With judges scores no longer being counted in the final could we see the public vote going against Danny due to the perceived bias that the producers have wanted him to be the winner since day 1? I know there is a lot of upset about the D/O from this weekend and people saying Claudia was robbed of a space in the final but should it also be pointed out that anyone going up against Danny would have had the same result?

Will we see a voting backlash against Danny and Oti next weekend as people hope it may produce a different winner than the one they believe the producers already want?

I think the opposite actually that those annoyed at Claudia going are more likely to be annoyed at Ore being over-marked and Louise getting through despite dancing worse and being over-marked to and take it out on them by voting for Danny.

Danny was actually marked pretty fairly in comparison to everyone else that said I think Claudia voters will probably split off in different directions and some will cease to care who wins at all.

Let's hope you're right!

Danny is in a bit of trouble as he picked up less votes than Ore and Louise last week and he needs more votes than both of them in the final. He'll have to win some of those voters back and it's hard to see how he can wow the public more than he's done already.

There are extra viewers for the final though and he could take a lot of their votes.

Alesha pitched up in the dance off in the 4 person semi final of series 5 - but still went on to win.

The difference between 'voting for who you want to win' versus 'vote for who you want to save from the dance off' is actually quite a big one.

There doesn't need to be a backlash against him for him to be in trouble, people just need to keep voting as they already have. Clearly he received the lowest number of public votes on Saturday so if nothing changes he would be first out.

Now obviously one change that's certain is that people who voted for Claudia need or vote for someone (if they vote at all of course).

Frankly whilst many of DS posters seem to live their intense lives around NOT wanting someone to win I think the large percentage of the Great British Public actually vote on their favourite celebrity who they want to win. Strange I know.

In this situation, I agree with this. Hopefully, Danny's short trip to the bottom two will motivate people to vote for him in the final. Up until now, I think he had that 'favourite' tag attached to him, perhaps more than Louise, simply for the sheer number of times he'd topped the table. Now, it seems as though Louise's marks assisted her in avoiding the dance-off - even though it's a bit more likely that the public vote was the thing that actually saved her - but I'm guessing the public perception is that she unjustly avoided the dance off, given she had by far the worst dance of the night, with that tepid samba!

I think the final outcome will depend on the dances chosen for the celebs - Danny has more 'wow' dances than Louise in his back pocket, IMO, and I think that will be the difference between winning and losing. I also suspect that his showdance will be far more accomplished than Louise's - that's always key!

Yes Danny is in trouble because the judges blatent overmarking will not affect the overall result.

Looking at the thread "Who Do You Want To Win" it seems as if quite a few Claudia fans will now be voting for Danny. I think that being in the Dance Off could help him get a lot more votes as I am sure many of his fans thought that he was safe and maybe didn't vote. It could well swing it for him to lift the Glitter Ball, and I certainly hope he does.

Well before this weekend it was Ore that was in trouble due to being in the dance off twice. As he managed to bounce back (mostly due to judges overmarking) i hope Danny can.

Alesha was in a Quarter Final Dance Off, not semi final, from exactly the same place as Danny on the board - second of four. There was a Dance Off in the semi final stage that year too, which basically meant the public could only save one person - in this case it was Alesha as Matt v Gethin fell into the bottom two... of three.

There has been so much press around 'Danny will win' - see The Guardian in particular - that I think a lot of people didn't feel he needed the votes, particularly with such a wow AS. Ore did after the DO as did Louise after a sub par performance. Natalie G was really unpopular on here and had been in the DO, yet her showdance put her through to the final 3 on the night, knocking out the much more popular SEB.

That doesn't mean I think Danny will win - I think Louise will get the 'shy housewife' 'nice lady' vote far and wide. But I don't think it's as gloomy as it could be.

I'm sure Danny picked up fewer votes because folks believed others would vote. How many times have we seen over the different series the 'untouchable' celeb ending up in the DO?

If anyone is to blame for Claudia leaving it's the precious celeb who left when an expert-a judge-made a throw away joke, and said celeb had a humour bypass.

