He's had some
Ore Oduba and Sonali Shah perform Hey Ya by OutKast | Red Nose Day 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyx3w4_Opns

Oh come on.

Bet he's danced at a few parties too.

I think his internal monologue didn't.

I was being sarcastic

Sorry erin



He doesn't half get a bashing on here is my excuse.

This. Exactly. I'm no expert, I'll admit, and certainly haven't watched every dance of the series, but I thought Claudia's performance in the dance-off was far more impressive.

Certainly when you consider she came into this an absolute novice, as opposed to West End star Danny.

It's a puzzle. What's a good celeb supposed to do, pretend to be rubbish? Not only is that dishonest, it's not as easy as it sounds. If you're good, you'll never be able to look genuinely bad. You'll end up looking mediocre which pretty much guarantees you an early exit. So I don't think the celebs or pros have a choice; they need to be as good as they can every week.

Hopefully Danny (and all the 'too good' celebs before him) would rather dance well every week even if it means not winning a cheap disco-ball trophy. The whole reason they're doing 'Strictly' (in addition to the money) is to stay in the public eye and showcase their skills to prospective employers.

The dirty rotten ringah!!

Agree with BiB.

I think it'll be between Danny and Louise, but as you say, they all 3 have things working for and against them. Doesn't seem as clear-cut as last year.

Louise is in an even stronger position now with Claudia gone imo

she's the lone female finalist (who has never been in the b2) against two guys (who have been in the b2 )

+ worryingly, Danny was making mistakes in the DO so he may well crumble in the final ...

I agree.

However I think it might come down to who does the most spectacular dance and wows the floating vote

I think though it's between Danny and Louise.

I wouldn't think so, being in a soap I would've thought he would have a strong fanbase therefore this and getting a DO bounceback could stand him in a good position

Louise has never done a spectacular dance yet, so why being in the final make any difference

Precisely this. I don't have a problem with people who have danced before being expected to be better and marked and voted for accordingly. I do have a problem with them almost being penalised for that when they have all been invited to take part with everyone knowing their history. Making such a big thing of non dancers in the semi- final should be matched with comments about improvement for the other parties too.
I've seen Danny described as a west-end star and he was really not that...after all this teaching from Oti though, maybe he could be.

What about the people who only watch in the final (XF viewers?) They could change the aspect either way.

I really don't get this idea that swarms of X Factor viewers swoop onto the final, when the shows have next to no overlap throughout the entire series and people can easily watch both any week.

I think I find it chiefly annoying because it usually gets deployed like "Oh of course Abbey won instead of (*my favourite*) because a load of stupid teenagers came in and just voted coz she's a WAG and they're thick and want to be WAGSs, it wasn't proper fans like what I am"

Alright you got me

Agree that Louise is in a very strong position.

Danny and Oti could both stumble under the pressure. He's a perfectionist and the stress is beginning to show, and Oti might be tempted to throw too much complicated choreography into their showdance, when there's no need for that. What Danny needs is something that he can just dance with effortless ease and flair. Keep lifts to a minimum and let him focus on clean dancing and strong acting. If he's relaxed and can show genuine enjoyment, that feeling will translate to the audience.


I don't think the audience expects Louise to do a spectacular dance. That's never been her style. What Kevin needs to give her is something sweet, serene, and lyrical that highlights her beautiful arms and lovely pointed feet. It's that gentle, ladylike quality she has that the audience seems to love and respond to.

In a way, I don't think that Danny will feel loads of pressure going into the final. Being in the bottom two might make him and Oti feel like they definitely won't win so will instead focus on just doing their best and enjoying themselves. Danny has never expected to win. He's more focused on making the most of his experience.

I hope you're right and that's how Danny's approaching it, but I think a lot will depend on what Oti does with the showdance choreography and how comfortable Danny is with it. It's Oti's first 'Strictly' final, but I hope her experience on the German version helps her.

The fact that Danny was less popular in the public vote than Ore strongly suggests to me that neither of them were ever particularly popular with the public, and Danny has a lot of ground to make up next week if he wants to win. His only real hope is if the Cliftons are as unpopular in the wider world as they are in the echo chamber of this forum/social media, and I don't think they are.

Danny is still favourite to win.
http://www.bettingpro.com/category/e...20160823-0006/

You're assuming all Danny fans voted last week, which is highly unlikely to be the case (in fact I know it wasn't as I didn't!) - the media were very much hyping him up as safe and a 100% cert for the final, so people probably thought they didn't need to vote and could save their money/effort.

The final is a whole different ball game in many ways, so really the voting statistics from last week are meaningless.

No matter who ends up in the dance offs in different weeks, and Danny has just the once, I think he is still popular with viewers and can see him winning Strictly 2016, unless he majorly messes up in a dance.

I really hope you are right - I also hope that people who like Danny's dancing VOTE!!!!

In the beginning of the series I voted for Ore and Louise, but the over marking and favouritism by the BBC, ITT and comments by the judges turned me against them. Louise is a nice person and is a very competent dancer, but she looks down, shows little emotion and 'doesn't have the wow factor for me. Ore is competent but no more, the AT was awful imo. Danny is the only one who consistently wows me and puts in an incredible amount of training. I do feel he has been under marked in a couple of cases - like Jay.

I only hope people will vote for Danny to make him this year's champion and thwart the judges and producers' choice.