Firstly, How did the briliant Patsy Palmer end up in the bottom 2? I'm astounded that both Bill and James got more votes.

Will shouldn't have gone tonight and made much improvement on previous weeks. The judges were even praising him and he got a 9 from Len!

Bill deserved to go, He's never wowed me and I am surprised he's still there. Same goes for James.

It's quite obvious this isn't about dancing but about who's the most famous. I'm hoping dancing provails and either Patsy or Zoe take the crown.

Bill's personality has wowed the public, he talks back. Unfortunately Will acceeded to what he believed to be the greater knowledge every week. So the 'experts' felt comfortable devouring him, knowing he wouldn't answer back.

I think, that's the key for the celebs, argue with the experts and they somehow will gain some modicum of respect.

Of course, you must realise that if dancing prevails, then neither Patsy nor Zoe will win.

And also make sure you mention your injured ankle at every available opportunity, even on BBC Breakfast News, showing pictures if possible. Shameful result.

Not too concerned about Will - his eyes terrified me - but Patsy and Anton in the bottom two!?!

How did that happen?
They looked quite confused in the 'Last Dance' bit.

We have GOT to vote for them next week. 31 points beaten by 17? Shameful!

Just expressing a personal opinion here; & quite prepared to be shot down in flames for doing so, but I do feel that there is a fundamental flaw in the whole voting system.

Yes, the judges marks count for half of the total, but this doesn't actually give their scoring as great a measure of influence over the result as it could do (I won't go into the question of bias in the marking).

The fact that it is possible to start voting for the couples again from the moment the result show finishes means that the actual perfromance given on any Saturday show can become irrelevant to the result. The public will vote for those celebs & pros whom they like most; even if they've never actually seen them dancing. It's sort of similar to the way that "Big Brother" &, so called, talent shows like "The X-Factor", concentrate all their publicity on gossip, rumours, appearance & the personalities of the contestants & ignore the fact that they might not have all that much talent.

I know that one of the main aims of SCD is to raise as much money as possible for Children in Need; a very laudable objective I hasten to add, & this is the reason for the telephone voting system being the way it is, but it does make something of a mockery of the idea of it being any real sort of dancing competition.

hear hear totally agree glen p if people are voting through the week they are certainly not voting on performance

Sorry but Patsy is not brilliant at all and deserved to be in bottom two on dancing along with Bill if it goes on dancing would put darren, zoe and colin as final 3

Will shouldn't have gone. It should have been Bill. James wasn't all that hot lasast night but I think he was just having a bad day. He's a lot better than last night showed.

I'm gonna miss Will

Mostly agree with your view Glen - open the phone lines once the dances have been seen - perhaps with 9 million viewers the exchange couldn't cope

You might be interested in my post on the 'last nights show' thread with my musings but there is no mockery as it is not a real dancing competition - it looks like one, it sounds like one but it's not one

It is as you imply a reality charity tv show to entertain people and provide happy Sat night viewing and ratings to beat the X factor. It based on a combination of ability and who people love to love hence the combined score. Just trying to squeeze some joy out of it - there's a lot of venom about today (I don't mean from you )and in the scheme of things SCD is not that important *puts up heat shield*
Last edited by beesknees : 20-11-2005 at 13:23

I agree with what you've said Glen. It is obvious that Bill's fans had been voting constantly all week, in the anticipation that he would either be unable to dance, or not be at his best, and their votes would be needed to keep him in (and they were right). I quite like Bill but his dance last night was not worthy of a continued place in the competition. However it's unfair to accuse him of playing up the ankle injury - every time I saw him speak he was asking NOT to talk about it, it's just everyonelse who's been on about it (understandably).

But just as James was just having an off night, so was Bill - both have been better in the past. Will has been very patchy, but his 'crime' is that he doesn't have a devoted fan base who vote for him regardless of how he performs, whereas clearly James and Bill do (as shown by last night's result).

I am not sure if Patsy has a large fanbase or not - but Anton definitely does, so I can't understand how they were in the bottom two. I think their votes were just outdone by the desperation of fans to keep James and Bill in - whereas Patsy did not seem to be at all at risk given her judges vote, so maybe people didn't bother to vote for her last night? And I know there have been some (as far as I can see, completely unfounded) rumours about her and Anton not getting on, so maybe that diminished their votes during the week. I think they're great and definitely deserve to stay in, probably right up to the final.

I don't know how many vote but 9 million ppl watched so I expect there are thousands n thousands of votes - I wonder if the established fan bases for these relatively minor celebs would play that big a part.

