Great humour!

Ah, so oppressed North Koreans may be upset by comments on DigitalSpy?

It is precisely because we have the freedom to debate that we must use it. This belongs with those who think Christmas should be renamed Winter Festival in case it offends anyone. As others have pointed out, this is a debating forum and your contribution is welcome - as long as it concerns the show rather than the right of other posters to express their views.

Can I just say something? I loved Ed Balls - didn't complain when he was in the bottom two, because it was right.

I loved Daisy and didn't complain when she left, because it was right.

The reason people are complaining that Danny and Claudia got into the bottom two is because there were objectively two worse dancers who should have been there. Also, the Clifton bias definitely exists. The law of averages dictates that there's no way Kevin would be in four consecutive finals if he was actually being judged fairly like others are.

And do you not think it's a bit funny that all three Cliftons had a partner with ability? It comes off looking very bad.

That's ten million North Koreans you've upset

I like this thread 😜

Can't wait for the next thread sounding off about these things

Nothing ridiculous about the questioning this series - when the marks don't match the comments, comments are not consistently made, comments don't match whats shown , or equally good expert's view, intelligent people will seek explanations. And the answer will be its either incompetence , inability to explain , or favouritism. And all of those conclusions, lead to further questions of motivaton, or biases, or inadequate marking criteria. People are perfectly entitled to speculate, and tease these out.

The alternative requires an authoritarian personality - that just accepts whatever its told , or a lack of ability to spot when there are clear inconsistencies, and a lack of understanding of how most reality TV is scripted by producers - not generated by its own natural development. .

Another tedious thread trying to intimidate posters.

It's a forum. Right?

You can say what you want, but don't disparage other posters.

Right?

You should blush! What a foolish post. People are allowed to post what they feel! Who are you to judge what people want to post? What a ridiculous thread. Why don't we all just adhere to YOUR rules? Then nothing would be posted

The tone was all wrong, but OP does have a point. There's bitching and complaining, and then there's the frankly psychotic claims people make, and really bizarre fixations people have. Some threads around here would make the ladies in Mean Girls cringe away in shock.

Dont encourage them....I dread to think what the next banshee chapter will be like

I don't even dare to make a guess anymore.

I couldn't disagree more. Ironically, your thinking here comes across as very black and white to me.

When it comes to the kind of posts the OP was referring to, I see people jumping to conclusions, putting emotion before reason, reaching and adding 1 + 1 and getting 3. Also, yes, most of them are ridiculous in my opinion - I see a some people ignoring facts or putting across spurious claims to make their case, for one thing.

To say that those who disagree with you are unable to understand reality TV is a huge generalisation, and probably mostly an incorrect one. I, for one, continue to question things on the show, along with a lot of the rubbish that is spouted on here! Just because the conclusion I come to isn't as extreme as yours, doesn't mean I take everything at face value.

The major difference I see between the two types of people you're identifying is not the way they think, but the level of fanaticism and dedication to a particular celebrity/pro. Or, indeed, the level of vitriol they hold for a particular celeb or pro.

Best just to ignore the really stupid threads. They'll soon go away!

Don't feed the trolls!

infantile? you're kidding, right?

Please don't call other f/m's trolls when it could be said you are baiting.

Agree with this..except the bit about kevin. Isn't it just the fact that he's had four above average/very good dancers and that he hasn't been given a duffer yet?

Well I haven't got a particular favourite and I haven't voted for anyone this series......... BUT

Several things stink about this final......

Kevin gets yet another candidate with considerable dance experience..... why are the producers so desperate for him to do well? After reaching 3 finals on the trot he was well overdue a duffer, but he gets a stage school trained pop princess who is a good enough dancer to be a judge on another dance competition.......

Karen gets another high profile contestant with considerable dance experience - hotly tipped to reach the final before he elected to leave the competition

Joanne gets a rookie contestant who proved to be a natural dancer..... however, whilst he deserved to reach the semi final, he was overmarked to get him to the safety of the top spot on the leaderboard - his dances were mediocre, and errors (made by others who were penalised for them) were ignored. He should have been in the dance off last week and gone home..... however, because of the overmarking, he was safe and we lost Claudia....

We could have had all 3 Cliftons in the final which would have been a travesty given the level of talent in this years competition

I'd actually like to see Ore win it, one to give the true journey contestant the win, and to see Joanne win over her brother. Louise and Danny came in to this with so much dance experience (albeit in other fields) but whilst Danny has actually improved over the competition, Louise still delivers self conscious performances which whilst technically good still lack the WOW factor that Ore and Danny bring to their dances....

Still think Claudia should still be there and Ore gone home.

As my seven year old would say.....(in a singsong voice), "Ooooh someone's grumpy, can't say I'm surprised"

Don't know about that, but if other forum members are criticising other members (as opposed to criticising the subject matter in hand), then I may be inclined to use the t-word.

I was with you all the way there....'and then you went and spoilt it all by saying something stupid like ore to win'!!

Yes, me too

Well yes, which suggests there's favouritism. The law of average dictates that by now, if the allocation system was fair he'd have had one duffer. But he hasn't.

But they've all been middle aged so kind of evens it out a little.

To be fair to Mr. Fromgrimsby, nobody really expected Susanna Reid to be up to much, and considering the oldest woman to win Strictly is Flackers [who was a positively dessicated 34 at the time], being lumped with two marginally famous middle aged ladies could be said to be a definite handicap. Getting two dance trained people on the bounce is a bit wonky, but if you've got more and more trained dancers joining Strictly every year, you've got to give them to someone. Aljaz is designated Tall Bloke, Anton is designated Clumper Babysitter, so you're gonna spread your ringers out among yer Average Sized Dancers, a category which Kevin fits squarely into.

I also feel it's worth pointing out that he's not exactly alone in getting a miracle run of partners -

Pasha got four young fit birds on the trot, and people were reckoning Naga had potential until she turned out to be a golf themed plank.
Aliona got the omni-talented Matt Baker, ringeriffic Harry Judd and HIS HOLINESS ST. JAY THE EVERJIVING and reacted to Gregg Wallace and Tony Jacklin like someone'd wiped a dog turd on her skirt.
Giovanni's had young fit contenders twice in a row.
Artem had absolute god tier ringers in Kara Tointon and the absolutely mental actually-a-professional-dancer-until-she-got-injured Natalie Gumede AND Holly "Professional performer" Valance.



Karen also had Dave Myers and Jeremy Vine, who were sub-mobile hoofers who looked like they were being operated via levers. And at no point did she seem put out by this.


Dudes being overmarked isn't new, either. Remember the traumatic period where Craig kept insisting Lisa Riley was fun? Remember when the judges kept shoving through the twitching corpses of Rachel Riley and Victoria Pendleton? Remember Peter Andre robbing Jamelia? Bloody Chris Hollins and bloody Darren Gough? Louis Smith getting huge marks for shite dances because it was OLYMPIC FRENZY YEAR? Surely there's no big Clifton Agenda behind all that? Surely it's just because the judging panel is 2 guys who only know stagey pop music dance, one posho who only knows ballet and one legit ballroom dude who's a bit wonky and senile?