If Tom had been a woman he would not have garnered the same support from an overwhelmingly female electorate. This cannot be proved as Tom is not planning a sex change.

Two women were in the Final offering a choice to fans of womanhood. Tom was the sole manhood on offer, cornering the market.

I know that - the point being made was about the last 3 standing, not who made it to the final show.


Quite!


Early on in the final, the BBC/Tess announced that Tom had received the most votes in the semifinal.

Lisa was (in many peoples eyes unjustifiably) high on the leaderboard every week when she was in the bottom two. For her to have dropped below the lower and indeed lowest placed by the judges dancer(s) when she had a high judges placing would indicate that she was probably scoring the lowest public vote each week. No one appears tin the bottom two that often unless they are really unpopular with the public, and she never seemed to get the rebound bounce vote that a bottom 2 dancer usually gets the next week - she was bottom week after week after week.


Well by all that was fair - it should have been Tom Austin and Rachel in the final - and the male vote would have split allowing a Rachel win.....

As it was, the judges manipulating Lisa into the final over Tom and Austin probably cost Rachel the win....

In response to your initail post as a bloke i think your right i rarley vote the few times I have were in support of John seargent Kate Garroway and Anitia probably beacues I like the entertainment more than the dance- I have never voted in a final and wont be this Saturday i tend to lost some interest once the entertainment element has been elininated - I have to watch to keep OH happy but am mildly curious in seeing if Blackpool adds to the final

Tom's was a very stormy year, the stormiest in Strictly history, with John Sergeant walking away in a nationwide press conference, with this forum torn into two like a Spanish Civil War. Arlene sowed the seeds of her dismissal.

It was a very political year with entrenched positions and hard loyalties.

I agree Lisa was unpopular, but she was never in the bottom 2 on consecutive weeks. She was in the bottom 2 in week 1, then was kept out by duffers and high scores until the final 7 when she was there with Cherie. Her next trip there was in the final 4 with Austin (there was no final 6, of course)


I disagree - Rachel was never going to win over Austin or Tom. She ended up in the bottom 2 in the final 8 with Heather. Some thought that this was because her fans had become complacent as she was so good, but she was there again in the final 5 with Christine - not the pattern of a future winner.

Thats interesting I didnt have you down as a man....dont read anything into that ....just interesting to know.


Yes it was a very difficult year with a lot of controversy.....I would absolutely love to know who would have gone home under a rules now Lisa or Austen.

BIB
i thought my name might be a bit of a clue

I am not reading anything into it I am going to explore my femanine side

The majority of the girls will vote for Harry and Harry will win, its that simple.

In the penultimate show, Gethin faced Matt DA in the dance-off and was voted off by the judges, not the public.

This is very different from a three person final where only the public vote counts in deciding who goes out first.

There has only ever been one 3 person final on Strictly with 2 men and one woman - the series 3 final. And in that final, the judges' leaderboard was combined with the public votes.

She was bottom 2 in the top 6 with Jodie, the week after she took out Cherie.

People also seem to be misremembering that she did full leaderboard plunges to get into the bottom 2 a la Bunto. She didn't. Two of the three times she was in the dance-off, she was bottom 2 in the judges scores. The other time she was third from bottom. Rachel's dives were far more dramatic.

Because they had to for exactly the reason I mentioned earlier - it wouldn't have mattered how many members of the public wasted their money voting for him because the judges' tie between Lisa and Rachel meant he couldn't be "saved".
That still doesn't give any indication of where Lisa and Rachel were placed on the public voting.


I've found you can't actually use a rational or factual point of view with people who have a firm idea entrenched in their heads (directed at no-one in particular but plenty of SCD posters in general). They have decided X Y or Z and therefore it must be the truth.

This is a very simplistic way of viewing the voting habits of SCD viewers. You have either forgotten some rather crucial points regarding each series, or have just tailored your arguments to fit your theory.

You have forgotten that people support those contestants that they can relate to. Things like starting as a poor dancer, or having a likeable/relatable personality all are vote winners.


Don't remember much about this series and the only male contestant i remember from SCD1 is Chris Parker.


Jill Halfpenny was both an incredibly good dancer, arguably one of the best SCD has seen, and very likeable. She had a great chemistry with her partner Darren Bennett and performed each dance. The only winner who can compete with her is Kara.


It's not odd to see the most improved dancer win ahead of the best dancer, because majority of poeple (who have no dance experience themselves) want to think that it is possible to start where Darren started and still become good dancers. Add to that Darren's relationship with Lilia, and Lilia's hotness and you get a winner. Male viewers would've wanted to vote for him, and not just because of Lilia.


Again Mark Ramps had a very likeable and relatable personality. He had a good story to go with his time in the competition. He had very good dances, namely the salsa and the AT which people still talk about. Can you name 1 dance that Emma Bunton did that people still talk about as much? She came to the competition amid high expectations and disappointed. Yes she scored high and was good, but someone of her calibre was expected to dance a lot better than she did. You don't get credit for coming to the competition with previous dancing or performance experience, you get credit for what you achieve in the course of the competition.


