So, we are just over half way through and heading nicely towards the business and of the competition.

We now have six couples who have not faced the dreaded Dance Off. But who do you think can get to the Final without doing so?

(Multiple choice poll soon up)

Danny might. Hopefully I haven't jinxed him. He has a very good choices of dances left imo.

I want to say Greg also but surely he has to hit the bottom 2 at one point Ed and the judge are imo much better than him but he has so much public support so I don't know 😤😤

I voted for Claudia, Louise and Danny.

I put none of them because I really don't know.

I think Danny will, apart from Ed he seems to be the most popular contestant.

Hate to say it but Rider is soaking up a a lot of the popular vote too...and his witterings about "falling in love with dancing" on Saturday will have done him the world of good...

My sentiments exactly

How does the maths work? If we are having a four person semi-final and a three person final, and assuming there is a dance off in the semi-final, is it possible for the person who is lowest on the judges' leaderboard to avoid the dance off, even if they get the most votes?

In a four person semi final, if the person bottom of the leaderboard is

Bottom of the public vote : they're in the dance off
3rd in the public vote : they're in the dance off
2nd in the public vote : almost certainly in the dance off (but can escape if the public favourite is top of the leaderboard, the public's least favourite is second and the public's third favourite is also 3rd with the judges)
1st in the public vote : safe from the dance-off (unless the public least favourite is third with the judges, second favourite is second with the judges, with the public's third favourite top of the leaderboard)

A little convoluted, but the take-home message is yes, they more or less have to top the public vote unless they get lucky with how everyone else falls. If they top the public vote they're probably safe, but it's not impossible they still fall into the bottom 2.

Thank you very much.

So is it a fair guess to say that - probably - if Louise is top with the judges and Danny is top with the public on the semi-final vote (or the opposite way round, and just them as examples) that the third person in the final will be the second most popular with the judges rather than second popular with the public? Not sure that even makes sense! That the public can almost definitely get one person to the final but not easily two?

Danny and Oti

His fanbase is similar to Jay's last year.

Danny& Claudia

I'm guessing as the final is 3 people then only 2 people max can avoid the D/O

Currently I think Judge Rinder and Louise but that could easily change based on dances.

I'm not sure any of them will. Danny and Oti have a good chance, but I suspect Louise might not be as popular with the public as she is with the judges and she'll fall victim one of the weeks.

The rest will at some point.

Genuine question re all the spike in polls here.

When we have this tsunami of polls here, what analysis or feedback is the outcome?

Do we get a statistical report how everyone voted?

What are the conclusions?

How does it add value to guess who will be in the DO or not, before the final, and whatever, that then changes the viewers experience? Genuine question genuine enquiry.

Danny and Rinder

I think Danny, he'll pick up votes cause he's good and as Ore was in the dance off last week Danny's fans won't take any chances.

I think Louise is also possible. The judges obviously think she's brilliant and I think some people would be influenced by that. She might also get votes for being so down to earth and not a diva.