Apologies if this has been discussed before, I'm new here (hello!) and my searching of the forum hasn't uncovered the answer. I'm a long-term Strictly viewer though and have long held the following opinion based on observation, so ...

am I correct in believing that as well as the obvious bottom two each week, we can also deduce who was third from the bottom?

It appears to me that, when there are two couples left waiting to hear which one is in the dance-off (the first having already been named earlier, of course) they are always two very weak couples and it could easily be either one of them. You never get a strong pair in that situation.

So for example on Saturday night (sorry, I mean Sunday of course ) they had obviously decided to make Jay and Aliona sweat by leaving them till near the end - but their names were called before that "last two" moment. I'm sure the names are called in an order that makes for drama, but I don't think we can deduce who got the most votes - apart from the bottom two obviously, and maybe also that third from the bottom place.

This idea is supported by the fact that the pro in the couple who is saved from the dance-off often looks very unhappy - as if they know that they were very near the bottom and it might well be them next time.

I hope you follow my drift here and would be interested to know if this is the case. Thanks!

Good Question but Im sure its in no Particular order

The order of reveal is clearly worked out to create drama and keep narratives running. There would be no point in, say, Katie or Jamelia having this big triumphant comeback week on the main show if they're left sweating right til the very end of the Results Show looking like they almost went home. The person left til the end and saved will always be someone who the audience can feasibly believe is in danger. As such there will potentially be some crossover between them and people who did in fact nearly go but it's not a hard and fast rule that they're "third from bottom" because...why would they do it?

I don't think we are always left with two very weak couples at the conclusion of the announcement about who will be in the dance off. They just like to mix it up a bit but I'm sure they call out the results in no particular order.

None of us know, but I don't think so. I think they often keep people that viewers will be worried about till late. But that doesn't mean that their vote is low - they might be the ones getting very high votes.

Going on X Factor voting, which is revealed, I think the voting changes a lot from week to week depending on the dance for most couples, with only one or two getting a consistent vote.

Or perhaps the pro did not want to show too much elation as it might come across badly seeing as another couple has just been eliminated

I just checked and these are the "last 2"s (with the actual bottom 2er in bold) from last series :

Gregg & Scott
Jennifer & Judy
Tim & Scott
Simon & Mark
Allison & Steve
Caroline & Jake
Judy & Steve
Steve & Mark
Sunetra & Jake
Simon & Jake
Jake & Simon

Given his obvious popularity I refuse to believe that Jake in particular was almost in the bottom 2 that often.

Yes. Didn't someone celebrate and it went down terribly badly? Who was that designer who used to do the fashion segment on the show? Apologies for forgetting his name but I think it might have been him and Janette. Or someone else. Whoever it was, they were torn apart for it and I don't think anyone would do that again.

You were thinking of Julien Macdonald

Thanks for all the comments everyone, very interesting.

Just to be clear, I didn't mean the pro who was saved by the judges after the dance off - I meant the pro who was saved from having to be IN the dance-off. That's the one I'm wondering about.

I am not sure that one of the weakest couples is kept for the end reveal. However I have noticed that a "shock bottom two" is often the first safe the following week.

Thank you!

And victoriasponge (great name!), that's what I mean - if the one not in the dance off celebrates too much it's seen as mean to the person who has just been put in the dance off.

Many thanks, that's just the sort of statistics I hoped to see!

I agree that Jake would have been very popular at the beginning of the series, but personally am not too surprised at the idea he could have slid a long way down the popularity stakes by the last few weeks as his performances very much did not live up to the early promise.

Hmm, not sure this evidence counters my theory ... no Pixie and Trent for one thing (I know she was eliminated but it was at her first dance-off) , and for another, no Frankie and Kevin either.

Jake was consistently popular, as shown by his escaping the dance-off from precarious positions in both week 10 and the quarter-final, and was only eventually done in by ending up bottom of the leaderboard with no ties in the semi.

Pixie and Frankie were never left till last because there would at no point be any drama in whether or not they were in the dance-off (barring the week Pixie actually *was* in the dance-off obviously). The only thing the order in which the couples are called safe tells us is what order the producers thought would make the best drama.

Series 11 :

Julien & Vanessa
Vanessa & Dave
Julien & Fiona
Patrick & Ben
Rachel & Dave
Mark & Fiona
Fiona & Ben
Ben & Sophie
Ashley & Susanna
Patrick & Natalie
Natalie & Susanna

If the "saved" couple were actually bottom three, I'd say it would not be unlikely that they would be bottom two the following week. (No particular order = no "possible bottom three" bounce.)

However, last series this wasn't the case.

Looking at Monkseal's stats, the first person to actually land in the bottom two after being left until last the previous week was Steve in week 9. Thereafter,it happens twice more but you'd expect that given that there are far fewer options left.