Morning

What happened to the Dance off?

It was a far better way to end the show in my humble opinion, and demonstrated whether the celeb and their partner took on board the comments from the judges, whereas now I tend to think they stand there nodding and agreeing but won't ever do that dance again so really don't have to take any notice!!

I loved the end to the show when it was the dance off whereas now I have found the spoiler thread I don't tend to even watch the Sunday night results show

It kept unpopular couples in. When it was axed SCD had by far its highest rating series.

How did the dance-off keep unpopular couples in? I thought by giving the professional judges the final say, it did the opposite? Just wondering? Agree with 'tealover', I miss the drama of the dance-off.

It kept people who were NOT getting public votes in to the detriment of popular people and skewed the voting for the no hopers.

Couples could potentially reach the final even if they had next to no public support. See Lisa Snowdon.

Because the judges repeatedly kept in people they liked who according to reports were finishing pretty much bottom of the public's vote (see Lisa Snowdon for the obvious example). Plus due to Len's casting vote essentially all the other judges had to disagree with him or it might as well have been Len only picking which dancer stayed...

Of course, now they just overmark the dancers they want to keep in so it hasn't entirely resolved the issue

I'm pretty sure she was only in the dance off a couple of times? Lots of people liked her!

I think they ought do do an X Factor and revert to deadlock if the judges can't come to a decision after the dance off.

I hate the results show, there's no excitement because you know its all already done before it starts

Some of the weeks she avoided the dance off simply because the judges put her at the top of the leader-board. There is no way on earth she was ever approaching the popularity of even Rachel, let alone Austin. Yet she made the final three because the judges overturned the voters in the dance off.

Thanks for the explanations - I get it now! The judges could save the least popular by viewer votes but, in their opinion, the more deserving dancer (for whatever reason) to stay in the show! I personally don't think that was such a bad thing - public voting can be hard to fathom sometimes!

Week 9 - Bottom 2. Less votes than at least John and Jodie
Week 10 - Bottom 2. Less votes than at least Tom, Austin, Christine
Week 11 - Safe from top of the leaderboard
Week 12 - Bottom 2. Less votes than at least Tom and Austin
Semi Final - Least votes
Final - Least votes

You have to go back to week 2 to find a week where she definitely beat a couple in the vote.

I think the wider issue was the votes being massively skewed because viewers knew they had to vote even harder for the poor dancers to save them.

But then you get the public repeatedly saving no hopers from the bottom two, denying the judges the ability to choose between them and a better dancer.

Voters for John Sergeant, Kate Garraway & Craig Kelly all managed to force the judges to choose between two better dancers.