That is my guess for how the vote went this week. Many did say they wanted to save Mark so I imagine he could have come 5th.

I imagine Sophie / Susanna have a comfortable strong vote of around 4th - 1st each week.

Natalie over the weeks has maybe just descended like Abbey has.

Ben obviously gets votes for being sexy.

At one point I thought Sophie could be the most popular, but I've just looked at the youtube views from last nights dances and Sophie's QS is the second least watched behind the eliminated Fiona's. If she were the most popular of all the celebs I don't think that would be the case.

I doubt Sophie is topping the vote. Her performances have lacked quality and she has been slightly average. I imagine she has a solid fan base after that Week 2 dance and personality to keep her floating on with around 5th - 2nd. If they give Sophie another latin and she is bad I think Sophie might see her votes crumble.

In fairness, her name is spelt wrong "Bexter" instead of Bextor, so it isn't showing in search results :/

Sophie seems to be one of the least criticised though and she has a nice, pleasant personality even if she hasn't been the most highly marked dancer. I still think she'll win.

I agree.

Getting Louis Smith feelings from her. Even though I personally don't think they are the best dancers, I still think the popularity and "anyone but ... to win" votes will ensure they win.

But Louis Smith was very marmite on this board. It's just unlike this year with Natalie, the "He/She Eats Babies" threads were spread out between Louis, Denise and Victoria.

Not the same as DS. I just get vibes and feelings that she will do another Louis Smith and most likely win despite not being the strongest dancer.

One thing is certain if she gets to final Sophie has that trump card of playing that Charleston dance which I still think is perhaps the best dance of the series.

I am certain Natalie win not win. The haters have shown me that. The hate for Susanna is also generating now I think.

I think Sophie is doing well in the vote, but she needs a 'wow' dance with a similar score and leaderboard position to her charleston to justify it in the next week or two. (The QS really SHOULD have been that, but the insane marking put her lower than she should have been.)

I think Patrick and Abbey will have gained some ground since their dance-off appearances but are probably around mid-table at best. I'd put Ashley somewhere in the middle as well but he's not been tested yet. Ben is probably about third, slightly above the mid-table. Susanna probably has a good Beeb Faithful vote (helped by the fact that Kevin From Grisby is fast achieving 'memetic mutation' status). Mark must be very low in the public vote to be in the dance-off two weeks running, and I still think Natalie is too.

For me the producers' manipulation of the leaderboard has become less and less subtle since about series 5. I think we can always guess who is unpopular with the public when their high position on the leaderboard in no way correlates with what we have witnessed on the dancefloor (I like to call this the Snowdon Syndrome). For example, last week, Patrick's 10 from Darcy was obviously about keeping him safe rather than reflecting his performance (and I loved the dance btw). The producers have way too much power on this show.

But Mark has been at or near the bottom of the leaderboard for the last two weeks so he could be doing very well in the public vote and still end up in dance-off. I know lots of people in and outside of this forum who have him as their favourite.

Well, Sophie gets her share of hate threads also (along with the other girls).

The situation can't be compared with Louis Smith, who also had the Ben Cohen voters last year (which made him the winner after day one).

Youtube views also aren't everything, as Sophie was leading the way last weekend with her AT.

Do think that the general feeling last night that both Sophie and Ashley were undermarked (and Nat & Abs overmarked) will have played a role in the votes, which will have helped them both a bit extra on the night.

It will all depend on the dance offs in the coming 2 weeks, if she is able to avoid them then she is in with a chance of at least the final. Otherwise, she won't make it to December (as the judges clearly would only safe her over Ben and Mark at this point).

A vote for Natalie is a wasted voted until the final, because even if she ends up in the DO, we all know the judges will save her.

What has made the voting a little different this year is that there is Internet voting, and you can therefore vote for free 5 times. This must alter the normal voting pattern slightly. as it encourages a younger demographic to vote. My daughter, who I wouldn't let vote on the premium numbers, now gets to vote on the web.
This may help the Ashley vote for example.

She's been last twice, as has Natalie. The others have all been last once. I doubt it's got much to do with the voting. I don't look at marking, only placing. I'd not disagree with too many placings as I look over the judges' results each week.

There are two people over 50 in my house and being tech savvy as I believe a decent number of older folk are, we vote online to keep costs down, we get more votes this way but it hasn't influenced our choices, our spread of votes is pretty similar to what it was when using the phone.

Susanna was last week 4 and week 6, I think. Natalie was last on the first show on a Friday night that only had half the contestants (so that's not a proper last ) and then this week. Susanna was also next to last.

I've checked Susanna's positions and she has been in order of weeks

4th of 6 on Friday show
1st
10th of 14
Last
10th of 12
Last
5th of 10
8th of 9

She's getting very good slots and if you discount first as it's the second most important place on the show after last, she's never been in the front half of dances, the nearest she came is smack bang in the middle when she was 5th of 10 with her waltz.

There's a saying with job interviews, be first and if you can't be first, be last.

I'd not want to draw any conclusions though unless i saw the pattern for everyone. And I'd also like to know how it's decided - I've heard references to people being "drawn" in particular positions, though of course a conspiracy theorist might consider that even draws might have been fixed.

Just checked Natalie and she's been far more spread around, she's had

Last on Friday of 6
3rd of 15
13th of 14
9th of 13
1st of 12
5th of 11
Should have been 7th of 10 but fainted
Last

It's really interesting when you look

Sophie's had
5th of 6 on Friday
12th of 15
8th of 14
1st of 13
Last
4th of 11
9th of 10
1st of 9

Ben's had
1st of 9 on Saturday
13th of 15
7th of 14
7th of 13
11th of 12
3rd of 11
1st of 10
3rd of 9

Patrick
7th of 9 on Saturday
5th of 15
2nd of 14
10th of 13
5th of 12
1st of 11
Last
2nd of 9

Ashley
1st of 6 on Friday
Last
13th of 14
4th of 13
9th of 12
8th of 11
8th of 10
4th of 9

Abbey
Last on Saturday show
14th of 15
1st of 14
11th of 13
2nd of 12
9th of 11
3rd of 10
6th of 9

Aha, now, of the people that have gone, obviously some went too soon for there to be any sort of pattern, but if, for example, it's not great to dance in the middle slots, might recent departures reflect that?

Sorry Alli but I'm not sure where you're getting your figures from otherwise I'd go look and stop you from having to provide it all

Elimination positions :

Tony - 2nd of 15
Vanessa - 11th of 14
Julian - 5th of 13
Deborah - 4th of 12
Rachel - 7th of 11
Dave - 6th of 10 (*Natalie slot given over to injury discussion*)
Fiona - 5th of 9

Here we go hun, none of it my knowledge, all their's

Ultimate Strictly

You can look everything up by week or dancer.

Looks like don't be in 4-6th this week.

Of those remaining, Susanna's performance slots have definitely been the best, and Ben's and Patrick's have definitely been the worst.

(Although this is with Fiona out of the equation, whose performance slots were rapidly reaching Alex Jones levels of parodically awful).