Suzanne up first again and her scores suffering. She was first three weeks ago and then second two weeks ago. Anyone think maybe the producers want her out?

Is the running order not drawn randomly?

Suzanne, Gareth + Sam always seem to be the first few

And Hayley and Ray always near the end.

Suzanne seems to keep getting rubbish routines aswell as being on early :/

Agreed.

For some reason, they're completely disregarding her and don't seem to want her to be a contender. I have no idea why because surely they'd want to make the competition as exciting as possible?

Suzanne has seemingly peaked in week 1.

Completely unfair, I´d be very annoyed if I were Suzanne, she should be last and second last over the next few weeks or it´s going to look very twisted.

If they want it to be fair then next week's running order should be something along these lines:

1. Ray
2. Hayley
3. Beth
4. Kyran
5. Suzanne
6. Sam

They may very well do that, seeing as the final leaderboard is going to be turned about anyway

It's very unexciting for the viewer with no particular contestant preference, if the best goes first, and the producers know who is likely to be best from the rehearsal, and previous form. If they put Ray, Hayley and Beth on in the first half, the viewers may switch off. The TV company is in it for the revenue, they have no other particular bias.

I don't think running order is affecting the votes that much, the only person who got votes above his ability was Gareth, and he's been one of the early ones anyway. Sam was probably getting votes below his ability earlier in the series and somehow I don't think that's due to running order either.

Well thats an awful looking leaderboard then.

Yes, the running order is surely done based on ratings, which proves the latter people are the most popular. Not sure how often this correlates to votes. But they do switch it up to not make it totally farcical.

Next week is indeed an anomaly as the scores will be upturned anyway, though bear in mind it's not like the Duel where someone is immune, and so in fact going on first or second could be even worse than normal for someone, or less of an issue depending where they finally end up on the leaderboard.

Rarely is on any reality talent show. Many put someone good on first and keep what they think is the best till the last couple of slots - to keep an audience early on , and get it back next week. They then may deploy people earlier now and again to make it look fairer and put second best on late for a week or two.

Second is a terrible spot - its where the doomed, and unwanted tend to be put. Its too early to remember, and often after someone much better. First slot is important for the show, but, depending on whats on elsewhere, and if people tune in on time, and how many contestants there are following - it can be the slot where no one remembers you, or saw you at all. There was one singing show where the bottom two just saw a succession of the people on early, week after week.