Rufus Hound made an interesting remark about Susanna on last night's ITT. He said that Susanna is 'totemic' of the people who love the show.

Susanna and Kevin. She gives it welly. She seems as if she enjoys it (that's VERY important) and Kevin HAS to be worth a few votes.

Natalie. No. Like the woman on ITT said (was she American): I don't know which one's the pro! The British like an underdog and a tryer.

Sophie. No. Partly because Brendan treats her like a ickle girlie-girl and it's a bit sickening and I wish she'd give him a proper telling-off.

Mark. PurLEEEZE! Though I'd love it if he did. The judges keep saving him and Iveta is AMAZEBALLS!

Ashley. Just not getting that vibe.

Patrick. Ditto.

The only other winner might be Abbey. She might do a cracking showdance. MIGHT. Aljaz is very compelling. She's never bad though never outstanding. So I'd put her as my second favourite (in bookie's terms) behind Susanna.

Actually, at what stage do the judges cease to count ? Last 3, 4 or what ? If it's 4, Natalie could even be 4th.

Susanna ticks a lot of vote boxes and that's a fact. Lots of daily exposure, enthusiasm, appeal to the middle class Mumsnetters who are a bulk of viewers, fun British pro, 3 kids and getting up at 3am as well. She may be as hammy as a side roast but she does the Princess Diana bit to perfection on the ITT sofa doing the coyly uplifted eyes ingenue bit. I'll give her full credit for blatantly appealing to the vote demographic, or at least faking to!

I would like to see Natalie, Patrick and Abby.

If Mark is out this week, the only one of those left I would not like to see win is Susanna.
But I guess she has a lot of support.....:yawn:

Used to be their scores counted in the final, but they don't now. So the finishing order of the final four will be based purely on votes.

Thanks for that. So someone ( Natalie ? ) consistently getting big judges scores and not being in the dance off could get quite a shock once it gets to the final four.

Interestingly (or not), last series was the first time that the finalists didn't ultimately place in order of the number of bottom 2s they'd been in.

Natasha : 1
Chris : 1

Jill : 0
Denise : 2
Julian : 2

Darren : 0
Colin : 0
Zoe : 2

Mark : 0
Matt : 0
Emma : 3

Alesha : 1
Matt : 2

Tom : 0
Rachel : 2
Lisa : 3

Chris : 0
Ricky : 2

Kara : 0
Matt : 0
Pamela : 0

Harry : 0
Chelsee : 0
Jason : 1

Louis : 0
Denise/Kimberley : 2/1
Dani : 0

It'll be interesting to see the configuration of bottom 2s after the 3 left of them before the final.

I think Sophie also appeals to pretty much the same demographic but with a touch more self deprecation and irony so I find it hard to choose between those two as likely winners. Susanna has some tough dances to go at the 'wrong' time and is vulnerable to a surprise exit (especially in a DO v judges fave) before the final.

Will boil down to who sells it best. So far Susanne is winning that hands down.

I think Susannah has this one. I did think Natalie for a while but I am reading too much vitriol from the public and that was only proved further in the article that Susannah (or her writer) wrote in the Radio Times a week ago when she was defending Natalie's ability. Reminded me straight off of last year and all the pleas to not be hard on DVO for being so good.

Would love Sophie or Ashley but not feeling hopeful against the Sue tide...

Yup as I said earlier I can see a Su/Sophie final two and it'd be interesting as to which style the GBP favour as they are so poles apart. But ooh..yes there could be a rerun sort of the Austin/Lisa scenario and although it may not be as clear cut that Susanna is much more popular than Natalie, reading the vox pops on FB I think it might be a fair assumption. Hell to pay if she's booted.

Who I think will win, and who I want to win are quite different. I want Abbey to win, I love her dancing, she seems a natural talent. But I think Susanna might win. Shame because she dances like a carthorse and has only got through by forcing a fake personality on to the audience.

I suspect Natalie will win, I'd like Sophie but suspect as she isn't on the tour she won't. In that case I'd like it to be Susanna