I have been interested to read opinions popping up about the levels of public support various celebs based on the patterns we see emerging from those relegated to DO. Most seem to predicate a degree of voter loyalty to a given couple, which it seems reasonable to assume has been the case in previous years. So, for eg, many write off Abbey as a serious contender to win because we now know she had the least public support last weekend and, it is assumed, that even allowing for a sympathy bump she can't make up the deficit in public votes when the field narrows.
I wonder if in fact free on-line voting has sizeably increased the numbers of votes cast and led to far more volatility in vote shares, simply because many more casual viewers who, unlike most on DS, are not particularly invested in one particular couple, are prepared to vote when it is free and have a lot of votes to spread around. Even as a long term fan of the programme, I have voted for completely different dancers each week this series when in the past I would only vote in the latter stages of the competition or for a particular favourite (2 series only). I have a feeling that the voting patterns may be far less predictable this year and depend much more on each week's performance, story line and even dance order than ever before and we can't draw the same conclusions as previously from DO's.
I wonder if in fact free on-line voting has sizeably increased the numbers of votes cast and led to far more volatility in vote shares, simply because many more casual viewers who, unlike most on DS, are not particularly invested in one particular couple, are prepared to vote when it is free and have a lot of votes to spread around. Even as a long term fan of the programme, I have voted for completely different dancers each week this series when in the past I would only vote in the latter stages of the competition or for a particular favourite (2 series only). I have a feeling that the voting patterns may be far less predictable this year and depend much more on each week's performance, story line and even dance order than ever before and we can't draw the same conclusions as previously from DO's.




