If you're doing a combined total I'd divide the "antis" evenly between all the other dancers besides the one they're anti for. It'd reflect how tactical voting increases towards the end. I don't think anybody is seriously voting against Natalie or Susanna (or whoever) yet, but come the final I can see the froth-mouthed antis decide they're going to BRING THEM DOWN.

(Any viewing of this forum's polls should of course bear in mind the consistent bias towards young, attractive, female, ethnic minority contestants, and any combination of the above demographic factors, when compared to the public vote)

My gut instinct is that Ben is very near the top of the voting, and Patrick and Abbey near the bottom. It's very interesting how the judges have started overmarking the two of them after they were in a dance-off.

The biggest mystery is Ashley. I don't know anyone who watches Hollyoaks, so have no idea whether he is popular, or just missing the dance-off each week.

Thing is with votes rather than the least favourite poll, people actively choose to support someone as there isn't a way to vote someone off. The 5 free votes can be cast all for one person or spread.

If someone chooses to vote for person A but does not like person B this will make no difference in the actual voting as you only get an on switch not an off.

I think there are many mysteries this year. Tens are being awarded for admittedly less than perfect performances. Why? To generate hype? To give the public the impression that some dancers are great? The clear over- and in some cases under-marking leaves the 'judges' with impaired integrity. Even non-dancers can plainly see wrong steps, gapping, losing timing, forgetting steps, being dragged around the dance-floor and pulled into position, non-pointed toes, not fully extended limbs, poor frame, losing frame, etc., etc. So what's going on with the marking?

I don't know, how do any of us know really (unless someone has access to the phone and webvotes).
What is apparent to me though is that opinion on DS can be very different to those that just watch the show every week on telly and switch off after the show finishes (as opposed to analysing every little detail, that we do on here). I discuss things (that have been discussed on DS) with some of my friends and they seem bewildered at the topics that are discussed sometimes.

As a guess though, Ben must be popular as he's not the best dancer (his scores early on prob refected that more than they do now with over-inflation) but he's still avoiding the DO. My mum thinks he's getting the sympathy vote (in the lesser dancer sense) but I don't think that's the reason he's staying in at all, people actually are entertained by some aspect of him.

Abbey and Patrick you'd presume are two of the least popular given that they've both been in the dance-off but, they've never returned to it...yet, so I don't know if they've either turned a corner with the audience or they're just luckily avoiding it week after week.

Mark in the BT twice now so I presume he's least popular (even though you'd think given his personality and partnership with Iveta that he was very popular...more popular than Ben and Kristina as a pair, I thought).



Students do, or at least we did at Uni, not sure about any other presumed target audience group though. My mum has no idea who he is, or Abbey, or Sophie, or Ben or many of them really other than poss Deborah (though she's still uncertain), so she just votes on whether she likes the way they dance and sometimes their personality (if she feels sorry for them and thinks they need some love via votes). My mum is one of those peope that recognises when someone is a lesser dancer but thinks they need votes otherwise they might get depressed at not being good! She's so odd sometimes.

Perhaps the disparity between the best dancer and the rest of them?

If the competition were being marked fairly to reflect the differing abilities, Natalie would be receiving nines and tens across the board every week, and even the best of the rest are worth no more than let's say seven by comparison. Arguably.....

Mind you, the show's been dumbling down for quite some time, so that doesn't help

Nice to see how Craig seems to be the judge most respected for both scores & comments by the contestants. So even they are aware there are areas for improvement. Even if Len, Darcey & Bruno all seem to be wearing beer goggles.


Oddly enough I suspect Natalie was far in front of the others because she trained too hard to get things perfect. If you are prepared to do far more hours of full on practice you will look better. Their Charleston was more interesting than most of the previous dances because it was not so polished.

I've been thinking that for a while in regards to Ben - he's kinda flying under the radar a bit but for him to have avoided a sniff of danger despite his middling scores does make you think he's got a chance. The thing is that he's a likeable guy, funny and a sportsman who is on the fabled journey of improvement and that ticks all the boxes for doing really well. I know he's not popular on here (who is though) but I wouldn't be shocked if he made the final.

Ashley's the tough one - he's a better dancer but hampered with not being wildly known and having Ola's weird choreography choices foisted on him at random points in his routines. I think if he had a wow dance he would have a decent chance, but until then I don't see it, as likeable as he is.

I like Ben and I've been voting for him, but I think I will stop this week or next as this is about the right place for him to go out. I would hate for him to survive against someone like Abbey or Natalie being in the bottom 2, so I think he'll get a couple of votes from me this week depending on how he dances and then I'll transfer all my votes to my favourite.

I wish I had a favourite but I don't this year, I just don't have any strong feelings either way about most of the celebs so I tend to be fickle and just vote for the routine that I liked/made me smile most...it's led to some interesting voting choices.

