Some are suggesting, the BBC are giving Emma way more positive publicity than anyone else because they want her in the final as this will get the biggest ratings.

Why?

It has become quite clear that she is more unpopular with the public than both Matt and Mark, as well as likely Carol, probably Louisa and possibly even Claire. Surely the biggest audience draw for the final would be the two most popular contestants - Mr Sex Symbol and J Boy ( )?

If a TV show finds out that someone is popular with the fans (e.g. some of the more minor roles in the Stargate series come to mind) they get given more screen time, knowing that more people will continue to watch. Why would the beeb be aiming for the opposite here?

What with not being up against the XFactor, the SCD final will likely get a bigger audience any way so they don't have to worry about the competition. The SCD audience is fairly stable - those who want to watch it pretty much already do and those who have no interest are very unlikely to turn over just because one of the least famous members of a long defunct 90's girl group are in it. And there's a great PR spin that can be put on to having the first all male final.

Honestly, for the BBC to allegedly be battling so hard to get Emma into the final just doesn't make any sense. Based on what people have been saying, she's more likely to turn people off watching than make them tune in. The BBC are not stupid - they've seen the voting figures and know how popular the two boys are. It would make no sense ratings wise to push for the least popular contestant to get to the final if that's what they were interested in.

So, if anyone truly believes that they're pushing her for ratings reasons I would be interested to hear why you think the BBC are ignoring this obvious logic...

Well Emma IS popular, look how many threads there are on her in this forum alone ...

I think there might be something going on but not conspiracy of any kind... Maybe something about Emmas career or something seeing they let her do the CIN single and appear on the show, but nothing really that deep down...

Though I still think it has something to do with Aliens ...

Podpeople! And rectal probes! I am sure they are involved!

Well, you could argue that if the viewers perceive there to be bias, which in turn causes controversy, the greater the viewing - and voting - figures are likely to be. I'm quite a devotee of SCD, but never vote - however, I think it quite likely that I will do so on Saturday as I'm fed up of having Emma rammed down my throat. Similarly, I'm sure many of Emma's fans will feel the same, only in reverse.
That's if you believe the overexposure of Emma is all down to ratings, of course.....

Just a thought, but could the BBC be aiming for a Darren and Lilia final. Who will win husband or wife?

Well, there is a plethora of researchers and producers working on a format like this, and you can bet some of them don't do anything else than read forums like this all day ( Hi there *waves*), so they'll know the mood exactly. And the situation ? Already huge controversy about who may win this, people watching ITT with a stopwatch to check if anyone gets more airtime etc. What more can they aim for ? Everybody is talking about it, everybody is watching it. And a lot of people will be voting to balance out the percieved bias - what more can you want ?

I think a Mark v Matt final is the logical outcome to the whole series and may well be exactly what the BBC now wants .
I have never thought there was a conspiracy so much as blatant over promotion , for what reason ? who knows .

I think they are hugely over publicising her but only because they want to encourage voters and by that make more money!

Baffled as to why the judges over mark (and they do/have done) Bruno always seems to find the most famous and gushes until they leave, silly boy con't control himself.

Emma may not be the most popular with the audience but she is certainly the most high profile celebrity they have signed up for the series. She certainly has the most profile friends - this has not passed the BBC by. I think they would like nothing more than for Emma to make the final so that they can fill the studio with the most well named faces they can. Getting all the ex Spice girls supporting Emma, especially the Beckhams would be a major coup on the eve of Christmas if they achieve that. Dont rule out such cynical thinking - they would have considered it.

They probably arent interested in the final outcome, but they would love Emma to get to the final (in my opinion).

Emma is obviously receiving extra marks for her dances, probably from the judge on the grassy knoll .

Perhaps it is only those of us who wear the tin-foil hats to ward off the mind-altering rays from the satellites that are able to appreciate this!

Perhaps the blatant over promotion is to encourage people to vote daily to generate more funds for CIN. A number of people on this forum alone, myself included, are sick and tired of having Emma Bunton's marvellous-ness rammed in our faces at every opportunity. This will encourage some people, myself not included, to vote more often for the couples who are not E&D thus generating more money for CIN from calls that may have tailed off during the week. Perhaps.

