finalists) would have been though. Considering how powerful the tango was I think her AT may well have blown everyone's else out of the water - what a shame we didn't get to see it.

I too thought Matt was a worthy finalist - he was never going to win and didn't deserve to after the quarter-final frell up but the Matt and Alesha final was a great one and even my mum who felt Matt shouldn't have got through the quarter final thought he was more entertaining than Gethin would have been although I can't see how all three of them in the final would have been to it's detriment unless he'd won at Alesha's expence which I don't think he deserved too.

I still think we were robbed in not getting to see Austin's AT considering how made of awesome his tango was. But again it's the feeling amongst Gethin and Austin's supporters they were robbed by dance-off/judges politics and I would include Rachel's in that - had the dance-off not being there then perhaps Tom wouldn't have got a free ride to the final. For the record wasn't bothered about Gethin or Rachel but miffed about Austin.

I think that's right, trev. Big difference between a favourite not being hugely popular with everybody else (Rachel, Ricky, Zoe), and your favourite being knocked out too early in a questionable dance-off (Austin, Gabby, Louisa). Add the idiosyncracies of the programme's rules and you're bound to have cries of 'he/she woz robbed!'

I think people might well be angry but I am not sure we could say anyone was robbed as it is down to public vote now rather than the judges dance off decision. However I doubt it would stop us having a good old moan

I'm still slightly grumpy about Aled