I am very surprised this has happened actually.
If it is down to the fact that people pay to vote and would get shirty about there being no elimination, then, as others have quite rightly said, they should do what has been done on DWTS with injuries and BB when someone has ''walked''...namely We are adding your votes to week 3s and will have a double elimination next Sunday....
Both should have been saved. They still could have filmed it in the same way. Does not matter one jot whether Anastacia or Melvin was red lit first. They come back to the final one to be called safe, then, shock horror....Melvin, you will be in the dance off with...
noone as Anastacia has been confirmed by medics as being unfit to dance tonight.
or...Will it be Anasacia or Naga who are in the dance off with Melvin. Anastacia, it's you...come here, Melvin. How are you two, both nervous? Well, I'm here to tell you that due to Anastacia having been injured earlier, NO ONE IS IN THE DANCE OFF TONIGHT.
Cue twist, cue shock, cue First Time In Strictly History blah blah. Add Frisson for Double Elimination in week three.

then devote the last ten minutes of the show doing interviews with Anastacia and Melvin. Finish with a prerehearsed pros routine, a couple of pros doing one of their classic/own routines or Brendan/Janette doing a face off for shits n giggles.
Could have been awesome.

Who got the lowest score in the main show? Is it always the case that the lowest scoring in the main show goes? What is the point of the dance off but to let them improve on the original dance? Surely it's not a fair elimination if the dance off is excluded?

I'm not particularly fond of Melvin's dancing but I don't like this sense of unfair play. I'd understand if it was a deadlock situation and this was part of the show, but they don't even release voting stats at the end of the show, so this seems very unjust.

Must say also a big thank you to those providing the spoiler

There's talk of Anastasia having a hernia so I guess she won't dance next week either

Am not sure..
Anastacia was 4, 6, 6, 6
Melvin 5, 6, 6, 6

so...unless Craig did a U-turn, then it could have gone 3-1 to Anastacia but hadn't Len said to Melvin he would be surprised not to see him the following week? Had it gone
2-2 with Darce/Bruno for Anastacia then Melvin would have gone through on head judge vote.

Ah, that's so hard on all concerned. Melvin who goes out of course and Anastacia. If she has a hernia, that's not going to magically heal. Puts a doubt over every week's ability to train... What bloody horrible luck


Surprised she was in the DO tbh. Expected Melvin + either Lesley or Naga

On aggregate Anastacia had a 2.5 point lead. On points 50 to Melvin's 45.
But tonight only, her dance was deemed 22, Melvin's 23.

Gutted for her. She's had so many health issues in the past. I was hoping this was going to be a new phase for her. I would have thought she would need to withdraw then.
Brendan must be gutted (and thinking ''I wasn't even meant to be paired with her. Damn Gio and his fauxmance'').
If she does go out, hopefully one of the pros can pull something and they can do the Sir Brendan Knight schtick again.

I thought it would be Naga, have to say.

Either she got a massive pity vote for that wig. Or everyone still loves Pasha (See Carol last year) or more people watch Breakfast than I imagine.

That said, Anastacia did not stand out for me in a good way tonight.
I also would not have thought she was in particular danger though.
The audiences don't always go for filthy numbers (Am thinking of DWTS too, when eventual winner Rumer was bottom two following a bootylicious routine. Also Peta/James when their samba was deemed too raunchy).

Ah well. Melvin's two routines were not great, has to be said.
Janette now has two early exits, two near finalists under her belt.

Thanks

So it could have depended on the dance off. I think the fairest thing would have been no elimination this week and get it carried forward to next week when Anastasia was able to dance for her place. It might mean a 4 way dance off then

Well that's rubbish talk then.
If she had a hernia, very easy to diagnose she would be advised to pull out of the whole series.

It's obviously something they think will get better.

Melvin was naff and has no potential.

Anastacia had potential , didn't they once judge a DO on a rehearsal performance, perhaps they did that.

ohh ty for the spoiler - however it will causes rows - and controversy - i wonder if melvin will train next week anyway and should Anastasia not compete he will get back in ?

Thanks so much for the result! :O Many thanks too, to the mole, Pashulty and all the spoiler thread organisers and contributors. <3

I did think Melvin was the worst on the night, but I am very surprised that it was Anastasia in the DO with him. It'll be interesting to see how this is discussed on ITT on Monday..

Suppose it possible that Anastasia offered to go instead of doing dance off but produces decides to go down the public vote route instead. Sure they will be explanations given.

