In (what I fear may be a futile effort) to save any more threads accusing Brits of prejudice, xenephobia and outright hatred of Americans popping up, I thought I'd explain what tipped it for Charlie.

Take a look at these viewing figures from last year:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_a...es_11)#Ratings

These show that about one million more people watch the final on average than any other epsiode.

Now of these million people there will be a fair chunk who haven't watched much of the show previously this series, if any of it. Therefore, they wouldn't have known who Ashley was prior to tonight, or seen what an absolute delight she's been over the last 3 weeks (bar a set of brief highlights - not enough to demonstrate how good she's been).

If only a fraction of these people voted, that's a huge number of additional votes, most of which will be going to Charlie, as she's the person these late coming people be most familiar with.

Again, this isn't down to xenephobia, it's just people voting for what they know and (as I said above) they haven't a clue who Ashley is.

This is why (if what Dec said was true about the lead changing hands tonight) Ashley was leading up to tonight and why she received more votes than Charlie a mere 48 hours ago in the final 4 (if that "it might be you" truly denotes the bottom two).

I think older viewers who don't use the internet much are far more likely to have gone for the girl from Eastenders than a Pussycat Doll.

New viewers are definitely more likely to have gone for Charlie but I really don't think many of those will have picked up the phone if they haven't engaged with the rest of the series.

I don't get why someone would vote on the basis f one show though.

If that's the case Ashley would have been in the bottom two ahead of Charlie previously - if the bottom two is indeed a true reflection. She wasn't.

Obviously I have no insider info, and could of course be wrong, but it makes perfect sense to me that's that the case.


Beyond having a good idea of who they'll vote for, I don't understand the motivations involved in bringing people to vote in the first place, whether they've watched all 3 weeks of it or 3 minutes.

I had £30 on Ashley at 20-1 (which thankfully I greened out of today for the reasons stated above) and never once got close to picking up the phone.

its not a new 1 million viewers.. its just that people who watch some but not all shows nearly all watch the final. So the final has higher figures.

I dont for a minute buy any of the stuff about xenophobia, I think people just liked her.

Because they want to be involved in the final, as a water cooler moment.

"I helped her win" etc.

Oh I realise they're not all new viewers, but a fair number of them will have been people who're either new or haven't seen much before.

They certainly won't have watched every episode like most of us in here have.

Really dislike it when people are put into groups like 'older people'. what does that mean? Over 50's , 60's.70's??? Why do you think that we can all be clubbed together under one banner? That's like saying 'all young people' .all gay people' 'all parents' 'all men' 'all women'. I voted on the internet for the person I wanted to win.

Not really. It could just mean those older viewers are only just voting now. People who are massively into the show - such as the Ashley loons on here - are far more likely to have voted in previous rounds.

All sorts of generalising goes on in opinion polling for elections I don't see why it can't be the same here

I actually didn't say all. I said far more likely, which means some of that demographic won't have voted for Charlie

and they wont pay to vote on something they watch so casually, I just cant see that.

I dont vote though, and I've watched it all, and if i had to vote I'd have voted for Charlie. I just liked her a bit more.

I dont watch EE and I don't think her kid is influential. If it wasn't for this forum I don't think Id have even noticed the occasional mention of the child.

.
My top tip for anybody entering the show next year is to bring along your 2 year old daughter and get her involved in the show.

People who only watched the final are very unlikely to vote.

Also, I doubt many just tuned in just for the final. Many miss a show because theres something else on, or have other commitments or whatever else.. people choose not to miss the final, it's not one of the occasional episodes people like to miss. Thats why the figures are higher.

Hey OP, you could have credited me for the OP seeing as you said what I said in about 3 posts already.

I think many of those casual viewers have tuned in for the final because they see it as 'event television'.
Like watching a cup final. The increase in viewers isn't because they're treating it like an any day of the week episode of the show.

I've really believed for at least the past week, that Ashley was certain to win.
I still thought so tonight - right up until the eating trial.
I honestly thought that because Charlie seemed more distressed, yet battled on, the vote would swing in her favour.

I really didn't mind who won - I think Ashley has won herself a lot of fans through being on the show, so they were both winners in a way.

No, but I think we can safely say that as it's such a high increase of viewers they have dipped in and out of the series, thus reinforcing the point that they won't have seen much and are basing their vote on what they see in the final.

They have tuned in for the final and not for many of the other shows so it must be the case that they're interested in the final and therefore the outcome. As that's what the final is about.

What would be an interesting stat would be to see if the voting also increases during the final, and by how much.

I think for an extra million viewers most of them would need to miss quite a few shows for there to be such an increase.

Ant and Dec said that the lead had changed hands since the final went on air.
That suggests to me that Ashley was leading the voting as expected before the show started, and then many of these million viewers tuned in and were familiar with Charlie and the vote lead switched hands.
Charlie must have got a sudden boost.

Where else would that boost have come from if not from that extra million viewers?
Everyone just changed their mind in the first five minutes of the final? I doubt that very much.

I feel like it was the final trial that tipped it in Charlie's favour. Ashley struggled through it, but remained relatively composed. Charlie was more visibly distressed, but still managed to prevail in the end.

Either way, I'm a little disappointed that Ashley didn't win, but I think second place to Charlie is still a good result for me.

^^ yes, this is what I was trying to say.
I think it often comes down to who is seen to be "bravest" in the eating trial.

People do all the time.
Many shows put telephone polls up all the time about new things and the public vote in those polls.
You even get people voting 'I don't know' in some phone polls.

Having now seen how close the vote in the final was and how far ahead she was a mere 24 hours earlier, I'm even more convinced this was the reason.

I think it was the trial too, especially the line "I want to eat the camels penis!"

Charlie just wasn't all that - there wasn't much about her apart from being reasonably nice. It would have been easier to take if Ashley had lost to David Haye or Eric Bristow.

i'm genuinely perplexed as to why anyone would vote at all. why would you spend your own money so some celebrity you'll never know get that teeny tiny bit closer to possibly winning a rather contrived tv popularity contest? it's amusing to watch but to actually PAY to bump up the voting percentages by about 000001% seems daft.