His mark did make a huge difference. If he'd marked her in line with the others with a 7, leaving Emma in 5th place, she might well have been 'saved' by the public, who would have percived her in danger of going, however his 9 falsely elevated where she should have been, thus annoying people and putting them off voting for her. It's exactly what happened to Zoe last year. In a strange way, Mark's marks (hell that's confusing) might have done him a big favour in the long run, as he won't be percived by the public as someone who's constantly overmarked, as Emma is.

Thankyou Tissy because I thought exactly the same last night. If Bruno hadn't given her the 9 she would have gone. Hopefully, her being in the bottom two will give her the kick up the backside she needs to start training like the other couples and prove to us that she is deserving of the good marks the judges give her.

Personally, I think she's missed to many practice sessions to win the competition on merit. Technically others are now a long way in front of her. Therefore my main worry is, if she does knuckle down to it and somehow manages to start "nailing the steps", the perception of the public that the judges consistently overmarked her throughout the series will cause a vote "anyone but Emma" backlash if she somehow managed to make it into the final.

Peter going out this week was the fairest result - LOVE him, his love of the dance and the shoes, and his brilliant partnership with Erin. Sad to see him go, but someone had to.

Wish Bruno would stop overmarking his favourites - not doing them any favours. Seems to be causing them to lose public support.

Agree with Agent Krycheck - Neither Emma nor Mark deserved to go over 1 bad week when they've both been really consistent up until now.

From now it gets much tougher though. Everyone improving and all the couples strong in different areas. Eeek. I won't be able to tell until the dances next week who should go at this point. They've all now had a bad week at some point, so whoever pulls it out of the bag next week deserves to stay.

I like Peter, but by rights, he had to go. He has consistently been the weakest dancer for several weeks now.

Emma is definitely this year's Zoe. Has good ability, popular with the judges but the public think she is favoured over the other dancers and could well vote her out if she has another bad week.

She didn't deserve to go off the back of one average dance - nearly all of the couples suffered quite heavy criticism in last night's show.

I don't care either way whether Emma stays, but I do think it's interesting that no-one seems to have withdrawn their complaints about the CIN single. According to the bizarre conspiracy theory, Emma should already have received so many votes this week due to CIN exposure, that by the time she danced she was already safe. This was obviously not the case.

Maybe now people can stop harping on about it and concentrate on whether she deserves her place based on dancing ability. For me, the right couple left last night. Emma wasn't the best, but she wasn't the worst either. I do feel she was overmarked, but not significantly.

Well said Katie, I agree 100% with your post - in fact so much so I wonder if you are one of the voices in my head - lol!

Maddi

I don't think the complaints were so much about how many votes she'd get, they were more about her profile being raised that much higher than all of the other contestants because of it

But why would that matter unless she received votes as a result?

I don't claim to understand the logic, as I have said before it seems completely bizarre to me!

It's all about perceived "fairness"..... and of course she will get some votes because of it...... but fans of the other couples get to see less of them and endure more of Emma as a result.

A combination of that, the favouritism from the judges and the overkill of her supporters on ITT have greatly contributed to the Emma bashing.... the BBC should admit they made an error of judgement in having her perform the CiN single..... end of story

Zoe suffered similar backlash last year and that was without a CIN single !

I will agree with that comment definitely
Won't put it in as harsh a words as did the 'doodle-bug' but I can't but be glad that the GBP is wising up to her more than limited dancing abilities (even if some of the judges won't) well before the final. Don't want (need) any 'deja vu' of last year there......

Nonetheless Peter leavin' last night is a fair result, imo

I'm glad she was in the bottom 2. I love Darren, but Emma gets on my nerves. Her cha cha last night was not the best, she should have got a lower mark. Her footwork was awful, and Len was right, she didn't straighten her legs once.

While I think Emma did not deserve a 9 for her dance last night, it was only one judge who overmarked her. I think the most hideously overmarked dancer of the night was Mark, whose rumba did not deserve two 8's! I thought Craig and Arlene's scores were fairer, and reflected the level of his posey rumba. However, no-one seems to be questioning those 8's, even though we heard from Mark's mouth that it wasn't his best dance.

BTW, I don't think Mark or Emma should have gone last night, as they are better than quite a few still remaining in the show.

I agree that neither Emma or Mark should have gone - but Bruno has done her absolutely no favours at all.

The judges now know that she is not the most popular with the public, will think that if they want her to progress further they will have to continue to mark exhuberantly. This in turn means that she is less popular with the public - and the cycle continues.

