Yup! Ed is progressing, but I don't want to lose a good dancer to keep him in. I watch it for the dancing.

Good result. She'd peaked and he still has more to give.

The tango may have impressed many, but she could barely walk after her performance.

Ed is still in becasue he's geting the votes. Why is he getting the votes? Becasue - whether you agree with his politics or not - he was a very high profile politician. And to see someone as politically famous as him do Strictly and really throw themselves into it, and work their socks off as he is, well, it's astonishing! He's entertaining, he's improving and he has the added advantage of his pro being likeable and frankly briliant with him.

Laura is a very attractive girl, but she's not a celebrity. She's practically unknown and sadly doesn't come across well on TV. Add that to poor dancing and an over-reliance on her looks (Pout! Pose! Flick the hair! Duck-face!) and people just aren't going to vote.

Comparing Ed to John Sargeant is ridiculous. John had 2 left feet and couldn't string steps together. Ed is no natural, but he's visibly dancing.

BIB: I couldn't agree more.


Agree with this too except BIB because she performed n AMAZING tango last week...only rivalled by her excellent waltz.

This entertainment show isn't about 'good' dancers. It never has been. What makes those of us with no background in dance watch and enjoy are entertaining dances. Yes, there is enjoyment from what are clearly the moves done well, we vote for what we've enjoyed. It's Saturday night prime time, not (insert name of high quality professional dance competition I've never heard of here)!

I have voted for both Ed and Rob and will continue to do so - I have loved the good dancers in the past like Kara and Jay, but this year people like Danny and Louise started off really well, leaving very little room to get better.
I want ALL the dancers getting a 6 at most in their first dance, yet (my memory is pants) this year didn't at least one of them get an 8?

I don't want to see good dancers slightly improve, I want to be entertained and Ed's Cha Cha Cha will make me laugh for months to come.

Laura was just forgettable and looked to be in right strop on Saturday over something, totally unbothered that she went

Laura did well considering her injury, and to be honest I think she was glad to get away from that grease ball partner of hers.

I don't expect to see Edd going next week either.

BIB: Are you saying do away with the public vote then?

Personality.

She's one of Joe Swash's mates...he isn't...nuff said

Because Laura did nice ballroom but could never handle Latin.

The others are more entertaining.

The public get to choose, not you.

Tough but true.

BIB. "People" need to vote for whoever they choose to vote for. Everyone has their own reasons for voting for their favourite, be it dancing prowess, trying hard and improving, entertainment value etc etc. It is the public vote that makes the show interesting and fun. Anyone who can't deal with that isn't forced to watch.

Let me see, Melvin, Naga, Leslie, Anastacia, Tameka.

Nah

BIB: Are you saying do away with the public vote then?

There is NOTHING unfair about it at all. As an earlier poster said, we are voting for our favourites - which is not necessarily the same as the best dancer,

Laura, for me, blew too hot and cold. Clearly a ballroom girl, she blew me away with her waltz and tango. Her salsa & samba, however, left a lot to be desired. She was very unlucky to get injured when she did and, as others have pointed out, she was pointedly walking with difficulty after her DO.

Ed has grown on me week on week and I love how he has 'flipped the script' and refused to play the ' resident duffer' he was signed up to be. He is by no means perfect but he epitomizes what Strictly is about - a total non-dancer, going right our of his comfort zone to learn a new skill. And boy is he learning - not only dancing, but acting also. It is lovely to see how much he has come out of his shell and the chemistry he clearly has with Katya is infectious.

For these reasons, he FULLY deserves to still be there.

In all honesty, I preferred Laura in the DO to one of my faves, Ore, but the latter is the far better dancer generally. As we all know, the DO is rarely based on "the dance [the judges] have just seen"...so I can understand why Laura lost out, sad though that is.

And, while I'm here, here's another point which nobody has raised: how is the perceived (ie before the series starts) 'duffer supposed to win in terms of getting a fair press from us hard-to-please public? Take to ex-MPs:


Case 1: Ann Widdecombe
If I had a penny for each time FMs here slated Widdy for deliberately making zero effort to learn to dance and electing instead to "play it for laughs" for all she's worth whilst showing disdain for the whole competition, I'd be very happily loaded!

Till today, many have not forgiven Widdy for getting as far as she did on the back of this 'strategy'

Case 2: Ed Balls
Most of us here would be a liar if we said we did not have him down as 'First Boot' before the series started. However, he has resolutely refused to jump into the'duffer' slot and has elected to embrace the whole experience, throwing himself at it with gusto. Kudos to the lovely Katya too who is showing similar resilience and determination by refusing to 'dumb down' their routines a la Anton. She fills every one with recognisable dance steps and Ed gets fully stuck in.

Nevertheless, the poor bloke still gets naysayers like the OP stating that he does not deserve to still be in the competition.

So, one is clearly damned if they do and damned if they don't...

Meh. Doesn't bother me too much. Ed has worked really, really hard, looks like he loves dancing and like Judge Rinder and to some extent Daisy, looks like he has had some sort of dancing revelation and is loving it, whether he is good or not. The like of Laura, Louise and Danny don't really have to try to be good and IMO have coasted much more. They have been dancing in some form or other since they were children. I find them much less entertaining.