After watching the semi final show I would say it was Ore who was getting the push from the Beeb this week, and most of last week on ITT as well. Seeing him blub again and the constant mentions of his family being there obviously helped bump up his votes enough to push Danny into the DO. However that said I wonder if perhaps those knee jerk votes will fall away now for Ore and save Danny. Looking at the DS polls alone Danny seems to be very popular in the 'who do you want to win' type polls, that despite how much negativity there seems to be against him around here in threads.

Louise is the unknown equation here really and that might make her the winner as Ore and Danny fans fight it out not paying attention to her. Personally I like Danny, he comes over as a nice guy, down to earth, respectful and hard working and it shows in how good his dances are even if Saturday he wasn't at his best. I don't like how every person in Strictly has taken to telling us how Ore has no dance experience, over and over and over again. They are hitting us over the head with it so much its annoying and really p***es me off. Whether he has experience or not we have seen he is equally as good as Danny, and in some dances better so his 'lack' of previous is irrelevant now.

We know, from Ore alone that voting can change from week to week (though the judges helped him out massively) but I'm expecting a Louise win and a full week of Grimsbyfication on ITT leading up. This is a dream come true for them ... the Clifton siblings are in the final. Oti will have to use her elbows in order to get a mention and the Friday panel will be going overboard with their 'never danced before' epithets which they'll somehow allude to as applying to Louise as well as Ore.
Best thing Danny and Oti can do is dance spectacularly well and go out with a bang.
A win for Kevin might mean a duffer next year and going home early and we'll be spared from enduring him for the whole of another series although I have a feeling ITT would shoehorn him in anyway ... every week.

Danny didn't get the votes last week because a lot of his fans thought he was safe (which he was, he was never going to be voted off) so most probably they used their votes for their 2nd favourite.
Also, I think some may be getting fed up with Danny being so good week after week & are getting bored with Oti's choreography as she tries too hard to be different & making the choreography too complicated.

IMO I was quite bored with Danny this weekend. It just felt so lacklustre, no passion. It was like he was just going through the motions to get to the end without any mistakes.

I'm sure Danny will pick up a few votes next week from the X-Factor fans, now this series has ended.

People obviously thought Danny was safe so didnt bother voting.

I will say that it still baffles me that Louise who was the weakest on Saturday made it to the final no problem while 2 dancers who were better than her were put in danger.
The voting system really is strange at times.

Yeah, meant quarter final
It was the week Matt forgot his routine and his supporters went into overdrive and in that instance Alesha was the collateral damage between Matt and Gethin.

I think dance offs with 4 people is a strange one because there is usually - rightly or wrongly - one celeb that its thought everyone would be safe against and one couple deemed safe whoever they are against and it can be an influence.

So, in your opinion he's not good? Who is better than him then? Taking the series as a whole?

I think it's still all to play for - certainly not the foregone conclusion people were claiming prior to the semi.

Hopefully it really puts the fire into Danny & Oti and they give us something spectacular. I'd like them to win, but mostly I just want them to give us a truly fantastic showdance!

No, it's the fault of TPTB for not scheduling in a non-elimination week in any of the subsequent 9 weeks.

Can you imagine the outrage if they did? They've never done it before as far as I can remember.

No, but that's not to say they shouldn't have - and if they want a 4 person final its as good a way as any to get one.

Looking through the papers earlier, they seem to portray it as the BBC / judges wanting Danny to win from the start apart from some comments about the BBC being PC and wanting Ore to win.

I had to look up what Danny does. I gather he is is in Hollyoaks, it has a lot lower number of viewers when compared with Eastenders and Coronation Street.

I suppose we are now in for a week of conspiracy theories etc in the media!

I'm not sure I buy the excuse of fans thinking Danny was safe. He was second on a leaderboard of four, that is not safe.

Claudia fans could go either way, decide to vote for him or decide that he was arguably unfairly saved and 'he ain't getting my vote'. I think it will be the former.

Louise is there because the public wanted her through and voted for her, so totally fair.

More will vote in the final, I think that is the usual way and I am pretty certain Danny will win, I always have been.