whilst waiting for and after receipt of spoilers etc I try to anticipate and came up with these.
.........................Judges.........Public......Total
Anastacia 7 points 2 points total 9
Lesley 6 points 4 points total 10
Naga 5 points 5 points total 10
Melvin 4 points 1 point (know came bottom with public)
Ed 3 points 6 points total 9

So Ed really has caught the publics imagination as he must have received at least points to be equal with Anastacia. If that occurs the couple with the highest public vote goes through. There are of course various other scenarios for Lesley Naga and Ed but this is the bottom line so to speak.
Oh well game over for another week. Night folks

A classic Strictly moment - and Craig didn't seem to get it all.

That was a real cringe moment in the history of SCD.


They still have to go through the motion through, but I'm saying nobody should have gone home tonight and the scores rolled over to next week with a double elimination. All fair then.

Martina Hingis was a much higher profile signing than Rav Wilding and they punted her week 1.

really, so what did happen then?

They have never done this before, so there would be far more outrage if they started this now.

The show is very fixed about having an elimination each week. How else do you think we ended up with the bizarre situation of a 2 person final the year Chris Hollins & Ola won?

She couldn't dance due to injury. The show resorted to the combined judges/public vote. Melvin received the lowest overall score and was eliminated.

That is what happened.

Thanks as ever for spoiler.

The precedent is that injured celebs get a bye if they can't dance one week. This is a variation because the injury was not enough to withdraw completely but enough not to dance twice. The producers obviously took a while to decide. They don't have a dance off for Sunday show, but do they keep the pretence that it's next day? Presumably it was decided after the call out, or they could have gone with third last. But having "saved" someone, they can't then make them dance again.

Bit of a mess, whichever way it goes. Mel doesn't get a chance to dance it better, but possibly the simplest compromise. What we do know is several celebs including Ed and Naga are polling better tgan Anastasia. She could be leaving soon whatever the decision this week.

It does seem like the producers tweak it whenever something crops up to get a result that suits them. No doubt they think it's good for the ratings to have people talking about the show.

Nice to start the year off with a controversy - something to keep everyone talking for several seasons to come !

In any sporting contest if anyone defaults for any reason including injury they are eliminated - I guess Strictly think Anastacia should earn her no doubt very large fee but she is obviously perhaps not as popular or such a boost to their audience figures as they originally thought !

I am just thrilled Ed lives to fight another day

Though they forgot about that in series 6 so they can carry everything over a week.

She had the injury before dancing in the main show, if it was that serious she should not have danced in the main show and had a bye for this week, not dance and get a low mark and low public vote and then pull out of the dance off because of the same injury.

A dance off is the lowest scoring 2 couples dancing off to get judged on their redemption dance, if 1 couple can't compete in the dance off then they should go no matter if they are deemed to be the better dancers.

But wasn't that because Jade had to withdraw? She withdrew and Ricky Groves was eliminated in the same week, resulting in a stupid 2 couple final.

Anyway, we'll find out more tomorrow and no doubt it will come up on ITT.

Thanks to Mona, Pashulty and mole for providing the spoiler.

First elimination - first controversy.

Will be interesting to see if Anastacia gets sympathy or stick from the public for managing to avoid the DO.

Feel a bit sad for Melvin, he seemed a decent sort and nowhere near the worst dancer we've seen on Strictly. Bad luck for him to be on this year when the standard is higher than normal.

Thanks for the spoiler - however I am, like many, very unhappy with the outcome. Whilst Melvin was a lousy dancer, I feel it is very unfair he didn't get a chance to perform again to try and redeem himself. I think the person unable to perform again should have been automatically eliminated in this instance.

I really wish Anastasia had dropped out of this week's show, instead we now have a huge mess and lots of ill feeling. I can see her dropping out anyway, and if not she will probably be voted out next week anyway. What a shambles!

I am sure a few tabloids have the headlines ready for Monday's editions.

Doubt there will be much controversy as the viewers probably had Melvin bottom anyway.

There is probably a rule to cover someone being injured during or after the main programme. Going by the public vote avoids any accusations of bias by the judges. There are quite likely clauses to give some discretion so if the public vote was very close between the bottom two then they might do something different.

hello there!
Eliminations on Strictly start in the second week, same as for DWTS
But all the DWTS eliminations are based on the public vote added to the judges' vote, aren't they?
whereas here the lowest polled two couples go to a head to head (dance off) and the judging panel decides who goes that week. They only lose that deciding vote in the final when it is public vote only that counts.
It isn't a dance off like the DWTS themed duel winner-gets-immunityweeks, although this season's DWTS ''face off'' was very early (week 3).I want James to win btw

Wow thread only just working for me. This does sound very strange and surely if Anastasia was that bad she should not have danced in the first place or they should have said at the beginning of the results show that due to injury their would be no dance off to make it fair to all dancers.

I'm glad to have another reason to add to my long list of reasons why they should scrap the dance-off (which I had hoped they were going to do after they made an utter bollix of Jamelia vs Peter last year) anyway, even if it is a very specific, niche one that will never happen again.

Thanks for the result.

I did feel that Melvin would suffer as his fan base would be out clubbing rather than voting. They didn't specify what happened to Anastasia but if she was unable to dance a second time perhaps she should have stepped aside?

She's giving it all to a cancer charity.

her no doubt very large fee is being given to charity though. The reason I would like her to last longer is because I think she/her friends and sponsors are matching the donation depending how long she is in for.

You're missing the point. The show has applied exactly the same rules for an injured celebrity as it always has done, so there is no controversy. Yes, it happened in the dance-off rather than the main show, but the principle is the same. They couldn't have one rule for all other injured celebs and another for Anastacia just because she had the misfortune to be injured just prior to a dance-off.

There's about a 99% chance Melvin would have been eliminated anyway (remember the judges have form for putting injured celebs through in a dance-off on the basis of potential), so I really don't see what all the fuss is about!