May be this has already been discussed, but with Erin back in the frame(albeit for a different reason, her baby news) is her absence the reason for there being only 7guys v 8 ladies ? I don't know if this has ever been properly explained, but I do think it is starting to show its importance ! It is always more difficult for a male celeb to learn to cope with learning to dance ballroom/Latin mainly down to the leading issue, but with only Ashley and possibly Ben having a chance of reaching the the final 5 not withstanding the final 3, I think the decision of 7v 8 was somewhat shortsighted.........!

No; originally when Erin, Aliona, Vincent and Flavia were announced to be leaving, they announced four new pros (Aljaz, Janette, Iveta and Emma Slater). Later on Emma dropped out for DWTS and they announced Anya and Kevin were joining.

It's a consequence of the one couple, one dancer rule they have in Dancelandania.
Maybe you should write in to the United Nations and put it right.

Not sure I follow your drift.............

I seem to recall seeing a few other threads discussing this subject...re contenders for the final 5...sadly there is only one real male contender this year however this is no more than the luck of the draw imo..poor year for males....However as a bloke I`am use to seeing decent female celebs leaving well before they deserved to...voting demographic tends to favour the fit male contestant....so I suppose the lack of decent male dancers leaves the door open for a female to bag the glitter ball...basically swings and roundabouts and next year we may well see a plethora of decent male celeb dancers

No I do agree with you, but somehow when there are more ladies competing for the title , we mere males aren't allowed to admire them in quite the same way that the female posters lust after the male celebs........! I just that it would be good to have one more male celeb, who could dance well, but need not be a hunk.....!

I think Ashley and Ben have a very good chance of making the top 5 and if there are 2 men in the top five, that's pretty much the usual balance, isn't it? Neither of them are good enough to beat Natalie, Sophie and Abbey yet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. They're good enough to stay in and they've got visible room to improve - that's a good position to be in this early on.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think either of them is Mark Ramprakash or Colin Jackson and I don't think it's going to be an easy stroll into the final for either - Ben has to cope with starting from nothing and the height difference with Kristina, Ashley with nerves that mean so far he isn't as good on the night as he looks in rehearsal and I think it's nerves that make him do things like 'How will I tell my son that Daddy isn't dancing any more?' But if they keep improving at the rate they are, the chances of at least one making the final look good to me.

Patrick is improving a lot, though still disappearing in the middle a bit, and could easily have a big breakthrough. I'm not sure he is going to, but he could.

(And Mark is my favourite - I accept he's unlikely to last much longer, but I wouldn't have swapped him for anyone.)

Having said all that, I don't mind at all if we have an all woman top five, if they're the best. Doesn't seem to matter to me much.

There does seem to be a bit of an imbalance this year.