From.what I've seen tonight, moat people have slated Anastasia for her dance (when she was injured) she may have sais ill try my very best... It seemed she couldn't lift her arms or over extend and her movement was restricted, but if she got worse by dancing and being thrown about she at least danced, I said in the main thread she should have a bye as Natalie did, to avoid this and got shot down... If that's in the rules they use the public votes or previous dance which they have done before then that's it. .

I like Anastasia and have great respect for her and Brendan choreographing a dance which her injury allowed her to do at such short notice.. That said, I think she should have pulled out altogether for the night if she couldn't do two dances in one night I.e. asked for a bye as others have done in the past.

If this wasn't apparent at the beginning of the evening, either they should not have had an elimination or sadly she should have left as a default.

I am not a fan of Melvin (had never heard of him until last week) and he was clearly bound to go this week or next. However not to be able to try to save his place in the dance-off seems unfair.

That said, Melvin was never going to trouble the latter stages of the show and I doubt that he has a huge fan base but still I don't think the right decision was made.

She had a number of hits and recently had a sell out show in the UK! She went out of the public view due to being diagnosed with breast cancer a few years back.

Was anyone beyond GG shippers thinking this? Brendan and Anastacia were a great match, as are Giovanni and Laura. It must be now even more clear to all how lucky Giovanni was to be paired with a young, attractive, able-bodied partner (for the second year in a row).

Firstly, thanks so much to the Spoiler people. Every year I thank my lucky stars that we have you.

Well, what a strange result! I think it was right that Melvin went as the worst contestant - but NOT under these circumstances. It just doesn't seem fair. I know money is involved with the voting, but surely there should be something in the rules for this sort of situation that the DO is null and void, as the money goes to charity anyway.

The T&Cs state:-

"There are a number of contingencies which could occur during or before each show, as with any other live television programme. Contingencies cover withdrawal of any celebrity, professional dancer or judge for health reasons or other unforeseen circumstances or outside the control of the BBC. The remedial actions may include, but not be limited to changing the format of the show, including, removing, substituting or adding acts and/or judges; and cancelling, suspending or altering voting or one of the voting methods at any time. In the event of any celebrity leaving the competition, the BBC will decide on contingency plans as it deems necessary and appropriate to the circumstances."

In other words, they can make up the rules as they go along.

Thanks for the spoiler

I think it was a fair result although I feel sorry for Melvin not being booted out through the usual channels. it would be interesting to know at what point it was decided the Anastacia could not dance again, ie before or after the bottom score announcement. I mean, will she be resuming her training next week? I hope this wasn't engineered by Brendan - I wouldn't put it past him knowing that she was in danger of being in the DO.

Do we know Melvin actually came last in the public vote? I thought other FMs meant he came below Anastacia with the public.


I thought it was the public vote that was the decider, but in any case, I totally agree with everything else in your post.

Probably more on Anastacia's injury to come out. Someone tweeted Brendan's wife saying how well he had done to re-choreograph and take a hit on the chin and she said "ahha you don't know the half of it"
Well it is early days but looks like we will have the first forum meltdown later
I am pleased for Ed and Katya, she is doing a brilliant job with him.

absolutely the right thing to do if no DO go back to public vote& eliminate whoever was lower. Melvin was someone who was forgettable and lets say I went to the supermarket after the show if someone asked me about his performance when I got back I wouldn't have remembered it. Supprised Lesley aint gone like I thought she should've been. Also didn't think Annastasia would be in danger this early

I'm not missing the point at all (I am stating another point of view) and so there was no need to underline 'injured celebrity'. It isn't just about Anastacia. It is about allowing all celebs the courtesy of improving their performance in the dance off instead of unceremoniously booting them off. The fact that Melvin probably would have been eliminated is beside the point. He should still have been given the chance. Also, although I'm sure that Anastacia did not foresee that she would not be able to dance again, would it be right for any future celeb to perform on the main show knowing that they can just apply enough painkillers etc to get through the dance on the main show but not have to redo it for the dance off?

Additionally if Anastacia cannot extend her top half to dance a salsa, I don't see how she is going to recover anywhere near soon enough to be able to dance any ballroom.

Although I think Melvin was the worst dancer and has been eliminated, it does seem unfair considering Anastasia didn't dance. But saying that, I think the judges would have voted him out so the result would have been the same.

I wonder how they're going to fill those few minutes as there's no dance off. Thanks to all spoilers

Thanks for the spoiler.