Not sure if this article has already been mentioned elsewhere but I found it quite interesting and pretty much spot on. This series has been pretty much ruined by inconsistent judges and the under marking of some contestants and the over marking of their favourites.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...-cynicism.html

Well, there goes objective journalism in favour of a laughably biased opinion-piece (that coincidentally, ignored the basic premise of the dance-off).

Pretty much my thoughts. I've seen more objectivity on here about Peter than she showed in that "article".

The "People's Choice" went into the dance off because she wasn't popular enough.

As to the comments about Kellie .... Words fail me

If the audience had wanted Anita in the final they would have ensured she wasn't in the DO. With a tie on the leader board there was a huge possibility one or two of the top 3 could have been down there with Katie but they weren't. Unfortunately Gleb choreography let Anita down when it mattered most.

That's an argument that gets thrown about every year - I know because I have thrown it about myself.

My main gripe with the show this year beyond the usual boo/hiss my fave deserved more/my least fave deserved less! Is that some of the judges comments (in particular from Bruno) in the first half of the series were just so mean and uncalled for, especially to Jeremy & Carol.

I hope the word fix is blacklisted for next season though. The press are feeding on the fan frenzy that nothing is legit, that everything is a conspiracy.

The Telegraph articles have been odd to say the very least! I have been looking at them for quite a while, including the so-called poll for favourites at the bottom of the page.

Up to about Thursday of last week, the poll seemed quite in order but on Thursday, suddenly from being at the top or second most of the time, Jay appeared at the bottom of the list with Katie Derham (a Telegraph columnist) at the top. She had acquired in the region of 1,000 votes up and Jay and the others had up to 1,000 votes down. Not much has changed since except that Katie acquired 500 extra votes on Monday when a new poll opened and Jay got 500 minus votes.

It is all very fishy but in the general scheme of things doesn't mean much in the long run. It will all be gone by the weekend.

Exactly! I was half expecting to find 'Clifton clan' inserted somewhere in the article, too.

That article reads more like some of the rants I've read on Tumblr than anything else! Anita might have done better over the course of the series, but Katie won that dance off fair and square.

Does the writer not understand that if a couple performs brilliantly, they get given great marks. Kevin and Kellie's AS is a contender for dance of the series. It's not rocket science.

Awful comments about Kellie . Not my favourite but seriously I dont understand the venom or vitriol directed towards her and NO I dont think she was overscored last saturday; her marks were spot on.

The public should have voted to Keep Anita out of the bottom 2 . They did themselves no favours with 2 routines that barely resembled the dances that they were supposed to be and that's what failed them sadly.

The comments about Katie and Anton (bbc blog/facebook......) elsewhere are even worse, smh.

Strictly come dancing is ruined...talk about being overdramatic.

Exactly !!! That AS was amazing and deserved those marks.

What does she know about dancing and scoring - nothing whatever. She has recently joined the Telegraph presumably to spice things up. She is desperate for money.

Pearson is currently bankrupt, following a personal insolvency order made by Her Majesty's High Court of Justice in England on 9 November 2015. The bankruptcy petitioner was The Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs, implying that the case involves unpaid taxes.

That article reads like it was written by an Anita fan-girl bitter that she was voted off. To say there was outrage from 'half the nation' is ridiculous - Strictly isn't even watched by half the nation and more of the people who do watch it were outraged when Jamelia went than when Anita went. Also, how is she the 'people's choice' if she didn't come any higher than 3rd in the vote? She doesn't even know the show that well if she thinks Katie is 'probably the worst dancer ever to make the Strictly final' - Chris Parker???

ETA: I also think this series has actually been one of the better ones in terms of over-marking, hence the fact we are going into the final with none of them having received a 40. Lisa Snowdon, Pamela Stephenson, Abbey Clancey, Caroline Flack, Kimberley Walsh etc. were all overmarked way more than anyone this year.

badly written piece probably scammed off social media more than anything else. Article entirely biased towards Anita - and targets Kellie very unbalanced. I see there is not criticism of Kate and Anton who performed a poor Charleston and mediocre waltz and got through over Anita ??? Some quarters are spoiling the show imo

They should think of replacing Karen Hardy too - to call that Paso the best ever on Strictly was really laughable for a dance that yes was well performed but contained BARELY any actual Paso steps - the real reason Anita is not in the final is that her Pro partner pitched her dances wrong in the semi final.

Perhaps we should start crying "fix" on social media as that Telegraph poll seems to be a bit fishy!

Problem is that if you have a favourite and they are voted off, nowadays you can find many more with the same favourite suggesting a fix than you could in the early days of Strictly before social media and forums became so popular. Now if you think it was fixed for Kate to go through to the final, you can find very many people who agree with you and can ignore the equal number who disagree.

Journalists have their own opinions and can feed on comments that agree with them and create sensational headlines, when if they had the opposite opinion they could equally feed on comments to prove their case the other way.

It's a shame because some of it has got so nasty and it's only a TV show after all.

If Strictly is ruined, it's ruined by the over zealous fans who think descending to school yard bully tactics is the right thing to do if the show doesn't progress the way the want it to.

How dare anyone think they can say such horrible comments about Kellie, or anyone else, who has done nothing wrong, who's just been exited to dance

That's just a nasty, lazily written article - the only surprising thing is that it isn't in the Daily Mail. I really like Anita and I'm sorry she isn't in the final, but I don't want to see her defended like that.

Pity it didn't mention that really Katie should have gone last week Anita this week, instead of Helen. Last week, who was a beautiful dancer.

For a more balanced view try this article on the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-ra...ly-semi-finals

Would you like to do that?

The writer of the article called Len graceless and rude and that his remark of 'It wasn't even close' about his thoughts on the DO, well isn't she being graceless and rude in her comments about not only Katie and Anton but Kellie too?

The writer of that article isn't a judge though. She got this bit spot on however...

"As Marianka Swain, reviewer for Dance Today, wrote: “Disappointing to see three dancers (Jay, Kellie, Georgia) going straight through who all came into the competition with copious dance/performance experience. Strictly’s wonderful message is that anyone can learn to dance – that’s getting more and more muffled when the improvers are slayed by an ever-larger crop of ringers.”

I don't have any social media accounts I am happy to say.