It's become consistent now that Jeremy, despite being awful is praised for his attitude and entertainment.

Carol, on the other hand, really faces the wrath of the judges in both scoring and comments despite being at the same sort of level as Jeremy. She is always so unbelievably positive in the face of overwhelming criticism.

I've noticed on this forum too, that Carol gets hammered a lot, but Jeremy gets votes thrown at him for being a "tryer" and a "nice guy".

Is there only one position for each role in Strictly?

I'm not sure when an underdog becomes a dark horse so I think Georgia was an underdog for a while, but now she's too good so has become a dark horse.

I think this is the time of the comp when attitudes change to celebs like Carol and Jeremy. There has to be sign of improvement or we all get bored. I think Jeremy has improved, despite the comedy routines, Carol unfortunately hasn't.

Yes, I suppose Jeremy has at least made some semblance of an improvement

People can only vote for what's put in front of them. For the last three weeks Jeremy has had great themes (paternal waltz, iconic Thriller, massively camp comedy cowboy tango), 2/3 good performance slots, overwhelming positivity from the judges and lots of media hype. Carol has had crap themes, inappropriate music, mostly rubbish performance slots, the judges treating her like an embarassing pished auntie at a wedding and no real outside shoring up or media push. It's no wonder people view Jeremy in a better light than Carol. He's also a much more experienced media operator than she is, which is key to being Top Underdog.

Jeremy is great on radio but not great on SCD.

I'm not sure what purpose Carol is serving on the show beyond making up the numbers, she has been a complete afterthought pretty much from the start. I suspect the producers didn't expect her to last past the first few weeks and now have no idea how to promote her. It's still rather baffling that she's outlasted the two (slightly) hunky sportsmen, the popular singer, the comedy act v1, and the sexy sports presenter.

TBH I wouldn't consider Carol an underdog. She has a lot of support.

Thank you for commenting!

I indeed agree that people can only put what's in front of them, and that's what I mean about there being only one slot for the underdog.

I agree Jeremy being more experienced as a media personality, but I don't think he's particularly entertaining on his show, it's just easy listening.

I think that Carol could easily have been given zany themes and the role as the comic act who's a good sport. The judges could also have been more forgiving for her lack of ability because of her entertaining routines.

For me, Carol and Jeremy are similar in ability and presence but Carol just drew the short straw as the no-hoper rather than the entertainment act who inspires non-dancers all over the UK.