I think they marked her to try to keep her out of the danger zone in case of a possible complaint but it didn't work. Maybe Katarina was not in on it.

An article here about it:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...fancy-him.html

I found this bit interesting:


I'm glad Andy seems to have had people backstage who think he should have scored more than 3.5

A higher score from Louie might have put him in second place and out of the danger zone

Andy gets a compliment of sorts on here

http://www.hecklerspray.com/dancing-.../201268849.php

Andy and Maria are just bad losers.

The public voted them into the bottom too and the judges decicsion is final END OF...................

The more I read of this the less I like Andy and Maria I'm sorry but the bitterness they are showing at being voted off leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Fair enough I know you will be upset to go but be grateful you even had a chance to be involved in the first place.

I find his comments towards Louie starting to verge towards being offensive accusing Louie of scoring him low because "he is not his type". Remember Andy you were in the bottom two because of the public as well they didn't vote enough to keep you out of the skate off. Mark with a much lower score managed to escape it because the public liked him enough to save him.

Also again its easy enough to say people agree with an opinion but will any of them ever actually own up and say they agreed. Its always the same with these things and its always an inside source said etc and in this case some of the professionals. Question is do any of the pro's feel strongly enough to admit to believing the wrong decision was made?

I can understand Maria being disappointed, being dumped out first in two series.

Yes I can understand her being disappointed but it is a bit unprofessional to slate the decisions made and no I am not anti Maria as I said the same thing about Frankie before when she was getting gobby with the judges and afterwards when she got voted off.

I guess for whatever reason the public maybe aren't warming to her as much as they used to and for whatever reason they haven't warmed to Andy either.

Look at poor Andrei he was voted first off 3 years running but didn't appear to develop any bitterness with it. Its trying to get a balance between showing you are disappointed that it happened but not being bitter that its happened.

Andy didn't engage me at all - but I appreciate that many on this forum feel differently.

My question is this - how many now feeling outrage at his departure actually voted to keep him in?

Asked and answered by some of us above. Outraged is a little strong, disappointed is as far as it goes for me. Even if every person on this forum who voted for Andy said they'd done so it clearly wasn't enough and in the end it was the judges' decision anyway (or two thirds of them at any rate).

I actually think people thought he and Heidi would be safe because of their leader board positions - so they didn't vote or voted for others - we see this every year and it still happens.

This isn't a criticism of those who question Andy's departure. If I felt strongly about someone's exit I would probably post in protest and I do know that a number of disappointed posters (though I think you'll agree that some have expressed outrage) voted for him. I also take on board your other observations, but that simply reinforces my point. - either vote or don't complain.

I've no issue with your main point, Ignazio, I just wanted to flesh out my own response to the situation, which I'd given briefly earlier. As I said, this sort of thing happens every year (and not only on this show!) and there really is only one solution, but it's unlikely to happen - and the ultimately there's no reason why it should, or must. I've said before in relation to DOI and SCD that, if the purpose of the public vote were simply to reflect rather than rejig the leader board, then there would literally be no point in it.

Precisely. Otherwise theres no excitement or suspense. How boring would it be if the lowest on the leaderboard just left every single week without fail. Defeats the point of judges scoring and then opening the phone lines for the public.

I think a lot of the debate anyway has been around "why did Andy leave instead of Heidi" - which focuses on which judge(s) approaches people did or didn't understand or agree with - rather than "why were they the bottom two" - of course some have argued they shouldn't have been, but that's down to the the very leaderboard/voting issue we've been discussing.

Nobodies ever gonna have the same opinion anyway are they. Itd be a pretty boring life if they did. Clearly a lot would have saved Andy but personally id have saved Heidi

But ultimately i wouldnt have sent home either if i had the choice

I know a lot of the debate is about saving Heidi over Andy but it seems a lot have forgotten that a lot of it is how popular you are with the public. You could be an amazing skater but if you don't engage the public vote then thats it you have to rely on the judges and hope they like you.

I sometimes wonder if that is maybe a factor with the judges decision i.e who would the public save between the two of the celebs in the skate off, who has more likeability factor.Maybe they felt Heidi engaged more to the public. They maybe saw more in the routine than we all did.

I know I didn't really like either but have watched them both back and Heidis was a bit cleaner in the skate off Andy's looked equally as messy and while it shouldn't affect the final outcome looked like Maria had messed up a bit as well and while Andy put in the effort he lost the technique and flow a bit.

I've looked at both as unbiased as possible because although I have gone off Andy a bit because of the

I don't think Maria is a bad loser at all, she seems lovely and is just giving her opinion - Andy did have rhythm and showed bags of potential, so I can understand her being gutted to leave so early, especially after she was an early exit last year too. In fairness I suspect some of the other skaters would gladly admit that Andy & Maria deserved to stay over them.

cant say his skating captivated me, He was mediocre

If Andy was mediocre what on earth would you call Mark

A lot more entertaining.

Dont get me wrong nothing wrong with Andy's skating but not exciting to watch. With Mark your on your edge of your seat to see if he will stay on two skates or not

You must have loved Todd

ha ha yeah man, That skate when he disappeared slipping and sliding into the tunnel is priceless. Loved it. Remember laughing so much at that

I agree with you OP -100%.

I don't see how it was the totally wrong decision. The judges placed him in the bottom two with Mark and Heidi was marginally ahead of him before the public vote. He didn't get viewers votes. The judges voted consistently in the skate off and he went.

In reality Mark was dire and should have gone had it been on skating ability alone but as long as these shows are open to public votes, there will be a large element of them also being a popularity contest. No different to any other year. There are always half decent skaters who are victim to this.

They know the score when they enter. At least it is only possibly his ego that has been injured.

I saw a repeat of Andy & Maria on Good Morning at the weekend. They were disappointed but didn't come across as bitter or cynical. The only cynical comment came from Jeff Brazier which alluded to people being carried round the ice - wasn't hard to work out who he meant. Particularly ironic seeing as Kerry Katona, she of the supreme solo skating skills, was sitting alongside him!

I think you're confusing Andy W (second from bottom with the judges) and Andy A who was 3rd from top.

I think you are very right Ignazio. 11:03 and I still wasn't awake.

12:05 and I can't say I am feeling much more alert.