A worthy female winner who also is incredibly hot and very talented won this year... I don't know why you're trying to use it as a proof of your theory?!


Lisa was not liked because she was hyped up by the judges for no apparent reason.

Rachel was a very good dancer but did not have an interesting personality. I was rooting for her to win, but even I know it was a lost cause because she just wasn't engaging enough during her dancers. And Tom was a worthy winner. Between the contestants he was a more well rounded dancer in terms of technique and performance.


Chris Hollins didn't just win against a female contestant, he also won against a very very talented and good looking male contestant. How do you explain that one?
Ali Bastiani was again another female who had all the goods (good figure, previous dance experience) and hence scored relatively high, but she again disappointed. Expect her VW which was really the only dace close to her skill set as a performer, non of her other dancers were memorable. Why should she have won? Just because she has good arm placement? You know dancing isn't all technique!


Again, another beautiful female dancer won the competition.


If either Harry or Jason win this competition it will be on the merit of their dancing. Chelsee has never been a clear front runner in this competition, not even from the judges' point of view. And if you want to know why there is not "gender bias" this year in the forum, well it's because there has never been a gender bias before. As I said above you've just picked the bits of information that proved your theory. Chelsee is another contestant who has a likeable and relatable personality as well as being a good dancer.

In SCD6 Tom, Rachel, and Lisa danced on Final night. A phone vote was then taken and marks rankings were combined with phone vote rankings. Lisa was eliminated as Tom and Rachel then proceeded to the ultimate Final where only phone votes mattered. To add to ambiguities, Lisa having been eliminated was invited to perform a showdance as exhibition only.

In SCD3 Zoe, Colin, and Darren Gough went into the single-session Final. The rules for that year go too far back for my memory, others might like to clarify. It seems likely that Strictly will soon become a specialist subject on Mastermind, whereon some of our posters can no doubt score 20 out of 20 with no passes..

Rachel was never going to win. She simply did not connect with the viewing public. The official BBC boards during that year were full of posts wondering how on earth people could enjoy watching her dance. She was as polarising a contestant as Lisa Snowden was.


Zoe, Colin and Darren went into a series finale, Zoe was eliminated after the first two dances. She was also allowed to dance her showdance. Colin and Darren then went on and danced their showdances, the viewing public then overwhelmingly voted for Darren as the winner.

Zoe and Ian topped the judges' leaderboard but were the first couple out so it could only have been based on public votes alone.

Those who wanted to vote male had their votes split between Colin and Darren. Even after that split both men out-polled Zoe the only woman and highest scorer of SCD3.
That was the mirror-image of SCD6, where Tom the lowest scorer outpolled two woman rivals.

Not if Darren scored the highest in the public vote, and Zoe the lowest. In this case of a tie, the public votes win out. That was the rule. Not sure if this still applies now.

You're really reaching to try and justify your argument here to be honest. Zoe lost because her combined vote was lower than either Colin or Darren.
Darren won because more people voted for him than Colin. Something in the region of around three million of the around five million phone calls made in the final vote were for Darren (according to Darren's autobiography). You're discounting very much the male vote for Darren because he was a very successful cricketer and a "lad's lad".


The public vote still takes precedence over the judges vote yes. Series Three voting can be found here. Colin's Quickstep score should read 39 not 29 on the table.
Darren scored highest with the public, Zoe the least and it was a combination of both together which saw Zoe leave first.

Nonsense, without votegate (remember this was caused by Len underscoring her AS if I recall correctly, scoring it lower then Craig did!) she would have walked the final against Lisa.

It is truly a shame that Tom fans use the showdance as excuse for his win (when he should just be lucky to be there in the final in the first place!).

Tom's salvation came like a kind of poetic justice.

The year before Gethin was unceremoniously bundled out of the semifinal because in the quarterfinal Matt di Angelo was voted safe by brute force after two meltdowns.

Time passed and a year later Tom was saved by, yes ruthless, oppportunistic brute force exploiting a legal loophole which put BBC over a barrel. My dear friend Footygirl had been painfully disappointed along with Gethin, then the wheel turned and joy came to her and Tom in recompense.

The technicolour 3-3-1-gate climax revived a season then dying on its legs from public apathy. The ways of the Lord are past human understanding......

Whoa! Dramatic much, no?

I disagree. She'd struggled at times throughout the competition with the viewers' vote, as had Lisa in her turn, and Tom had consistently had more public support, as had Austin, it so votegate just muddied the waters. I also disagree that Len deliberately underscored her, but then I wasn't a Rachel supporter.

It's a real shame as it has overshadowed that whole series really. As an aside, I wasn't then, and aren't now, a Tom fan. I didn't have a favourite that year. I didn't really care which one of the final four won.

Chelsee will win. For Strictly, this forum is much more in tune with the voting public than with other reality shows; I've never known a forum favourite going into a final and losing TBH.

Harry has his fans but many people blast him as dull; same with Jason. Chelsee's criticisms have never matched the same lethal (in Strictly terms 'dull' is only second in lethalness to 'judges favourite') level as Harry and Jason's criticisms have.