The general concensus s that Judges' Choice is a bad idea. What do you suggest we should do instead. Personally I think there should be four dances in finals:

Final 4- Favourite Dance
Showdance

Final 3- Redemption Dance- one where the choreography went wrong and could be done flawlessly or dance was ruined by theming
Fusion- the contestants fuse two styles together.

The dances last year could have worked like this:

Round 1- Jay- Paso
Georgia/Kellie- Charleston
Katie- VW

Round 2: all still do showdances

Round 3: Jay- Foxtrot
Georgia- Samba
Kellie- Paso Doble
Katie- Quickstep

Fusion: Jay- Jive/Quickstep
Georgia- Tango/Cha Cha Cha
Kellie- Quickstep/Samba
Katie- Rumba/Waltz

Best Ballroom and Best Latin. Judges choice for me does not work.

Go back to three in the final (with a double elimination in the penultimate week).
Have a four dance final with an elimination either after dance two or dance three.

The four dances in the final to be:

Best ballroom
Best Latin
Show dance
and either -
Redemption dance with new music and choreography
Or
Missing unlearned dance

Both new dances should be done before an elimination so that no new work is wasted.

This is the best idea yet but I would qualify "best" as being highest scoring. If you said Best, would that be from the judges point of view or the couples point of view and I would change the name of the showdance to freestyle dance.

Highest scoring Ballroom
Highest scoring Latin
Freestyle dance
Missing unlearned dance.

I think this would give a better final for the viewing public

I would go back to having three finalists as I think four is too many.

In the final definitely ditch the judges choice.

I would actually prefer three couples to dance two dances in the final as it's currently too drawn out. There would also be more time for the couples to train and perfect them.

Three couples dance their 'best' dance (could be highest scoring ballroom or latin).

Third place announced (We find out who's in third and second place!)

Showdances from the top two couples.

Winner announced.

If three dances kept I like the idea of a 'viewers favourite' replacing the judges pick. Online poll to run for 24 hrs from Sunday night results show to Monday's ITT when the dance chosen for each couple would be announced to them (the 'best dance' they're already training to be excluded from the poll).

I would say 3 couples and work it like this
Round 1 Favourite Dance
Round 2 Showdance
Round 3 Unlearned dance (if this would have happened Katie would have done the dance she said she wanted to learn Samba but it would've been dreadful I think since the only half decent latin she did was supprisingly Rumba I was expecting it to be cringeworthy but no and the Jive wasn't bad for a 1st go either, thought her Charleston would've been better)

I would have the couples keep to 4 dances :

Their lowest scoring ballroom dance and
Their lowest scoring Latin dance = to see if or how they had actually improved

The Freestyle

A previously unlearned dance

To be honest, I don't want to see the 'worst' of anything in the final. If they have to do a 'bad' dance again, I would rather see a completely newly choreographed routine, maybe set to the same music - but week one routines should be taken out, buried and never spoken of again, especially in the final.

3 couples in the final

showdance
favourite latin
favourite ballroom

(not necessarily in that order)

* Nerd alert *

Caroline performed her week one cha cha in the Final.

* Nert alert off *

I promise I had to look that up and I don't store Strictly trivia in my head. (Does anyone remember StatMan on ITT? That man gave me the serious creeps)

Spreadsheets are the way forward ...
(didn't like the cha cha, either )

I quite liked it but I DIDN'T like the Charleston which everyone else seemed to think was A-MAZE-ING. I still don't understand why that was so highly rated. Best Charleston ever was Louis and Flavia's IMO.

It would be quite good if there could be a "peoples' choice" dance in the final. Open up the 'phone lines after the semi final show on Sunday night for an hour and then vote for your favourite dance - works for me and then Jay and Aliona would HAVE to danced their jive. Grrrr. Etc.

I do like the idea of a viewers choice. On Jay's jive, although I was initially disappointed they weren't dancing it again I think it was the right decision. So much pressure to recapture that moment but also not performing it gave him the chance to showcase other dances and prove he could win without the jive. I often read 'he won it in Week 3' which doesn't give him and Aliona credit for all their other brilliant routines through the rest of the series.

How about......