Lot of Dave voting. Just teasing. I've found a lot this year that the routines that make you happy haven't necessarily come from the better dancers.

Sophie always makes me happy.

More likely to be mid-table in public vote. When the judges place popular couples in the lower part of the table but not last (like Sophie and Ben), there's either a predictable result (bottom two on judges leaderboard end up in the dance-off) or a shocking one.

The way to avoid the dance-off is simply to get more votes than the couples that are closest to you on the judges leaderboard. Mark is probably popular, but not popular enough - I suspect he would have avoided the dance-off the last two weeks if Patrick and Abbey were not ranked as highly on the leaderboard, but he struggled to pass Sophie and Ben because they're popular too.

I think Susanna is winning and will win. Or perhaps more accurately Kevin - I'm not sure Susanna would be winning with a different pro. I think this is The Year of Kevin. There is a tiny, tiny chance that Susanna or Kevin will do something to screw it up, but if they don't I don't think anyone else can take it from them.

I'd guess Ben is second at the moment (could be Ashley). I think Ben's support is for him rather than his dancing and will get him to the semi-final or the final and will then fade away. People will want him to see the series through but will not vote for him to win against better dancers.

I think some of Susanna's support will be split between her and Sophie, and Sophie might make a race of it if she could find her form consistently (and Brendan would relax a bit) but not if she doesn't.

Natalie's got a lot of very vocal supporters and critics and it makes it hard to judge her support, but the critics can't vote her off, so my guess is that her vote is quite strong and committed. She could have the support of enough people to get her to the final four without being in the b2, which would make room for Abbey to get to the final saved by the judges if necessary. But I think Natalie needs a really Wow popular dance to give Susanna a contest of actually winning. At the moment, the fact that she'd always be saved in the dance-off might mean she has a small vote - but as I say I think the perception that she needs defending will mean that people who love her do vote for her.

Abbey - she's not as controversial as Natalie but also I don't think her support is as determined. She might be a lot of people's second or third choice, so might pick up support as others drop out. Abbey, Ashley and Patrick are all very nice and good dancers but a tiny bit bland to me. I'd guess Ashley is getting the most out of those three. Whoever is getting least is going to be in the b2 with Mark.

Mark - love him and I think he was probably doing well in the vote after M C Hammer but his support collapsed after the paso and rumba and it's not coming back with a foxtrot.

Keep the faith Alli-F!! Think of the journey

I agree. I would only add that I think the top three in votes are Susanna, Ben and Sophie. I think Sophie is very popular with a strong fan base. Those numbers may have not grown too much, but the fans are very committed, specially after being perceived as underscored.

I think you are right there.

Don't know where this 'over-confident' tag comes from. She always looks highly embarrassed at the marks she gets and defers to Kevin all the time. Yes she talks confidently but that's her job isn't it on Breakfast TV? Her confidence through the dance is growing, the same as most of the others, and she is learning how to milk applause from a past master. The others must try to learn the same.
Everybody knows that Paso Doble is totally a man orientated dance with the girl acting as a cape, a basically inanimate object being thrown around by the matador, periodically morphing into a flamenco dancer when they are apart. If Kevin looked prominent in the dance he was supposed to!
Caping (wafting) yes but there were Chasse Capes, Twists, Walks, Double handed Caping plus passion, musical appreciation and characterisation. You can't fool the judges, particularly Len, and you certainly can't fool the audience.

I'm so glad you've said this. I felt she danced with fire and they complemented one another perfectly, and it's the first paso I've ever seen where I felt transported to the bull-fighting arena and got a sense of drama and spectacle.

Re who's getting the votes, my two girls watch Hollyoaks and they quite like Ashley, but he's not one of the ones the girls all love and goo over (like Chris Fountain was), so I'm not sure he's got a solid fanbase. I think the vote is pretty split between the girls, with perhaps Susanna getting the edge now. Momentum is definitely with Kev and Suz, whether that continues after the cha cha is debatable. I think Ben will do well, but I just don't get the impression from him that he will fight that hard for it

I watch Hollyoaks but i dont vote for Ashley - he is regarded one of the "hotties" on Hollyoaks but how that translates to voting Im not sure, tbh (and this is just my own opinion) I think he has been lucky to avoid the dance off up till now

Think we're going to get a better idea tomorrow night - maybe in for a shock

I agree

I wonder who the judges would save in an

Ashley v Patrick

or

Sophie v Abbey

dance off

Patrick and Abbey unless they really mess up.

My gut instinct is pretty much the same as this, except I am really unsure about Natalie's vote. I only hope she doesn't fall into the DO in the next few weeks, not only because she shouldn't on merit, but because she's the one who will take out much more popular dancers via the judges intervention. I have no clue how Ashley is doing.