I hope you are feeling ashamed of yourself. It was not a fake injury. She tore scar tissue from her mastectomy scars. Not a nice thing to happen.

Casting my mind back over the years!, when Jimmy Tarbuck pulled out and that little news man!, I can't remember his name!, John somebody was it?..... they stil did the dance off and someone else still went on the same week!....I remember thinking at the time that if someone has pulled out then that should be it for the week but no!.. they still get rid of someone from the bottom two.......

That was series 4, but there was no dance off then - it was just a straightforward bottom 2 elimination. The dance off and Sunday show started in series 5.

The news guy was Nicholas Owen.

Ooh dear I didn't know what her injury was but if that's what she had done then I would be very surprised if it has healed up properly by next week for her to continue!.... indeed its not a matter of waiting a week for it to heal as she would need to start practising for next weeks dance on Monday!...... Poor woman, I think her days could be numbered on the show now!......

No pasodabble it wasn't Nicholas it was the short man that danced with Krisitina on her first time on the show!.... just remembered his name!.... John Sergeant do you remember him? ,,, he pulled out because he was so embarrassed that he was being voted for all the time when he couldn't dance for toffee..... lol......

That has never been the rule and never should be. Injuries are so common in dancing, it's entirely fair to give contestants one bye (which is what Anastacia has been given) and give them a chance to recover. If they can't recover by the next show, then they're out (Jade Johnson for example).

The only reason anyone is getting in any way excited about this is because it's a bye through a dance-off rather than through a live show AND a dance-off, which is what has happened in the past (i.e. the celeb just hasn't danced at all). It's nothing new, so I fail to see what all the fuss is about.

Yes but you take the bye before the nights dancing, not half way through it when you end up in the bottom two.

Tonights dance off, lack of, was wrong on so many levels

she could end up like the Mummy. First she'll get an eyepatch, then a sling, her arms and legs must be good for 4 weeks of plaster at least. Of course the choreography will suffer a bit, unless you are addicted to watching chinese hopping undead.

Like your humour which is much needed!

Sharone had already had 24vhours to rest since Saturday night before the dance off in Sunday

You're right - I misread your post and thought you were talking about the Tarbuck series, sorry. That was series 6 (John Sergeant) and indeed they went ahead with the dance off that week despite him pulling out in good time. They would have had 2 in the final if it wasn't for their semifinal cock-ip!

It was a pretty crappy way to go out. Anastacia clearly couldn't dance again, looking at her face when she thought she'd have to it would have been cruel, but Melvin was unable to have the one last chance to save himself. I think they need to change the rules so if a couple can't compete in the dance off, for any reason, they forfeit their place in the show.

It would have been better if they hadn't danced on the main show, Saturday, taken a bye and two other couples including Melvin did the dance off. Next week she could dance or pull out. If they pull out, 3 in the final, not 4 is the obvious answer.
The way it was handled was messy.

What if they were significantly better than the couple they were facing and the pro or celebs pulls a muscle during the routine and can't dance? Why should they go out? Leave it up to the public vote rather than the judges for once.

Melvin was NOT hard done by. He scored less with both the judges and public. He therefore didn't deserve to stay on either account.

Am I right in remembering that on the early series of Strictly, the public always decided on who would go through out of the bottom two? Didn't they change it because the popular one got through rather than the better dancer.... or have I got that wrong

Absolutely correct! The popular worst dancers still get through but the dance off gives a bit of drama!

No, it was that way for the first 4 series (I think there was a kind of trial run towards the end of series 4?). Dance off arrived in series 5, stayed for the mess of series 6, limped on into series 7, was rested for series 8 and 9 and returned in series 10.

If you look at the leaving info, it really doesn't make that much difference - in fact, the public vote seems to,tally more with the judges in non dance off series. In fact, it could make the lower middle order more vulnerable as people vote to keep people out of the bottom 2 rather than just dead last.

no I think they did the right thing to determine the result

Unfortunately, doing that would mean Anastacia would be back in training for Movie week. So no rest at all and somewhat pointless.

Several series have had eliminations based on the the lowest combined scores alone, with no dance off. So this is not new or really out of the ordinary.

The dance-off in Series 4 was decided the other way around from today. As the bottom 2, Emma and Louisa both danced again, then lines were re-opened for a period, and whoever got the fewest viewer votes of the two of them was eliminated - in this case Louisa. The judges had no say (although they would have no doubt saved Bunto).

To clarify on the earlier point, in the early series (and 8 and 9) the eliminations were decided based on a combination of judges scores and public vote. Other than the above mentioned example and in finals, it was never public vote alone.

Ack, yes that was it, thank you. I can never remember the way it worked in series 4 for some reason

? I thought full name Jesús Bunto was the sombrero-shaded Mexican revolutionary with a dashing bullet belt who tried to liberate the Alamo, riding ahead of his troops on a donkey.