At last ! Thank you Lippincote! Someone else who thinks that everyone else is talking about that flipping ankle except the man himself - so I can take heart that I'm not delusional after all (Well not in regard to that anyway )

And we'll all get desperate to save someone sooner or later

Here, here - very good point. It's more about personalities than the actual dancing, you're quite right!!

Don't want to face this but based on this week's voting, it looks as though Patsy and Anton could go next week. I say that based on the fact that this week's public voting showed that Bill and James are more popular personalities than Patsy ...Anton looked abit sick, didn't he, bless him!

It's about CIN and the progression of couples through the show is equally about personality and dancing hence half the score from the judges and half from the punters

Yes poor Anton looked distraught and Patsy looked confused. There seemed little joy or support between when they did get through from what the camera showed which was unexpected as evryone's always hugging each other at that point

Poor Anton...

*throws water on those flames before the rumours get started again*

To be honest when they were dancing at the end they were chatting to each other and looked a mixture of relieved and utterly confused. They were so shocked to be in the bottom two there was barely any reaction from either of them. Although poor Anton looked awfully pale.

True.

I think that whoever is in the bottom two, always mentally prepares not to over-celebrate if they stay in as that would almost be like rubbing it into the couple that does leave. The couple that stays usually has a quick hug and then starts clapping for the couple that has left. It's all very sportsman like.

However, the couples that get told they are staying earlier than the last two do feel like they have more leeway to celebrate overtly as they are not celebrating at the expense of any one particular couple.

So true, I completely agree.

I know it's an entertainment show,, but bad dancing has never been entertaining for me.

Here here Glen. Stupid isn't it? Every night on ITT they run the phone numbers along the bottom of the screen. Why on earth don't they close the lines until after the dancing on Saturday? If it's too short a time for everyone to get their votes on, well lets have the results on Sunday.

Excellent post Glen - I think you hit many nails on the head with one swing there!

Just one more thing I'd like to add to that....I'd like to see a switch in the voting ethos, to "Who do you think are the worst dancing couple", rather than "vote for your favourite couple"

I have to agree with the sentiment of the OP, Bill should have gone, For gawds sake his partner is starting to look like a floundering amateur. The gammy foot is all very welll but when it gets him past Will, who was certainly an improved performer on Saturday, despite his eyes.

Upto now the results have been pretty well on the ball. But keeping Bill in this week is not just bad for the competition, but let's be honest his foot isn't going to get better till he gets the push.

As for Patsy and Anton being in the last two it might be that Patsy's attitude is starting to grate and Anton always runs a fine line, some will probably be highly annoyed by his antics, heck maybe the genuine ballroom dancers, who vote don't like him cos his 'larger than life' attitude is deflecting from the competition. For me I'd have him presenting a show all to himself.

Bill and Karen MUST go this week, becuase if they don't you have to look at who we will be losing.....

They absolutely HAVE to go. Seriously, I'll cry if they're in the final! Even James is quite a bit better than Bill, the Jive juust wasn't his dance. And Karen's amazing, but she seems a bit out of her depth now!!!

Yep CAT123,

Bill has to go next, please don't let it be Anton & Patsy, they deserve to get to the last four at least.

Here, here! Bill and Karen simply MUST go next Saturday. We simply CAN'T have a repeat of Series 1 where the lad from EastEnders beat Anton into the Final and also Series 2 where Julian Clary beat the worthy Aled Jones into the Final - it would be yet another injustice. But the British public are a strange and fickle lot...

Good idea but, naturally, they'd get fewer phone calls on that basis &, therefore, raise less for CIN.

To be quite honest, I can't see any way around the problem with the porcess of selecting who should go & who should stay each week.

They could give more weight to the judges' scores, but this would just exascerbate the problem; that has been upsetting people on the forum more than any of the couples, of the inconsistencies being shown.

Again, opening the phone lines only after the dancing & delaying the result until the next day, would affect the program's Saturday night entertainment status, interfere with the training schedules, possibly make it harder to register your votes (we'd still have those who are voting purely on the basis of who they like as people, or in their normal role, flooding the numbers with calls & reduce teh amount raised for CIN.

Much as I hate to admit it, I really can see the time coming when another couple who have shown real ability & improvement as dancers, throughout the course of the series will be voted off. It'll be a tragedy for whoever it happens to (Lilia admitted that she was so shocked after her & Aled went out in the Series 2 semi-final, that she cried, non-stop, for three hours & I can even understand Brendan lashing out at a cameraman, to some extent), but it is an intrinsic part of reality TV.