Whilst pushing it's luck with the public vote, up to this stage the winner of the public vote has been guaranteed safety, even if they finish bottom of the public vote. Though, in the case of yesterday, that's only due to there being a tie in the leaderboard; if there wasn't a tie first place with the public could have still fallen into the Dance Off and be sent home.

Next week there is a more distinct possibility that bottom of the leaderboard with the Judges could fall into the Dance Off and be eliminated even if they finish top with the public. It's akin to the Quarter Final in series six where Austin and Erin finished bottom of the judges leaderboard but could have topped the public vote yet be sent home:

Rachel and Vincent 76 (4) + (2) = (6)
Tom and Camilla 73 (3) + (3) = (6)
Lisa and Brendan 72 (2) + (1) = (3)
Austin and Erin 70 (1) + (4) = (5)

This marked the real start of ill-feeling towards the series, not that the John Sargeant situation helped. But surely, eight years on, they've learned from this? Is it fair that the public spend their money to save their favourite only to, possibly, be unable to?

Maybe the judges will instigate a tie in the leaderboard to ensure the public will be able to save their favourite, no matter where they finish on the leaderboard? But if not then bottom place may as well prepare to back their bags as it'll be very difficult for them to be saved by the public alone.

They should ditch the dance-off every week.

What I also love about the above example, is that if you swap Lisa and Rachel's public vote (ie if Lisa got a few 1000 more votes most likely) then the dance-off becomes Lisa vs Rachel. And Lisa probably goes home. Because she got more votes. The less the public like her, the safer she gets.

I like the dance off. I don't trust the public to get it right.

In recent years, the judges have only had a say on the final four, it's a shame if they get to say who the 'third' in the final is.

I'm definitely for ditching the DO in the semis. The judges shouldn't have final say over who goes through to the final. It's going to be really close to call at that stage and it's likely the judges may have a split vote with the head judge choosing, which is one person's view when it boils down to it. No DO in the semis.

I don't think they're going to do that but I agree. At least with The X Factor the judge's don't have two bites at the cherry - the public vote, the singers sing again, then the judge's decide and, if it's a tie, it goes back to the public vote.

I've never seen it that way with the series six Dance Off. That just proves the stupidity of it really.

Surely when it gets to this stage of the competition all the duffers have gone and its now down to personal choice The four that arrive in the semis should have quite a high standard of dance and I don't think it should necessarily mean that the best dancers should get to the final. It should be the dancers who the public like. As have been said I the past, its not a dancing competition, its an entertainment show.

Agree thee should be no dance off in the semis, not when there are just 4 couples left.

I don't think there should be a dance off when it gets down to 4 couples. The people who are spending money on the public vote are no longer seeing enough impact from their votes.

On the other hand, the celebs most likely to suffer from this would be Ore, Claudia, or Rob Rinder. Any of those might have already gone this season if they had not had a dance off to save them.

After Jameliagate and then Greg being voted off instead of Claudia, I don't trust the judges to get it right.

What does 'the public getting it right' mean anyway? How can there be a wrong 'favourite' to vote for?

Are you still bitter of Greg departure?
Claudia danced better in that DO... lol

It's Will Young's fault. Had he carried on we would have had four in the final, with the order entirely determined by the public vote.

Nah all my bitterness is reserved for Ed not being there still

But Greg's Quickstep > Claudia's Jive

I mean she's a much better overall dancer but not that time - and they're supposed to vote based purely on the dance-off.

I agree. It has skewed the semi final and either we should have had a non elimination week at some stage or we should have a non elimination semi final but with the judges scores carried over to the final perhaps.

They won't. I wished they had the couples dance 2 dance this week so they wouldn't miss a dance. This was the perfect opportunity for it. Sometimes I wonder what goes through the mind of tptb

I don't understand when people say this series 8 and 9 had no dance off and the finalists were Kara, Pamela and Matt and Harry, Chelsee and Jason. The best dancers and no one who had been dragged there through multiple dance offs, killing most of the suspense in the final. What was so bad about those series?

It's an entertainment show and the public choose the winner, but not trusted to pick the finalists??.

Both Abbey Clancy and Caroline Flack might have gone out if there wasn't a dance off. The public can pick someone to win after apparently voting them out in an earlier round so it isn't straightforward.

If there hadn't been a tie this week Judge Rinder (as bottom of the leaderboard) could have finished top of the public vote and still fallen into the Dance Off:

Danny 5+2 = 7
Louise 4+3 = 7
Claudia 3+4 = 7
Ore 2+1 = 3
Judge Rinder 1+5 = 6

The tie in the leaderboard prevents this from happening. Maybe they'll create a tie next week as well.

We don't know whether they were bottom??. May be not.

If only BBC would release the voting figures.

Would it have mattered? Natalie/Susanna/Frankie/Simon would have won instead and we all would have gone on with our lives perfectly happily.

I would have really happy with Natalie's win.

True - a majority favourite is the favourite.


My biggest disappointment of this series (after Tameka) - that decision was never based on the DO performances.


It should be all or nothing; if the GBP don't get to know, neither should the judges.

There's also the argument though that the dance off encourages fans of the less good couples to vote more voraciously than they might do without it. They know that they need to keep their favoured celeb out of the bottom two, not just off the bottom so they pile more votes on.

Likewise, those who early on have a "good" favourite and a "less good" favourite may well be encouraged to concentrate more on voting for the latter because of the dance off safety net. This would be far less likely to happen if the bottom placed celeb automatically went home.