Peter wasn't any better on the dance off, Jamelia was about the same too, so as the judges scored her higher in the main show, she should have gone through. So either the judges wanted Peter to stay in regardless of his dance off performance, which isn't how it's supposed to work, or they were told to keep him in. Either way it was a farce.

...or they could have just decided that they'd undermarked Peter, e.g. relative to the 34 Helen received for her mistake-ridden Charleston. None of the conspiracy theorists can explain how the judges came to put him in the DO in the first place

I have always been sceptical regarding the claims that the BBC was favouring Andre the extent of giving him the better slots etc, but last night really changed my perception. His jive-less jive was no improvement on Saturday, and against that of Jamelia, his was the poorer dance.

To have saved him was a complete travesty. No way was it justified on the basis of the DO performance, nor on the basis of any "improvement". Just blatant manipulation.

Because there are limits to how much they can fix the scoring. It was already ludicrous to give that dance 8s; giving it 9s or 10s would have been preposterous. Or because his popular vote has been better than Helen's so they assumed he would be rescued by the public and that Jamelia vs anyone else would be straightforward? Or because they assumed that if he ended in the DO it would add drama to his 'journey' but that they could save him over Jamelia with no controversy?

All the polls I've seen on this are running 90+% that the wrong person won the DO. Anyone remember the corresponding polls for say Pixie's or Jake's exits because I don't think those were in the same league of "obviously wrong on that dance".

Will be interesting to see what the newspapers that carried the Strictly Is Fixed stories over the weekend have to say. Or not...

Personally I think that the powers that be had seriously overestimated the level of public support for Peter. They thought he would be saved by the public despite being bottom of the leaderboard.
They assumed Jamelia would be in the dance off and would lose to whichever other dancer was against her ( except Peter who they thought would be safe) and everything would be hunkey dory. The public didn't play ball with their votes and now TPTB are left with egg on their faces due to this farce.

I actually feel a bit sorry for the judges who are copping all the flack for keeping Peter Andre in over a better dancer on the night.

For some reason that I can't fathom they really want Peter in the latter stages of the competition.

I feel most sorry for Peter and Janette who are in an absolutely horrible position now that neither has deserved. They did their best against limitations each brought to the process -- same as all the other competitors. The blame lies outside their control. Having to dance next week under this scrutiny probably outstrips the difficulty of four or five DOs. Poor sods. At least Jamelia and Tris won applause for their pluck, quite rightly! Peter and Janette's can only expect flak

Not PA or Janette's fault purely down to the judges, Darcy, especially was a disgrace.

As for Len, I'm not buying the "good on Len for saving Jamelia" I'd pretty much guarantee if it was up to him to decide, he'd have saved PA. IMO, he just wanted to look like the fair judge.

The show is a farce!

The person who reported this was actually in the audience on Saturday. I assume they know what they were asked to do by the producers.

Despite not knowing which couple it referred to at the time, it was blindingly obvious last night - PA's dance ends, cut to a section of the audience on their feet (re-shot). Cut to Tess beside the judges' desk - the audience behind her were firmly seated, stony-faced (not re-shot). If you watch it again the difference in tone is blindingly obvious

Len would have voted differently if it mattered imo

More than likely BUT I still would have liked to see the paso Tristan had planned for her that the producers were delaying instead of seeing him suffer foisted upon theming, namely Celine bloody Dion and Timewarp, to name but two.
I am not a big Jamelia fan and to be honest would have saved Ainsley and Kirsty in 2/4 dance offs (because I liked Nat's choreo even if it was a rock'n'roll jive rather than traditional and because I thought Kirsty rectified her mistakes). But I am aware those are subjective views.
But this result was wrong on both counts: Janette's choreo had so little jive content and whilst Peter is not responsible for that, the three seconds of side by side content I did witness had neither kicks nor flicks on either occasion it was performed and I saw no improvement whatsoever. 90% of this forum watched the same thing I did.
That majority makes it a lot less subjective from my point of view.

Yes she would have probably gone next week and to a certain degree, her going like she has has finally brought GBP on side with her BUT when two out of four judges do a radical u-turn like that, it is going to cause a furore. Such a volte-face is palpably unjust.

I seriously doubt that 'they' gave it any thought at all. Faced with a choice between someone who'd been in the dance off a record number of times and had never ventured onto the top half of the leaderboard, and someone who had been top or thereabouts on several occasions, they went with the person with the stronger track record.
I understand that some people might think that's unfair, but it's not a conspiracy. Last week Jeremy did a better dance off than Jamelia, yet Jamelia stayed. I assumed this was because (like Peter this week) she had been the better dancer overall.

I totally agree.

Len didn't necessarily disagree, he could have been just following the script to soften the blow, which seems more likely to me. He's the idiot who gave Peter an 8 for the non jive and who week after week has over marked and praised him. Had it been two votes for Jamelia and one for Peter, Len would have saved Captain Cheese.

Yes Lens 8 was very telling - in context he gave it 1 point less than Jays jive - probably one of the most highly regarded in shows history. Beggars belief that a non jive - it was bleeding obvious to everyone at home,would score so highly.

Len can hardly be given any accolades for his judging on Saturday.

The hysteria on here is just hilarious - it was a decision on a TV show, not the end of the world!

Anyone who's only now subscribing to the "it's a fix" mantra is to be honest rather naive to only be realising that now - they might say the dance-off is based on that one dance, but it's very clear and has been ever since the dance-off was introduced way back in series 5 that it is not just based on that.

Jamelia clearly wasn't popular, she wasn't pulling in the votes, so the judges decided it was time for her to go and saved someone who for many other weeks clearly was pulling in the votes, as they've saved him from having to do a dance-off on some decidedly average performances in the past.

Well said! And the amount of frankly beyond rude personal attacks on them that I've seen in 5 minutes of reading this board tonight is appalling.

The judges should be taking the blame for making a decision that based purely on the dance-off was incorrect, based on wider considerations was arguable and in any event was always going to look strange given Peter had been lower down the leaderboard.

How was Peter clearly pulling in the votes when the first time he needed any he ended up in the dance off?

Name one decision they've made in the dance-off that was so patently at odds with the quality of the dancing in the dance-off itself. The only time I can think of that even comes close was Ali vs Zoe and at least that was partly because Ali had injured herself.

Well he got votes for some decidedly dodgy performances in previous weeks...

People don't just need votes when they're bottom of the leaderboard y'know...

The only thing we know about Peter's vote is that he got more than Jamelia in weeks 5 and 6. Other than those two weeks he's been well clear of any danger so there's no way of telling what his vote has been like.

Yes I do know, but we've lost some who would have been getting less votes. The fact he was in the dance off last night suggests to me he isn't pulling the votes in compared to most of those left.

True, but my point was that it indicates he's consistently pulling in more votes than Jamelia, which is really the key indicator that the judges might as well decide he can last one more week than her.

Helen made mistakes but at least she was actually doing the Charlestown ...pa was not even doing a jive ....he was just doing a dance not related to the jive and made mistakesto boot on that

Jamelia was the better dancer in all of her dance offs, including sunday nights against Peter

the dance off is SUPPOSED to be judged on that and that alone - not how well someone has done in other weeks or how well they could do in weeks to come

its called a dance off because that it was it is - the better dancer stays - in this case it should have been Jamelia