Agree.

No doubt though peeps will talk about how amazing Louis Showdance was

Disagree - Louis' show dance had far more dance content than Denise's which seemed to consist of acrobatic lifts & twizzles round James' head. Kimberley did not execute as well as Denise & Louis. Poor old Dani could not compete and was disjointed & messy in places.

It was nothing to do whether you are male or female - Kara, Alesha, Jill etc proved that - it is who the voters connect with more

That's the crux of it for me. I think this year's line-up would have made for a closer final if it hadn't been a Olympic year. Louis had it won as long as he proved he could dance a bit - look how long Victoria lasted without being able to dance much at all. Louis is far better than her, so him winning was in my mind a foregone conclusion.

I can't prove that, of course, but it's just my gut feeling. I'd be very interested to see a young, attractive male Olympian do the show next year and see how his vote goes.

Though I do think Kara won by miles in her year, she was one of the best there's ever been, and no-one this year comes close to that.

Kara's "worst" dance was very good (Jive) - she was undermarked throughout the show and IMO, she is the best female dancer on Strictly. Jill can only dream

Of course it does. I don't know if people are in denial or just being deliberately naive.

Yes, women can win the show. But if they're up against obvious eye-candy in the final, the need to be significantly better, just to compensate for the extra votes any studly bloke is gonna get, simply for being a studly bloke.

I'm not saying EVERYONE that voted for Louis did so cos they fancied him. But come on, surely nobody is gonna try and pretend that ALL of his votes were about his dancing. At the end of that day, all Louis had to be to win tonight was halfway decent. Denise or Kimerly would have had to have been nothing less than sheer perfection to have any chance of getting more votes, and frankly even then, I don't think it would have been enough.

Glad some forum members also have the view I have

Totally agree.

there seem to be some frustrated male posters who really do need to get into that big wide world out there - wonder if they are the same blokes who look at page 3 of the Sun - or would there be some difference in that? A lot of these comments about Louis are just patronising and ill-informed, as well as just being on a wind up :yawn:

Well I find your post patronising. Assuming the majority of posters upset by the decision is male.

Louis Smith was not a greater dancer than Kimberley or Denise and should not have won. This will be forever above Louis winning title. Along with Tom Chambers, Darren Gough and Chris Hollins. He was not deserving of the winning title.

It's an uncomfortable fact but it's harder for non white males to win British reality/talent shows than women of any race. Louis' win is something to celebrate!

BIB - if they had been perfect they'd have been accused of being a Ringah!
In fact although I wasnt a fan of hers, I think the only female with a chance of beating Louis to the glitter ball was Lisa!

Errr, for me Flavia is one of the most beautiful women in the world (OH excepted of course) and a super-amazing dancer..

Her partner was very good this year but Flavia is as always outstanding.

Some of us are more interested in the pros than in the "celebs" but it is great when they gel to form a team.

It isn't clear that Louis plus a random other pro would have done as well - even with his top off.

Surely each and every one of us will have different memorable dances?

He looks 3/4 to 7/8 "white". Any other guesses? No sign of his father on the VTs.

What a nasty comment.

Flavia winning was the only thing that made the result worth watching.

Just a shame cause I feel Kim / Denise wanted it more and also the better celebrity dancers.

'These shows'? Might I just point out one teensy-weensy thing that makes Strictly a bit different from X Factor and other shows of that ilk? You and the OP don't appear to have noticed that it is a show for couples (or cooples, as Tess would have it). If, as you claim, straight women vote with their ovaries, they are as likely to vote for Artem's chesticles as Louis's.


Exactly. Actually I think Ricky Whittle was the last male contestant I voted for - unless you count my vote for Scott and Natalie's jive, but I soon reverted to voting for Kara in that series. If I were to vote with my ovaries, I'd be a lot more likely to vote for Pasha or Artem than for boys like Louis and Matt di Angelo, or wet drips like Matt Baker and Gethin Jones.

The OP has a theory, but it's one that's trotted out every year by somebody disappointed with the result. It doesn't matter how many times the argument is made, it still doesn't make sense to me.

Eh? Really? Where's the nastiness? Do explain yourself.

He is a blend of Black and White as indeed are many non white people.. He looks mainly "white" but as you know these skin shades don't come out as in a palette.

Do you really think the audience thought of him as non-white? Please provide your evidence of that.


He is no Colin Jackson or Colin Salmon or Ricky Whittle.to test your (repeated and only) theory that the audience is (still) racist or not.

How so?

As I said, I'm not suggesting that ALL of Louis votes were born out of shallow reasons. But surely even his staunchest of supporters, if they were being honest, would agree that when it came to the 'factors-other-than-dancing' that influence voters across the board, he was always gonna have a much higher quota than Kimberly and Denise.

Sure, I've no doubt a few people will have voted for Kimberly or Denise for equally shallow reasons, but not anyway near as many women (or men!) who voted for Louis for the same reasons.

And I'm not sure that your Page 3 analogy really works. Yes, if your implication is that checking out a Page 3 girl is just the same as checking out Louis, I agree. The difference though is that no-one is judging a Page 3 girl's ability to dance (or sing or bake a cake or whatever) based just on how attractive she is. Page 3 is about the sexy. SCD is supposed to be about the dancing.

At the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with shallow. Frankly, I'd be a hypocrite if I claimed there was. It'd just be nice if people were more honest about it.

Tom of course had more training, than anyone this year and his show dance had been a particular interest of his for years. Rachel got the Denise label that year for doing the odd routine in an S Club video...

Last year it made some sense. Harry had marks thrown at him and wasn't that good , but Chelsee was running on an empty tank by the final.

Chris over Ricky and Ali was the biggest mismatch in terms of ability, but Chris at least had humour going for him. Mark and Darren had the journey story and hunk factor and both series had lost their best female before the final two.

Otherwise, though, its all a bit unpredictable. Alesha should have had much less fan support than Kimberley - but she beat someone who came from both BBC childrens and OAP TV. Denise has a big fanbase by entertainer standards - but had no votes. Kara succeeded where all sorts of Eastender stars failed to motivate a vote. Good northern females do much better often than southerners, but Kimberley couldn't get a vote out either.

This year though was especially loaded for a male win. Three of the top 4 (3?) were female and there's two left splitting the vote in the last three.

Yes the public like honesty manners and lack of affectation.

I have heard that expression many times.
Is it possible to field a shallowly flawed hypothesis?

Jeez - some of the conspiracy theory fantasists on this thread are truly frightening. Why can't posters accept the winner and result in good grace like all the contestants and pros do?

In this case, the hypothesis is essentially that people are shallow.

Which isn't that ground-breaking, really!

Of course they are doomed, most people who vote are girls aged 12-25 and they are more likely to vote for who they fancy as well as voting many times, I'm convinced if one one vote was counted for each phone number then the result would be entirely different. Imagine voting in a General Election by phone - obviously all the rich people will have their phone on speed dial for the tory party and it would be a landslide, but it would not reflect the true public opinion in the same way.

Given its women who mainly watch