I'm sad Jake and Janette didn't get to the final For me they danced great memorable routines like the Samba, the Charleston and their amazing Salsa. I am sure they had a totally bonkers routine lined up for the final. Mark was good but I can't remember one of his routines that wowed me. I would have loved Jake to be in the final.

He didn't have a half-decent VW though, it still scored less than either of Mark's dances and technically neither Jake & Janette were great from what I could see, and I say that as someone who likes them both!

Agree. I try to avoid getting personal - Jake might be a tireless campaigner for world peace for all I know - but it'll be a joy not to see his scary mug, crude partner work and fabled hip action *dry heave* ever again.

I'm sorry to see the back of him too

I've enjoyed their routines, crowd pleasing and fun for the most part, and despite its apparent technical shortcomings, I loved their waltz. IMO of course, but I think Janette saw someone who could perform but not necessarily compete with the better celebs technically and adapted accordingly, and she is to be commended for it. I rather think their showdance would have been a hoot!

He'll be dancing on Saturday won't he?

Jake started well but plateaued quickly and actually seemed to regress in recent weeks. Mark was poor to begin with but has worked hard to improve every week. Mark deserves his place in the final far more than Jake in my book.

Wouldn't that be like letting the apes take over the zoo...?

I vote online - I have never paid a penny to vote.

Well why have a public vote at all if that is the case.? Len has made controversial decisions for the past two weeks and eliminated two celeb contestants who interestingly are not taking part in the upcoming SCD Tour.

You may question Jakes technical ability but his performance level was very high.
While I wasn't a Pixie supporter, there is no doubt she is an amazing dancer and one of the best to have ever taken part in SCD. The final will be all the poorer without both Jake and Pixie.

I am disappointed that Jake isn't in the final, I know he wasn't as technically good as the others but his performance was brilliant, and I loved watching him. I was really looking forward to watching their showdance I,m sure Janette had something spectacular planned.

I am sad Jake didn't make the final, I think he would have done better with a different pro, someone like Natalie or Ola, I don't rate Janette as a teacher...she seem to rely too much on gimmicks.

Wouldn't it be nice if all the celebs were invited back for a one-off show to do a show-dance? I'm sure Jake and Janette's would have been spectacular.

I don't know if he was robbed but the final will be less fun with him and Janette not in it.

Jake's lack of technique was a bit embarrassing on the night but this shouldn't detract from his entertainment value as demonstrated by the number of views of his salsa (more than every other vid of this year's crop combined last time I looked), I would have loved to have seen it again plus another show-stopper / potential disaster- Jake was a bit hit and miss after all

Len's reason for saving Mark doesn't stand up to critical scrutiny given what he said about it previously - indeed he contradicted himself lol.

I'm gutted. While last week I was shocked, but I did agree that Simon had danced a little bit better in the dance off, this week I really don't understand the decision. Mark's rumba was terrible. If Jake's cha cha wasn't great technically, at least it was great entertainment. I think the final would be way less fun without Jake and Janette, for me they have definitely produced some of the most memorable dances of the whole season.

Because, as a previous poster has noted, the public votes for which couple they prefer. The two couples with the fewest votes then have to dance off against each other and the judges have the final say. Those are the terms and conditions everyone voting understands.

My opinion as a non-dancer is that watching Jake, if I hadn't been told what Latin dance he was doing I wouldn't have known. They mainly all contained exactly the same hip shaking which gets a bit tedious the third time you've seen it. His ballroom dances were performed as if he had a rod up his back and with head glued on in one position. Jeanette might just as well have been dancing with a cardboard cut out.

Marks (ever so 'umble sir) Wright's verbal diarrhoea got tedious, but his dancing did improve week after week, while Jake reached a plateau in week two.

I get fed up with the "not on the tour" conspiracy theories. The BBC have plenty of entertaining and now able celebs to take part. They need a mix of the good and not-so-good to keep it entertaining, and they certainly don't want all of them on the tour.

Mark was the better dancer on the night - at least his rhumba had feeling and attention to detail and appeared to have some technique, rather than yet more hip shaking regardless of what the rest of the body was doing.

Jake is a good dancer but he never really progressed. But I think the choreography given to him was awful for a semi-final dance for not containing that many elements of the Cha Cha they were supposed to be doing. Still, Len bottled it my book by chosing Mark as his Rhumba had even less proper elements and was more akin to Modern Dance.

If I were Len I'd have evaluated them on technical quality NOT based on either of those dances (which, as he said, hadn't a pin to choose between them in terms of naff content) - which really means going to the ballroom dances of the night, where Mark was better than Jake. So I think the result was just about fair as an 'on the night' measure.

Mark's definitely shown more technical ability than Jake in several dances - I'd rate both his jive and Charleston as technically better than Jake's, for example, and most of his ballroom as well. He also has the advantage of Karen being a better and more complete choreographer than Janette, who's all about the gimmicks in her own dancing and choreographs accordingly.

It might not be an exciting final in terms of what we see on the floor, but it's definitely exciting in that we can't call the result at this point. Three of the four contenders have been DO fodder, and two of them multiple DO fodder. And I've no idea who has the best chance of coming up with the 'wow' vote-winning routine on the night. I for one am looking forward to it.

Len didn't give a reason for saving him, but it's fairly likely he looked at overall dance ability, in which case saving Mark is not controversial at all!

I'm talking about how he slated it first time around - much more so than he slated Jake and Janette's cha cha.

Nothing had changed between performances and whilst it's fair to say that Mark is better than Jake at ballroom, it's equally fair to say that Jake is better than Mark at Latin and his best dances have been much better than Mark's - if scores from the judges and views of vids on social media are taken into consideration. At least these constitute more 'objective' criteria for choosing than a whim.

I have to agree to be honest he has long over-stayed his welcome I think len also respected Mark and Karen for still choosing the Rhumba and knew if they had done the other dance they would have got through regardless.

I don't think the Tour had a lot to do with it. When Jake was asked to do the show, the BBC must have known that his EE commitments would have made it very difficult especially as they've had serving soap actors on the show before.

Jake was more entertaining and eye-catching but Mark had shown the biggest technical improvement. I think, as said, many are disappointed because Jake's show dance would have been completely mental and I think it could be won or lost on who is the most ambitious with their show dance and pulls a rabbit out of the hat.

In any other year, Pixie and Jake would have been nailed-on certainties for the final. Due to Mark and Simon's improvement, it became so much more interesting.

Reading about Jake's 'gurning' here -

In the circus routine he was being a clown - from a childhood spent at Blackpool Tower circus that's the look the clowns had on their faces.

Charleston - a comic, light-hearted dance where facial expressions add to the performance.

Also -

The two men were being judged on the dance that they did at the dance-off so I thought, so consideration of past dances shouldn't have entered into the decision.

Of these last 5 dancers I think Mark and Jake were the two least competent but of the two I stiil prefered Jake - his entertainment value and performance being really good.

He hasn't looked remotely arsed in weeks and Janette is a poor pro - their dances were kinda fun in spots, but I was embarrassed for him in his Samba which was heaped with praise and their awful ballroom...

He was a bit unlucky - perhaps - that there were no ties to help him out on the LB. There being two dances makes that less likely, anyway. I think he was topping the public vote.

The BBC do not release voting figures - hypothetically, can you imagine if it were revealed Denise Van Ringah was polling nowt for weeks last year? It could damage her career. Celebrities might feel less secure in taking part if the figures were released.