Agree with this.

4 out of 5 weeks Scott has danced below his best. His Jive, QS and Tango are IMO some of the best dancing I've seen this year. However, he has under performed in recent weeks and his AS was bloody poor and overmarked with 9's while Matt throughout the whole series has been consistant with just one bad dance.

IMO it is the right final 3.

Matt's been consistent, unlike Scott. Scott was overmarked many times and that doesn't make the public like someone.

I actually thought Pamela would be kicked off because IMO there was no way that QS deserved 40 and I thought there might have been a bit of backlash from that. Still, I'm very happy to see her in the final.

Matt was saved a) because if the rumours are true, he's had the highest public vote all series and b) because I think people still feel that he's the right person to compete with Kara and Pamela to produce the dance of the series in the final.

For sure the ultimate round between two ignores judges marks. Not sure the penultimate round between three does. This is where surprise could strike in the shape of elimination.

In my opinion, Scott had been overmarked in many dances, especially in the last couple of weeks. The judges seemed to have bias towards one or two dancers.
I believe that overall Matt is a much more consistant dancer and deserves to be in the final!

He seemed like he wanted to be there - Scott didn't. And it's always better to have one strong dance (to pick up talent votes) and one weak dance (to pick up the sympathy vote), especially if the latter is criticised, than two mediocre ones. Scott's been on borrowed time since the American Smooth anyway - people don't forgive that sort of error from a major cotnender.

I think there is much truth in this. The perceived unfairness and in that instance it was ludicrous, lingers and leaves a bad taste for many especially. It really makes the role of judges pretty pointless.

Really!! How do you know Matt has no concept of what looks good exactly? And how can you possibly make out he dances to get it over with? It is very obvious he is somebody who puts his all into it and wants to do the best he can do, which would suggest to me that what he does means allot to him, not someone who is just trying to get through.

As for his performance level - what exactly was his Austin Powers take if not a brilliant performance, even if jive content was lacking (Aliona's fault) the perfomance was superlative - who esle has tried to do something like that and become a character to the extent he did? His charlston also was a great performance with much character. The levels of detail he goes to again suggests someone who is not just content to get through the dance and get it over with.

At the end of day Matt has put himself out there to a degree that only Pamela has come close to (i.e overall performance not just the dancing). As far as Scott was concerned his struggles with much of his latin came acoss as being because of his inhibitions about moving his hips because it wasn't quite manly, that isn't someone concerned with dancing for the audience but being more concerned as to how they look and are perceived, that is more concerned with himself than his audience.

[quote=Monkseal;46523272]He seemed like he wanted to be there - Scott didn't. And it's always better to have one strong dance (to pick up talent votes) and one weak dance (to pick up the sympathy vote), especially if the latter is criticised, than two mediocre ones. Scott's been on borrowed time since the American Smooth anyway - people don't forgive that sort of error from a major cotnender.[/QUOTE]

Ooof, I dont know about that. Im getting vivid flashbacks of Matt DA's Seated Foxtrot in Series 5!

Matt got a one-week reprieve then lost to a girl. Mostly via his Elite Level usage of Woobie Face. Scott couldn't use Woobie Face if he tried. He's too much of a BLOKE innit, grr, Woolwich etc etc.

No I know. Scott just didnt have the cajones to produce a decent Woobie Face. It was more of a Meh Face.

It's all ifs, buts and maybes now - but I think that if he had managed to do a cracker of a dance after Smoothgate then maybe it would have been different - but as it was his Strictly dance line went from good to bad to good to bad to meh to bleh to can't be bothered, really.

I dont think it was he couldnt be bothered...more than he was on the verge of collapse!

Trying to put what I mean
There must come a point when you have been as good as he was in the early stages, had 2 or 3 dances that will be remembered after the series ends, been touted as a finalist from early doors and formed part of the 'fab 4' when you know you are under performing and the others are pulling ahead of you and there is very little you can do about it that your motivation ebbs away ... which gets you into a bit of a cycle.

And when Natalie is having to double dance more Camilla at her finest then you know you have problems.

What makes sense to me is that Matt is top of the public vote.

My guess is that the producers had a word with the judges about making sure that Gavin didn't get to the final.

Pamela must have got more viewer votes than Scott, or she would have been out.

If Matt was top of the public vote, the judges would know that putting him third would get him to the final, and putting Pamela above him would protect her from Gavin viewer vote.

Matt's Tango was his best dance IMO. There wasn't a lift - the spin was very difficult to do with bent knees, but he did it quite well ( just didn't spot it perfectly). He also did two semi-kicks instead of kicks, but otherwise, I thought he was very good. Head snaps were especially good. He and Aliona have produced some very entertaining dances, and I rewatch more of their's than anyone else's - even Kara's.

Jeez it's not rocket science is it.

How ? By receiving greater public support than either Matt or Gavin.

Why ? Because he appears to be a nice bloke who can dance a bit, and is trying hard.

Was that really so hard ?

If that were the case, they would not have tied Scott & Matt in the middle of the table. That only helped Gavin because it reduced the gap between him and others (having received 2 points as opposed to 1).

I never claimed the judges were good with numbers Sid.

You are right, they could have split Scott and Matt to greater effect. I still think the basic plan was to try to eliminate Gavin. If the judges tied them deliberately, that would mean to me that Gavin was likely to be in a clear third place with the viewers and Kara a clear second place.

Oooh I think the basic plan was to protect Pamela

I think Gavin did himself proud this weekend, but even his best wasn't good enough to better the others in terms of marks. So he was in the right place on the leaderboard.

Yikes, that all makes complete sense. Matt to win, if you ask me. I think he's the best natural dancer and has bags of personality, which enhances his performance.

I like Matt but I do feel he isn`t liked all that much by SCD, the judges don`t always like what he does tho they say he does it well, their comments were so harsh after Fridays`s dance he was close to tears. He seemed to be overlooked completely during the moment of truth, the other two who went through got their applause and time to comment, but then we went straight to the two who didn`t get through and Matt was just left standing. It would have been better if he had been called out as a finalist, given his moment of glory and then concentrated on Scott and Gavin as they did.Anyone agree?

he had a rough weekend from the Strictly team

1/ Crushing remarks from the judges

2/ Three minutes time from one full-on dance to another dance( stamina based scoring)

3/ A VT couple of second edit showing the rush to change, which is so ambigious that a few people have choosen to interpret it as negative behaviour

4/ VT of him breaking down, when all the dancers have cried and they haven't been commented on negatively, but Matt has received horrible comments about that.

5/ he didn't even get a chance to say anything when he went through to the final. Producers didn't give me his few seconds of congrats.


All in all, a difficult weekend for him.

I just don't understand why people such mean and nasty things about him, pulling him apart.
This is areal person wth feelings and who knows , maybe reads this forum

I don't want to do this to Kara or Pamela.
Why is everything he does analysed so negatively?

beats me

Cos I voted for him! Twice!

Gavin was never as good and Scott has slowly but surely been going down the toilet for about the last month.

Matt has the enthusiasm and talent to still possibly win it.

A fair summary of the truth imho.

Matt was better than Scott and Gavin and deserves his place in the final.