What is the point of the public voting when the decision is left to the judges regardless of how popular or unpopular
a contestant is?

I know it should be based on skill and performance but why waste money voting for someone when the decision is taken by ex- skaters/dance critics.

Let them judge it along lines of Strictly CD by selecting the bottom two then letting it up to the public to see who they want to keep in.After all we are the audience not the judging panel.

If not we will end up with boring celebs saving their careers and relying solely on the professional ice dancers regardless of how unpopular they are with the viewing public...

PS In last three weeks my favourites have gone out despite
redial....

The point of the public vote is to raise the money to pay for the making of the programme!

Yes, I think it should be the public who should get the final decision on who goes out - not the judges.

I think the point is that the public still have an element of the decision (in that otherwise the person to go would be the one with the lowest score), but the judges get the final decision to avoid someone very bad at skating but popular to keep getting through.

Although it pains me to say it (I really didn't want John to go either), if someone received a lot of votes from the viewer they wouldn't be in the bottom 2 anyway.

It is a popularity contest and nothing to do with Skating ability. Its getting a bit of a joke now.

this is the reason why i never voted on the Xfactor

why waste money when the judges keep whoever they think and not who is best

Atleast the x factor changed this towards the end of the series.

Who decides the actual winner? The public or the judges.

Well, actually, the intention of giving judges the decision on who goes removes it from being ENTIRELY a popularity contest. Being popular saves you from the judges view. But judges are there to make a decision on skating - not on who they like best. (Whether you agree with their decision is a whole other question.) But you can't argue that the public should have the final say and then complain it's a popularity contest.