The judges are probably told to "ham it up a bit"
But with all of them, their first priority will be to get noticed and boost their own publicity.
Some of the remarks they make or obviously "pre-prepared"
None of them are really that articulate. Particularly Arlene and Bruno.
Len obviously has a "library of little remarks" he uses from his teaching experience. I like Craig. He's quite transparent.
On another point I haven't suggested it is a fix, but if it isn't why not publish the votes cast the previous week, in the middle of the following week? The BBC will always find an excuse to avoid doing this.

As to whether there's "manipulation?"

This is very possible, choice of particular dances and to extent an imposed choice of music will cause problems for "the unfavoured."

You can call the BBC many things, but daft they ain't when it comes to their priorities.

funny typo lol

Yes I think they have, the arguing is not necessary I don't think they care about the contest that much. They all have equal vote.
James and Georgina have made quite a few headlines so they have to think of something to get them press attention now.
There are more legit ways to fix SCD rather than just changing the phone vote. The public are very predicatable and easy to manipulate
Last edited by Eclipse80 : 28-10-2006 at 23:44

You are absolutely right Xadie - I think I am simply struggling to understand how so many people don't like the format of the SCD, don't like the format of ITT, don't like the fact the show is too showbiz or don't the fact that expectations are too technical, they don't like Brucie, they don't like Tess, they don't like the guest singers, they don't like the new dances, they don't like Claudia instead of JLC, they don't like the camera work - ok I concede that last point, the camera work does my head in - they don't like or trust the voting system, and they don't like anyone who enjoys the programme for what it is - a saturday night light entertainment show which raises funds for Children in Need - so you see my dilemma I don't understand what they are doing watching it and then posting complaints on here for hours.

And that is not the same than having differences on who danced the best or for that matter entertained the most - which sometimes are two very different things.

I don't think it's a good idea to publish the percentages during the series, but it would be nice to see them after the series ends.

I remember after the first Pop Idol, they included them in a book after the final, and it was an interesting read. The bookies favourite, Gareth, actually didn't win as many weeks as Will did, and in the semi final, although they announced the difference in votes between the top two, it turned out to be the other way round to what was expected.

I'm sure if the votes had been published during the series, for PI, SCD or any similar show, there would be even more tactical voting.

I love the show, and have followed each series religiously - but three things ARE spoiling it this time

- the camerawork
- the music
- the consistency of marking

all of which seem to have deterioriated since last year.

I wouldn't want them to publish the voting figures. I don't see it's any skin of the nose of the BBC who wins. There still seems to be bad feeling here after Spoonygate. He didn't get enough votes, he got knocked out, that's the way the cookie crumbles. In the end all that matters who wins, not what order they go out in.
I think it's better that the dancers (who don't land in the bottom two) don't really know how they are doing in the public's mind. If they see themselves ahead and more importantly if the public know who's ahead then I think it would alter the very nature of the competition. I'm quite happy to only know who's in the bottom two and who's going home. Everything else being "random" adds to the mystery that unfolds at the end.

Agree with this entirely. The Will vs Gareth result was in the end not as surprising as people maybe thought it was. If however, people had known Will was ahead all along it would have altered people's behaviour. Quite happy (and interested) to see the figures once it's all over.

One thing they could at least do is reveal the votes for the final.
I would have liked to have known just how many people voted for Chris Parker or just how close Colin and Darren were

I agree it would be interesting to know the voting after the event. Knowing on the night would probably spoil things. And let's not lose sight of the fact that this is essentially a fundraising/getting people into dancing venture. I find the suggestion that BBC would risk fixing it rather weird: it simply isn't worth their while to risk it. Conspiracy theories are all very well but in this day and age, hushing that up for 4 series would just not happen.

That's totally fair enough, I can see that this forum can be quite negative sometimes, although I don't think that it's always the same people complaining about the same things. Sometimes it just seems that way!

To paraphrase Brendon "because they're passionate about the show".

That' something I would like to know as well. As some are suggesting that last year's showdance was a foregone conclusion in Darren's favour and I simply don't agree.


But I seem to remember last year something about some employees being sacked (or under investigation I can't remember which) from BT for leaking information to betting cartels about the voting patterns for shows like SCD/X-Factor. It's not strictly illegal but as you can imagine that information in the hands of such people could poison the outcome of a show of the format of SCD

It seems odd that Georgina and James were improving over the weeks, whereas Jan hadn't, so she got voted off.
Funny really, because last year, Darren Gough was in a similar situation, but he went on and won it, i'm not saying Georgina would have won, but it would have been nice to see how far she really could have got.

I felt that also. If anything Jan was the weakest dancer last nite. But Georgina's RFB simply couldn't sustain yet another save against Jan and Anton, whom I support get a lot of support throughout the week (I don't know that for sure, just a hunch I have) as well as on the nite. But unless Jan puts in an absolutely scorching performance next week I would want to see her voted off next week (I am an absolute Dead Ringers fan by the way).

I cannot believe the BBC would risk fixing the public vote.

However, in view of Spoony's eviction, could it be that the judges purposely put Jan and Georgina above the bottom places so that the public votes went for Peter and Clare?


I thought there was some weird marking last night. Normally most of the judges are in line with what I think, but not this week.

It's not really odd at all. In fact a lot of people on here predicted that if she did a decent performance and the judges were nice to her, she'd be out. She's really not that good a dancer and as soon as she did okay, the sympathy vote that was mainly keeping her in disappeared. Also Spoony going last week may have encouraged more people to vote 'fairly' for dance reasons rather than others.

It would. If Jan is struggling with ballroom and being taught by Anton well Latin is going to be a nightmare. Can't wait for the samba!
It's good Georgina did go on a high but she did finally prove herself to be there then she gets chucked out. Really if Jan hopes to stay in the contest she better hope she gets the lowest score from the judges.