Laura was one of my favourites and I'm sad she's gone but I'm, in some ways, relieved for her. She was dealt a marked card from the start. She was always going to be partnered with Giovanni, that was a given, so all the "last minute change around" theories are nonsense. What reason would there have been for that? Do people seriously think the PTB were not going to partner the young hot "Italian stallion" with the beautiful blonde because he was in a relationship with someone who previously danced with Giovanni? I don't think so! The hideous tweets and other messages on social media were particularly vile and I should think she is quite relieved to turn her back on those who were so spiteful towards her and those who are being positively gleeful in the fact that she was eliminated last night.

Interesting though that Laura was being hammered with criticism for taking a week off when she was injured.... then was hammered again for the speed with which she appeared to recover... and has been subjected to a lot of varied criticism of her dancing throughout.

In actual fact none of that even matters...She simply wasn't proving to be as popular as some of the other contestants but the reasons for that are not straightforward. Lots of people do not actually factor the standard of dancing ability into their decision-making when they cast their vote or even just comment... but as this is primarily a light entertainment programme rather than a straight-up dance contest, opinions are entirely subjective and therefore the voting public can vote in whichever way they please.

If it WERE a straightforward dancing contest, people like Ed Balls, Ann Widdecombe and John Sargeant would not even be invited to participate in the first place. They are there because they had no prior dance training and no "fan base", such as a performer, sportsperson or TV personality might might have. Therefore, they are there to learn and show that the lack of previous dance ability is not actually a bar to taking part.

Umm, come on, lets be honest here. If you watch the dance back half of it is a comedy sketch and the other half doing a mediocre QS to get to the next comedy part. His footwork was not that great if you watch it closely so that hardly constitutes an 'improvement' as so many people keep shouting about.

What annoyed me is that their dance was more a showdance than a QS and where as Greg got hammered for that last week by Craig, this week none of the judges commented on the lack of QS content at all. Normally Len would be all over them saying how he hated the faffing around, but again, silence. Now how is that fair and worthy of staying in the competition? I will admit they scored correctly and put him at the bottom of the leaderboard, but if they do not verbally treat everyone the same it gives an unfair advantage to some dancers over others.

However as soon as he is in the bottom two he will be gone as he is the worse dancer there now ... which probably means, as happened with John Sergeant, his defenders and fans will vote even more to keep him in <sighs>

This ought to be Post of the Day really - not funny, but eloquent, erudite, and very well reasoned.

There was a discussion on the NAT yesterday, and a lovely poster dug out the transcript of the ITT interview with James/Anton/Kate

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=935902

Perhaps this is a good time to quote 2008 Anton

Totally agree with this post! Laura got my vote every week and I am sad she has gone over Ore (but then he grates a bit with me!)

The thing is that his QS routine was entertaining and had character to it. It also far far exceeded most people's expectations. Laura's was underwhelming and big step down from her excellent tango the week before which may have built expectations for something she just couldn't deliver and Gio's showboating (prob/poss trying to cover for what she'd couldn't do due to still being injured) did her no favours nor Bruno's blatant over-marking (over-marking is usually something that has a tendency to get backs up - there is definitely a flick the judges the V sign element to some public voting and it's only encouraged by the over-marking of those perceived to be pets - both fairly and unfairly). Nor is the first time she's obviously been a bit over-marked (or at least perceived to be) either.

I agree it's harsh that she probably under-performed due to injury but in answer to her fans it's hard to think of a another dance she could have performed well due to that and at this stage the competition can't wait for her to heal enough to do it. She was very unlucky that it was a night when most other people performed well and/or entertained and in a sense of the DO of her and Ore who were the most disappointing did kinda of make sense. Many of the lower ranked performers were much improved from last week. People vote for a variety of reasons for journeys, for personalities they like, for people who entertain them (even if it's for the 'wrong' reasons), for partnerships that obviously gel to an extent that it makes you like the couple. I do feel for Laura fans because I've been there and had the frustration of watching people I liked go out as the public saved someone who was hopeless usually people who were much worse than Ed. Widdy staying in at the expense of Jimi Mistry and Gaby Logan going out as the public saved her hubbie who was woeful that night and hopalong Kate Garroway made me pretty annoyed but sadly things like this happen every single year without fail. It's sad but true.

I have to say that derived more enjoyment out of watching Ed this week than I did her and from the way the voting went I obviously wasn't alone. At the end of the day - the reason why there is so much debate on her and disagreement with both the judges and each other is that what entertains and looks good as a matter of supreme subjectivity.

It depends what criterion people are using for comparison. If you compare Ed's QS technique to Danny's, for instance, then it is indeed mediocre. However, if people are comparing Ed's QS technique to what people feared it might be, then they may feel it's impressive. In turn, if you compare Danny's QS technique to the pros, then that becomes mediocre

i thought Laura was actually relieved to be out. By her reaction when the judges announced their preferences, she seemed resigned and accepting that she's going to go.
Maybe it was her injury, maybe something else.
I thought from one point when she was said goodbye she swtiched on her presenter self and was detached from the outcome.
I thought that was very professional of her and inspiring.
I did not like her samba though and didn't vote for her this week. The samba looked a bit like Giovanni's last year samba and for some reason I didn't like it eather.