At least Mark's mark ( ) in some way reflected that his dance was not so good - and his position on the leader board also reflected that. When all is said and done, the actual scores to some degree are academic - it is where those scores place them on the leader board and how they are converted into the points which makes the difference. Emma was artificially high up the leader board by one or 2 places giving her a point or 2 in hand for the viewers.

When it was Peter and her in the bottom 2 it was fairly obvious that Peter would be going because it was a big ask for him to have made up that many points. He had also - as seems to be the theme with the more average dancers this year - performed a good dance on the week he went out.

The judges are becoming more and more inconsistent. It makes Emma look bad, and when they think they are helping her, they are really not.

I agree with that. The judges are there to give their personal opinions on the dancing not try to manipulate the result. The BBC and the judges are obviously working to some agenda as they did last year.

I find Emma irritating but that is only underlined by the judges. Her dancing has loads of faults which they overlook. Everyone has good and bad weeks but Emma has mostly average weeks and is overmarked. Peter has been poor all along and it was right he should go. He should have gone last week really.

There is no point in being bitchy about anyone, it is an entertainment show, people who get nasty about the celebrities who come higher than their personal favourite should take a reality check.

you moan that everyone is having a dig at emma yet you then say claire and brendan should go when judging by last nights performance C&B were better than E&D. so although you have a problem with people picking on emma you are clearly just as biased so you cna't really moan.

Yes but Claire and Brendan have been a lot weaker than Emma and Darren and she is so smug and deserves to go. Im not moaning im stating an opinion that everyone digs at Emma constantly and its getting boring. I think and I know some others on other forums have thought it too that the only reason Brendan and Claire got through was because when people where voting for Matt and Lilia or so they thought they ended up voting for Claire and Brendan because the names where wrong at the end, just a thought so don't go ripping my head off. Peter's performance was better last night than last week and he was higher last week with public than this week so there maybe truth in it. I think though Mark and Karen where one of the weakest last night

No - you're wrong on that one!

Claire has actually been a MUCH stronger dancer and technically better than Emma in absolutely everything bar the Salsa. Emma has been the judges blue eyed girl and overmarked every week. Emma's mistakes have been overlooked and not penalised whereas every mistake Claire has made made has been pointed out and penalised.

Had they actually been marked on a level playing field - without the judges bias - I think you'd find that Claire marginally outpoints Emma.

It was interesting to see that the first week the judges dropped Emma out of the top 2 or 3 - she appears in the bottom 2 after the viewers have their say...

Unless she actually falls flat on her face next week in what ever dance she's doing - expect to see her up there again... unless of course the Beeb deem that she's outlived her usefulness for CIN week......

I think it hopefully will give Darren and Emma the kick up the bum they need

To be honest I've never thought that Claire was smug. I think that she has a well developed sense of irony and affords herself a smile whenever the public go against the judges, but that's probably because I do the same

I think that having realised the fact that Emma isn't so popular with the judges she will whizz back to the top of the leader board and Bruno will be going into overdrive with gesticulation, pouting and alliteration.

sorry to pick an argument but you have a real problem with 'emma bashing' and this mainly generates from things she can't help such as being overmarked by the judges and doing the CIN single(although she chose to do thsi i doubt she felt it would give her an advantage).

however you then say that claire should go becasue "she is smug". that is the stupidest thing i have heard in a while, she can't necessarily help looking smug it could quite easily be the way she copes with the nerves of eviction. if you believe claire should go becasue she is "smug" then surely other people have every right to say emma should go becasue the judges overmark her. both of these things are not their fault yet irritate certain people.

rant over.

I do not dislike Emma, in fact I expected her to be one of my favourites at the start of the series. That said, I've not really enjoyed her dances. I can't put my finger on it, she just looks lumpy. As for Mark & Karen, it was a strange Rumba, he had a massive problem with the 'sexiness', but he was technically proficient and certanly was not the worst dancer, neither was Emma. It was the worst dancer that left last night, and that must be fair.

I don’t necessarily think she should go just because she is smug, for one its not her fault she is dancing with Brendan who is winding me up completely he is acting so unprofessionally, she was better on Saturday than previous weeks but I still find her one of the weakest. Even though I do believe she is smug sorry but I do. I do think Bruno over marked Emma on Saturday should of gone with the 7 - 8 not 9, hopefully though being in the bottom 2 has given Emma the push she needs and hopefully does more training rather than promoting her single or album.

Excuse me while I faint with shock!!!

You are the pupil of Ian's who personally attacked me and other posters in this forum last year for daring to criticise Zoe's irritating personality and poor Latin dancing technique!?!