My idea of why they chose Mark to stay over Ben is to avoid the possibility of 2 of the fancied dancers being in the bottom 2 next week.

Mark they could assume will be bottom 2 next week as he has been there the last 2 weeks.

I think the judges/ producers may have feared that Ben may have bounced this week leaving them with a choice of say Abbey and Sophie in the bottom 2 next week.

Any thoughts?

Mark did better in the dance off

But what if Mark is up against one of the 'fancied dancers' in the Dance Off next week and the 'fancied dancer' makes a couple of mistakes?

I've been thinking about the DO process a bit as a result of this week.

I think the judges' decision is or should be clear cut when they as judges had the two couples in the DO ranked quite closely to each other, as was so in this case (this could apply equally where they were the top or middle two, just that they are closely ranked).

They can then truly wipe the slate clean and just look at the DO performance and in this case the number of errors seemed a feasible method of making a choice (well it was for three of them anyway).

It must be more difficult if you have a DO where say one couple finished nearer the top with the judges and one nearer the bottom: because then you may have significant differences in performance and/or technique and/or content and just looking at errors may be seen as a less robust way of making the choice.

In that case, mistakes won't count.

Lol very cynical < but true!!>

It's a fair bet that, had Ben been saved, he would have been in the DO next week anyway.

for no other reason than this - simple really - no conspiracy theory at all

Good job we have the public vote so we can thwart their cunning plans.

Do judges care enough to start plotting against a particular dancer?

Actually thought he was more popular with the public and would escape the bottom two for a couple of weeks more.

I think it was simply a case of Mark being better in the DO than Ben. Well that's my opinion, and for once I think the judges got it right.

I don't think it's all about mistakes: it's about content, performance and mistakes. If content and performance are roughly equal, then the couple with the fewer mistakes will win. But if there's a wide discrepancy in content and/or performance, then of course there'll be less emphasis on mistakes.

This way, if a stronger couple finds itself in the dance-off against say, Mark, they'll be allowed a couple of mistakes (assuming the difficulty of their routine is making the most of their abilities).

Not one of the better conspiracy theories I've read.
Sorry.

I agree, like Len said Mark made one tiny mistake which was barely noticeable (at least to me) whereas Ben made two big and very noticeable mistakes (he went out of time at the beginning and there was a bit of a kerfuffle near the end), therefore since they were pretty even on the scoreboard (only one point between them) and given how far on we are in the competition it was fair to judge them on that. However, I do think that if someone up the top end of the leaderboard/ a front-runner had been in the DO with either Mark or Ben and made mistakes these would of been 'forgotten' and they would have still won because of their 'potential'. So it's one rule for some and one for others

I already said that on the week 9 Discussion thread.
Do we really need all these threads whenever anyone has a thought. Why not just put everything into the Discussion thread.?

Ben was dreadful in the dance off and deserved to go based on that performance. Mark and Iveta are dance off veterans but they have now run out of couples who are at their level of dancing. They won't survive another one

[quote=cantos;69961969]My idea of why they chose Mark to stay over Ben is to avoid the possibility of 2 of the fancied dancers being in the bottom 2 next week.

Mark they could assume will be bottom 2 next week as he has been there the last 2 weeks.

I think the judges/ producers may have feared that Ben may have bounced this week leaving them with a choice of say Abbey and Sophie in the bottom 2 next week.

Any thoughts?[/QUOTE I agree. Marks are sometimes being awarded to fit the agenda .

Actually, I think the reason Mark was saved was because next week is Musicals Week and they wanted to keep him in for that.

Ben was wooden in the dance off and based on that dance deserved to go. I never rated him anyway, yeah he was better than week 1 but still like a tree at times. I think Kristina expected to him to do a Darren Gough but Ben was too big a guy.

I do think Len looked as if he was in pain last night when he chose Ben to go!........ he does love his sportsmen and bumps them up as far as he can!.. but Ben's leg and footwork was terrible at the end of his dance!... he looked like he didn't have a clue as he was just stomping from left to right when he was out of hold!... I was thinking at the time 'if he goes through it would be a comlete travesty!.... but lo and behold!, he was out so!...

Well done to Len for making the right decision.....

Yes, Ben wasn't much good but I think it was decided that he had less entertainment value than Mark, does. The chest out, wasn't enough. (Is a chest out ever, enough No. )

It would have been interesting if they'd both had ballroom dances, though in that case they may not both have been bottom two anyway (the judges seemed to like Ben's ballroom, they might have placed Ben higher and thus he'd have been less vulnerable in the vote)

Not only that, his acting the part was more subdued and lacked any real purpose, especially at the start with the wink and OK sign, as if he was going through the motions. And those two mistakes really stood him apart. He danced much better on Saturday (yes, I know it's recorded ..... )

Of the two, Mark's DO was the better.

Recorded? Now your just being silly. We all know the dance off is on a Sunday