Are you a medical expert then?

Although obviously speculative, an incisional hernia is as likely a diagnosis as anything else in light of the fact that she has had a number of surgical operations.

She may not yet have been fully medically checked out and the change of choreography was a precaution as they were so close to starting the live show.

I would not be at all surprised if there is an announcement at the start of the week, that she is being forced to withdraw. Purely speculation on my part, of course.

It's a shame as I think she is very entertaining and could well have made some real improvement.

Thanks Nic. Not a lot DS forum members can do, but if people want to complain to You Tube then that is their choice, although report options do not cover the scenario.

Hi

Thanks very much to the mole - much appreciated.

I added my comment on here last night when we had the result..but am just catching up now with all the overnight comments and adding my later thoughts.

I think it really will depend on when Anaatacia said that she couldn't dance again. I would have thought that she should have been aware of whether or not she could perform before they did the results call out sections...it would be quite odd if she only realised her problem at the exact moment when she was told she was in the DO.

So, with that in mind and assuming she had already advised that she could not go on, then why could they not have announced that Anastacia was being given a bye and that the next two lowest dancers would go to DO.,
In fact there was really no need, if that were the case, to even state that Anastacia would have been in the bottom two.

It is likely that Melvyn would have gone out against any other person in the DO but it would have been fair and he would have had his chance to DO.

Just as sad, perhaps, as racing to find out what the results are before they are broadcast?

What I've noticed this year is that several of the celebs have already complained of injuries. I think it was in the training videos on ITT that Greg said he was having trouble with his thigh muscles. Will also said he had pulled a muscle and did look as though he was in a lot of pain during the post dance interviews. I should imagine with Anastasia's injury the BBC must be worried about withdrawals, particularly as the still top of their game elite athletes, will be pulled by their coaching teams at the first sign of a performance affecting injury. I'm surprised they risked two at the same time. Normally there is one still good one and one retired duffer.

Interesting. And although Melvin was a lovely guy, he may have had potential but he'd shown no signs of improvement, Ed, the next worst, surprised everyone. So, strange circumstances to be eliminated but not the wrong person.

Final question. Do you think they'd bring Melvin back if Anastasia has to withdraw before next Saturday. I'm wondering if they would based on the fear that there could be other withdrawals?

Had Anastasia been given a by from the start (ie not competed) maybe. As it was, I think you'd always have some people complaining. For example, if it had went as you suggested, and someone like Naga got herself in the dance off with Melvin, froze due to nerves and Melvin got through....I'd expect there would be an outcry there too if they discovered that Naga hadn't even been in the bottom two, and yet was out of the competition, especially from the people who had spent money to vote for her. Its all swings and roundabouts.

From a selfish point of view (because I like them all) I'd have liked them all to stay in this week, but maybe from a production point of view it was too difficult. It is a shame for Melvin and I did like him a lot....I'm not feeling too aggrieved about it, only because I think he'd have been likely to go home anyway and didn't show much promise. But obvioulsy for the Melvin fans they'll be disappointed with the outcome.

I think it was a good decision. If they made her do it she'd either withdraw or damage herself even more. Now she can decide on her own if she's up to it. As for Melvin, well, he was the worst. I don't think they would take him back. They may have a final with three people without an elimination in the middle.

You never know if Anastasia has a medical today and it turns out she has to withdraw they might not even screen Melvin going out and just pretend Anastasia had withdrawn and Melvin stayed.

They probably only knew after the results (of who would be in the dance off) were announced. Otherwise, they knew that she was in the bottom two and not able to compete and still decided to run this scenario? They could have given her a bye in that case before the results were announced and none of us would be any wiser about her placement.

Or they did know and thought that this option was safer (in terms of backlash; if people found out the combined votes for this week).

How could they do that when all the audience have gone home? Naga was even hosting a Sunday morning show this morning?

Not being critical, just don't think that could be an option

Good point! There are definitely 2 camps; those who want to know and those who don't. Neither are right or wrong, and neither are sad.

Exactly. They have to make a decision in the relatively short window, between the votes closing and sorting out the guest singer, Len's Lens & any pro routines. Then film according to the decision made.

When Anastacia was called as the first person in the bottom two, she said she was worried that she would make her injury worse by having to dance again. The audience were not told exactly what the injury was.

Everything was filmed except the dance off and that's when it all stopped. Stuart, the warm up guy was chatting and then after a while you realised he was filling time and something was going on. It took about 50 minutes before they made their decision. Tess just said that Anastacia was unable to perform again so the elimination would be decided on the public vote. Melvin was really graceful,about it, Brendan walked away in tears.

Thanks to abigailsmum and Monaogg and all moles involved in bringing us this production.

Over the two weeks Melvin was the poorer dancer. Controversy increases ratings.

Thank you 💐

Hope you are well recovered from your long day.

Thanks so much for that! Very interesting. So the decision about the injury wasn't made until after she knew she was in the bottom 2. Mmmmm. I now think they both should have stayed in, no matter how poor Melvin's dancing has been.

Interesting...thanks for that.

Bottom line is I've never liked the DO and this incident just reinforces that. I understand it gives the Sunday show a climax and that's why, amongst other reasons, it will stay...but it causes a lot of problems. 😞

Some really interesting thoughts there......thanks, I hadn't thought about it from that perspective

I'm still in bed I was up at 2am yesterday, got to the queue at 4.30. The first people in the queue arrived at 12.45am

Melvin seemed like a really nice guy, just as said elsewhere didn't demonstrate that he had improved in the same manner that Ed Balls did. And his dance seemed to finish very bizarrely? Blinked and totally lost the track lol!!

Thank you for this information.

You have more than earned a huge lie in.

Thanks for letting us know what happened. Enjoy your rest today!

Thanks, I wanted to give you more info in the text but all I could think of was that my bed was a 2 hour drive away 😴

Thanks for the info.

Anastacia shouldn't have dance at all this week. So it's basically Anastacia's fault that it went to the public vote. She put the BBC in a position where they would have looked bad if they had done the dance off.

I'm glad that Melvin was good about it.