Is it time to scrap the public phone vote?

Most viewers don't vote, so the result is decided by a minority and their opinion may not be representative of overall public opinion. There's no money raised for charity either, so what's the point?

Why not get the studio audience to vote instead? It would be fairer because they'd have definitely seen all the dances first-hand (without being distracted by dodgy camerawork etc) and wouldn't be able to vote more than once.

A bonus of this method would be that we could have an instant result after all the dances and there'd be no need for a separate results show!

Add that to the fact the lines are only open for about half an hour on a Saturday night, the actual votes cast can't be that many, surely?

How does anyone know that 'most viewers dont vote' ?

I dont think just having the audience vote would work for me to be honest.....I like to be invested in the programme by voting and I do vote every week (unless I happen to be out)

Strictly is very much a viewers show and should continue to be so......anyway the audience us stuffed full of celebs family and friends so that wouldnt really work now would it.

Well, the show pulls in 10 to 11 million viewers each week. Yet only 12.34 million votes were cast in total for series 3 (sorry, only one I could find voting stats for), of which nearly 5 million were for the final. So unless nearly everyone is voting only once for the entire series, it would suggest that the majority of viewers don't vote.

There is absolutely no chance that they'll scrap phone voting. Phone voting is the life blood of these reality competition shows.

Agreed. Get rid of the viewer vote and watch the ratings drop drastically. The surprise and controversy is what makes the show what it is. Would a show where we pretty much knew who was going week on week and be anywhere near as interesting?

Rather than scrapping the phone vote, I think the total of each voting method should be weighted to give the judges votes more importance - perhaps 60%/40% That way the phone vote would only affect the bottom part of the leader board.

Scrapping the dancing would make more sense.

I agree with the original post

In my mind, I vote because I feel my single, solitary vote could help my favourite couple to win. I want to show support for that couple and also have the pleasure of watching them the following week. It also makes me feel part of the show.
In reality, the phone vote doesn't really matter, I am not part of the show and my favourite couple probably don't careless who supports them and as long as the viewing figures are good the BBC are happy, phone vote or no phone vote..
However I like my dream world and would not derive as much pleasure from SCD if the viewers votes were cancelled.

I wonder if they could come up with a formula where the judges voted on the best performance but the telephone vote only selected one person who would stay in even if bottom of the judges' selection. That way someone like Anne Widdecombe or John Sergeant can be kept in by the public but otherwise someone will only leave if in one of the bottom two positions on the judges' selection.

Perhaps some role can be found also for the studio audience.

It might not satisfy some of the people wanting a freak show like X Factor but could help keep a crowd pleaser like Widdecombe in the competition.

Then the final can just use the judges and studio audience.

No. But you could invite people to vote to evict 1 of the bottom 3 only. Lots of things you can do to steer the voting should you wish to do so. I don't care who wins and I wouldn't watch if there were no public vote. But modify the voting? Yes.

Hmm...


Having just the studio audience voting might suit the BBC, as there always seems to be a large number of their employees in it each week.

I've watched since the first series and never voted. For me, it's just a Saturday night entertainment programme, no more than that.

Ok well perhaps on those figures the 'majority' dont vote but 12.34 million votes still seems like an awful lot to me compared to a couple of hundred votes a week from a few individuals who are fortunate enough to get tickets and many of whom will be invited guests.

Fair enough, but then again weren't the phone lines open all week back then? Now you only get 30 minutes to vote, so there must be a maximum number of calls the system can take. In which case many people wouldn't be able to get through and vote even if they wanted to.

There must also be a maximum times you can press redial!

It's a lot

Is this a 'wind up'?

Audience participation is a vital part of the show. Rather than losing the phone vote, they should be trying to extend it so that as large a proportion of the audience as possible casts a vote.

I think they should add a (preferably free - can they do that?) red button voting option.

IIRC you can vote a limited number of times on DWTS, by phone or online.

Now that would be a good idea. One phone - one vote?

Why does anything need to change?

Audience participation has worked perfectly well in previous series. They have chosen their winner and that's the way it should be.

You can wave goodbye to a sizable fraction of viewers if you took the public vote away. I don't think the audience can trust the judges to call all the shots, and by not being allowed a say, they will feel less involved - detached even.

I'd limit a number of votes per phone to a number of competitors in that round. But you cannot scrap the voting completely. It's what makes it interesting, that other people are voting differently than us.

I can think of at least one household that would turn into a not very happy place if only one of the kids could vote per week