Round 1: Favourite Dance of the series
Round 2: Showdance

4th Place leave

Round 3: All couples do the same (unlearned) dance. Eg. Keep Argentine Tango for this or introduce something new

The couples shouldn't be asked to do more than one new dance, the show dance, for the final. I'm actually happy with the judges having their own choice (bet it is the producer's choice though) with the current criteria. I was more disappointed with how last year's dances turned out than the selections themselves.

I would have

Favourite ballroom dance
Favourite Latin dance
Fusion
Freestyle

Or
Favourite dance
Public choice
Fusion
Freestyle

As for unlearned dance I think that they should do all the dances before the final don't know whose bright idea it was that they could skip one but tptb need to fix it I don't understand why they can't start the 2 dances a week earlier and the argentine tango should be moved back to the semi final dance

BIB I would definitely like to see the Argentine Tango return to being one of the semi final dances all of the couples perform. The drama, intensity and sensuality of the dance combined with having the comparison between the couples makes for an exciting competition. It's also so difficult technically I only want to see the best couples attempt it.

I really like the idea of a redemption dance, which is what the judges' choice should be but isn't more than not. Also it would be nice for the contestants and pro dancer to make the redemption dance choice rather than judges.

Sounds like a good idea.

I wouldn't mind judges' choice if they actually chose good dances. Unfortunately, for two years in a row they've landed on the poorest choices possible, rather than dances that people might actually want to see again.
(Last year, if it had been up to me, I'd have picked Jay's Salsa or Tango, Kellie's Quickstep, Georgia's Samba, and Katie's Tango or Rumba - memorable, well-choreographed dances that people liked, with room for improvement).

So if the judges' choice is incompetent, then maybe a public choice would work better.

I heard a rumour too that the finalists couldn't repeat any dances from the last few weeks of competition, which is a fantastically bad idea, since that's when the good dances happen. So get rid of that right off the bat.

(Also, you can keep the showdances in the final but they definitely shouldn't be the last dance - it feels much more appropriate for them to go out doing a dance they love and wanted to repeat, rather than some tacky misguided mis-choreographed stunt show that they're obliged to do more than anything)

In the Final I'd go for either their best, or maybe the couple's own choice, of one ballroom dance and one Latin dance plus a 'Freedance' - not a Showdance. Agree it shouldn't be the last dance.

I'd stick with 4 couples in the Final as it keeps more people happy as their 'favourite' would be more likely to be in. It's also a bit of a safety net if one or two drop out - a two couple final is too heavy for both the celebrities and the viewers

Think it's too much to ask celebrities to learn a new dance as well as the Showdance for the Final - they all look exhausted by then anyway.

The Argentine Tango is really too hard for most celebrities to do early on. I'd do the QSathon, or Waltzathon or Jiveathon or whatever in the Quarter Final and have the AT as one of the 2 dances for all Semi-Finalists.

And please, no dance-off in the Semi Final - there aren't enough couples left for it to be half way fair.

I'm happy with the way the Argentine Tango works now. Of the 36 couples we've seen do it over all the years of Strictly, 30 made the semi-finals at least, so it's not as though we've had to sit through many from "subpar" couples. Uncoupling it from the semi-finals has meant we don't have to sit through 5 of a dance that can look very same-y over the course of the evening, and making it unmandatory meant that I haven't had to sit through ones from :

Gavin Henson
Alex Jones
Lisa Riley
Kellie Bright

for which I am pretty grateful to be honest. Celebs that have been good at the Argentine Tango, like Kara and Simon and Harry, have done good ones early as well, so I don't think it's a matter of what week it's done in.

The finale should be the couples picking their favourite two dances with the showdance in the middle. The muddying of "categories" since the Good Old Days makes it hard to do Best Ballroom and Best Latin properly any more.

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All this predisposes that what the couples dance will make a difference to the voting , I beg to differ, some people just support 1 couple and it has nothing to do with how they have improved in their dancing ability !!!


For me 4 dances :
Latin couples choice
Ballroom couples choice
Stepathone
show dance

all with no elimination and just the victor no seconds or thirds or forths Logic being leave all the other couples happy

I like the idea of a viewers favourite. But whatever they decide, I feel the couples MUST dance a ballroom and a Latin dance. The winner should be someone who can dance both.