She's the biggest 'name' they've ever had. If she wins, other big names will be queuing up to take part. Wonderful self adverts for them. That is why all the pro dancers are now backing her and falling over themselves to say what a wonderful dancer she is.

Bigger names=bigger ratings=bigger salaries for the pro dancers AND a guarantee of future work through their high profile. How many non dancers had heard of Anton before SCD? Now he's a household name (OK I'll admit, if someone starts preening in front of a mirror in our house, it's called doing an Anton, but no publicity is bad publicity is it?) They can command much bigger appearnace fees and the spin offs, so it pays to push Emma to get more names signing up.

Tasi, I couldnt have said it better myself! In fact, I tried to, but couldnt!

So now it's not just the BBc that's in on the conspiracy, it's also all the professional dancers? Do you imagine they have meetings every morning to prep everyone involved in SCD about this strategy? How is such a big conspiracy coordinated?

Next someone will be saying the swirly camera action is somehow linked to Emma being good for ratings.

I really cannot see why people are getting so wound up about Emma. She is a good dancer, maybe not excellent and I do agree that the judges do overmark but you guys seems to think there is some major conspiracy going on. It was interesting last night to hear more of the professionals say that Emma should win, surely they are not all being mamipulated by the BBC?

I don't want her to win, I would prefer one of the boys but that has been my opinion since very early on but if she does I won't lose any sleep over it.

Some of the posts on here over the last few weeks have been staggering and the reaction to Lousia leaving last week was unbelievable. I thought I must have strayed into a Big Brother forum.

I did read in the papers at the weekend that Emma is in negotiations with the BBC about presenting some shows for them after her singing career stalled yet again so maybe getting her to the Final would smooth things along.

You took the words right out of my mouth, the swirly camera is in on it too...

I can see it now, all the pro's and the BBC execs all in an underground bunker plotting on World domination using the Bunton ...

Maybe the Aliens don't have anything to do with it after all...

Without reading the response to your post, I would say quite possibly, the conspiracy theorists would argue that the public is sick of Emma's over-exposure and wanted her out, therefore tuning in to watch her get booted. Keeping her there for as long as possible might even make some vote for Mr Sex Symbol and Mr J-man, thus £££ for the BBC.

I don't know about the swirly camera thinger, but have noted that when thet show training foortage, Mark is shown in half-body focus where you can't really see the point of their movement, which makes it look pointless and unpleasing to the eye, while Emma and Darren are shown from further away where one can see the total movement of the dance which makes it look much better. But it may be that Mark and Karen's training footage camera team is really stupid and incompetent .

I don't believe there is a conspiracy. They're promoting her because she does have the highest profile of anyone on the show and has a lot of celebrity friends. Hardly her fault.IMO she is the most consistent dancer left in the competition, and if it weren't for the over marking of judges blinded by the fact she's an ex Spice Girl I might have voted for her.I think their bias has been the main reason why so many people have turned against her.

Yeah, being a budding photographer, I think it depends on the cameraman, unless the producers bother to tell them off, they will choose what they think to be the best 'angle'. I thought Mark's fans like to look at the facial expression of Mark? With close-ups, you get to see the eyes better, definitely.

As she is so high profile surely more promotion for some of the other celeb dancers would be more in order to even equal the coverage Ms Bunton is getting.

I have said before, I do not object to Emma Bunton in the competition, I object to having her pushed at me as the best and judges telling me I'm stupid for not voting for her. My vote is mine to do with as I choose and when Tess says in each show "vote for your favourite" that is what we are entitled to do!

Of course it makes sense for them to back Emma! Even more so if she's unpopular. Think how many more votes they can get out of the Matt/Mark fans if they think shes a favourite. Think how much attention the favouritism has gained the show. Their ratings are going up and their revenues. If she goes out they'll lose the 'big' story of the season.

You don't really think that the BBC- or any other channel which runs a reality prog - give NO promotional/editorial/marketing direction whilst the programme is in progress? Do you?!

I suppose the controversy might be a factor, but forum opinion is probably not typical of the audience as a whole.

Most viewers don't follow the show nearly as closely as we do, and most don't vote. That's a problem with claire2281's reasoning in the OP. It has not become so "clear that she is more unpopular with the public than both Matt and Mark".

In any case, she's well-known and having her in the final may well get more people to watch, including people who haven't been watching regularly.