I have Analysed the Appreciation Threads from which one could tell that Jay would win and Georgia would finish second (assuming this was remotely indicative of the public interest):

As of 22:30 GMT 19/12/2015

Appreciation Threads:
1) Jay McGuiness & Aliona Vilana: (Part 1 & 2)
Replies: 26,954
Views: 1,640,780

2) Georgia May Foote & Giovanni Pernice:
Replies: 2,467
Views: 84,952

3) Katie Derham & Anton Du Beke:
Replies:56
Views: 5,342

4) Kellie & Kevin
Replies: 23
Views: 2,132

If we assess the views then:
Jay was 19 times more appreciated than Georgia
Jay was 307 times more appreciated than Katie
Jay was 770 times more appreciated than Kellie

If we assess the replies then:
Jay was 11 times more appreciated than Georgia
Jay was 481 times more appreciated than Katie
Jay was 1172 times more appreciated than Kellie


Extra Analysis
Anita Rani & Gleb Savchenko
Replies 355
Views 24,544

This basically shows Anita & Gleb were the third most popular couple (assuming this remotely reflects the public interest). It was also consistent with the votes for favourite dance (a separate analysis). Basically in the semi-final because Kellie came top in the Judges Vote and Anita second from bottom, Anita's popularity wasn't enough to prevent her from being in the dance off. Then the Judges voted Anita off (although she was the third most popular dancer).

Another way of presenting the data assuming the above was a reflection of the relative popularity of the celebrities - coming into the final if a vote had been cast (total of 100%) we would have got the following results:

Jay & Aliona: ..................... 93.5 %
Georgia & Giovanni: .......... 6.2 %
Katie & Anton: ..................... 0.2 %
Kellie & Kevin: ..................... 0.1 %

Woooo go team JALIONA!!

ugh. why do people believe in stats after the fact? totally silly really. Stupid winner as well really although I quite liked Jay, just not his followers!

These were stats before the facts. But you don't reveal the stats before the facts (you reveal them after the facts) because that could influence subsequent behaviour.

your answer makes no sense to me as are the stats not the facts? totally silly

Thank you Mina. It all makes perfect sense to me. Yay for Jay - and all his "followers", otherwise known as Jay's Appreciators.

It would be more accurate if you measured the number of individual posters, not posts or views.

The same people post over and over though.

Very true. I have been ardently supporting Georgia with my votes since near the beginning of the competition, but I've rarely felt the need to post in an appreciation thread. Perhaps different contestants attract different kinds of people?

Are you suggesting something?

I simply observe and comment. Inferences are welcome, though

That's my point. And I know some ATs have a lot of chat on them, it's not all about the dancing or the couples.

Thanks for the OP! When talking with friends and acquainances who have absolutely no knowledge of DS and especially the appreciation threads, they were unanimously in favour of Jay! So "civilians" supported him as well as DSers!

I was certain from the beginning that Jay would win because he has always topped our Forum popularity polls. Whenever I mentioned this I was told that our members are just a small percentage of the overall votes and don't really count.

On reflection it seems that they do.

Obviously the favourite with the general public and from about week two I would say. They got behind him in their droves. All the blatant pushing for Kellie and Kevin to win last night was clearly a waste of time, and an embarrassment. The judges negativity to Jay's show dance backfired spectacularly - just would have ensured more votes for Jay being placed placed to make sure he was safe. Being a good dancer and popular as well - great combination.

Makes perfect sense to me. What part are you struggling to understand and finding 'totally silly'?

They have done pretty much every other year. I'm not sure why people would have thought that would change - other than that they disagree with the results indicated...

Funny how we can all tell different stories of the series.

I know so many older women who thought Katie & Anton were wonderful - and they seemed to take no notice of what the judges said or the scores. There always seemed to be a comment about her elegance and I think a lot of them envied Katie in her beautiful dresses and her long legs.

Kellie was very popular amongst my family and friends, but I am not sure if they were actually voting for them. Fred and Ginger was mentioned a lot last week and everyone hated their Harry Potter routine!

Anita was the one almost everybody mentioned as being great, alway with a comment about her being the one no previous training - and Gleb was hot, but didn't he love himself?

In the same way, Jay was always mentioned as being really good, but he had trained to be a dancer so it was to be expected (paraphrasing here). Lots of people were convinced something was going on between Jay and Aliona - and if it wasn't, then they didn't like all the touching going on between them, especially with her being a married woman!

Jeremy was the Marmite celeb in my social sphere () with some people wanting him out ASAP and others surprised at how much they liked him.

Georgia was always praised as being really good, but wouldn't win even though Giovanni was hot - and they didn't mean he sweated a lot!

Helen was always talked about being a wonderful dancer in the same sentence as she'd been a ballet dancer and what a lovely couple her and Aliaz make.

I think this has been the most talked about series for a good while amongst my little social circle and I spent too much time sticking up for them all over all the tabloid tosh this year (although it's been a lot worse in previous years) !

The same people vote over and over as well though. Someone admitted on another thread to voting online 90 times for Jay last night! They obviously went to the trouble of creating lots of different accounts to do that.

Congratulations to Series 3 champion Bill Turnbull!

That is a little bit scary!

Having appreciation threads totalling over 25,000 posts is quite an achievement. Shows that this programme is just a popularity contest and that the best dancer doesn't always win I suppose.

#Georgiashouldhavewon