Der Chef says

That the "fantastic four" will boot out before the final any of Alesha, Penny or Kelly no matter how badly they may have danced on a particular night

Should have made this a poll actually


Ohhh Yeah

They may have to if we get sympathy voting.

I'd say Gabby almost definitely, as people don't like over-competitiveness (especially in women). Possibly Kelly as well.

However unless two of them end up in the bottom two the judges will probably save them.

Hmm, if in a scenario such that Kelly and Alesha had a bad hair day so to speak and they were at the bottom two, then, yes, one of them would have to go. Is there a real choice to speak of?

Yes, but I don't want to think this show is decided right from the off.

Der Chef

Yeah well obviously in that case

Ohhh Yeah

The judges have blatantly picked their final three: Kelly, Penny & Alesha.

No matter how little of the public vote they get, the judges votes are going to keep them in the top ones.

Yes.

...

not necessarily the case, what if towards the end, we vote 2 of those in the bottom 2, then one would have to go. Not that I'd want them to btw, from what we've seen so far, those 3 seem to be the best

I think of all 5 series this is the one with e likeliest outcome ,
the winner /top3 are fairly obvious .
I woudl; love to see one of the men give them a run for their money .

Me too! It's going to get boring if the women are already getting 8s and 9s for their first dances.

Louisa and Emma got high marks from the get go and neither were in the final 2 - although I suppose we are assuming the judges would have saved them and sent Matt packing if they had the final say last year. However, that wouldn't have been possible in the week Emma and Louisa were in the bottom 2 so it's not that cut and dried...

Der Chef postulates

I think SCD producers were worried about attracting top female celebs to this year SCD as we had the last two year male celebs in the final two as both Zoe Ball and Emma Bunton suffered badly from a "bitchy" vote.

So I believe this re jig of the format was designed to offset the demographics of who votes

Just my idea.

Ohhhh Yeah

*BTW before you say a female celeb won in the first two years it was a different show then simpler and less formal.

I don't think that Emma suffered from a bitchy vote, more that she started from a much stronger position that the others, and the public knew that. No matter how many times we were told that she was "Really nervous" or that the ten years she spent at stge school learning to dance every day were not a help, or that for most of her adult life she had worked with professional dancers, learning dance routines, and erm...dancing were not really an advantage, the public were not fooled. The judges lost their favourite due to their obvious bias.

The judges want the best dancer to win - even if that person has been training all their life, or had a rich hubby willing to pay for shed loads of lessons for them, or whatever. The public want the person who has tried the hardest, developed the most and enjoyed the ride.

Not always the same person.

We need to have 2 faves in the bottom 2 to see what the judges are made of.

People voted Emma out because she was the judges chosen one and was given special treatment.

I don't like that the judges have the final say. Yes it's bad when people like Spoony get voted out. But the viewers get what the viewers deserve. We are the ones meant to choose. So why is it okay for them to have yet another say after their marks.

At the very least they should not get a say in who is in the final. The semi-final and final should be soley on the merging of their marks and the viewers vote.

It's obvious that they are always going to save Kelly if she is in the bottom two, because she was the focus of all the pre-series (and during-series) publicity and because she brings her Hollywood-star boyfriend to the show.

What is interesting is that some producers have put the BBC in a position again where people might think they are being deceptive.
Can you trust them? - No.

I can't see Kelly or Alesha being in the bottom two in the first place, at least not judging from what I have seen of them so far. They are terrific. Penny is good too. On ITT tonight Clive said her jive rehearsal was awful but she might have improved by Saturday.

Of course the judges have their favourites, don't we all? But that doesn't mean they are going to be unfair to the other contestants.

Erm, who's Clive?

Is that a Freudian Slip?

In Dancing on Ice the judges had the 'saving' vote on the bottom 2, and were not afraid to vote off John Barrowman who had, until that week, been a favourite of both judges and viewers, for the final. So why do we think Strictly judges will be afraid to vote out a fave if he/she has a bad week and ends in bottom 2?

Her boyfriend is a fairly minor chartacter as Hollywood actors go and is unlikely to make much difference to the show. Rod Stewart and the husband-wife pairing are going to be much more significant, for example.

Also, Kelly wasn't the focus of publicity because the BBC wanted her to be or arranged it. The tabloids and the rest just behaved in their normal way.

It doesn't do anything at all towards showing she's favoured by the show or that the judges will save her.

Indeed, I think the judges would save many of them over Kelly. Kelly won't get a sympathy vote, and she's already too good to have much of a "journey". She doesn't have the popularity with viewers that goes with being from a popular soap, a sport, or a currently running show. If she doesn't dance well, she's gone.

You can't criticise the judges for liking Kelly, Alesha and Penny. They are by far the better dancers, and if the judges save them its not because they have their favourites - the judges will save them because they are much better dancers than all the others. In fact all of them could be professional dancers. So, of course the judges will save them if the public put them in the bottom 2. And if the public do put these women in the bottom 2 then thank god the judges can have the final word and save them.

As for Emma, she was a really good dancer and deserved to do well. In fact, she should have gone further. Shame the judges didn't have the final vote on that series as they would have saved her - not because she was their favourite (although you can't blame they as she was very good) but because she was a jolly good dancer, and a really bubbly personality.