Um...come across as over the top, compleately fake, over competitive, grating laugh, grating voice, false modesty ('Me?, Good?, Really?) - I could go on!

Last week there was hardly any difference in judges' scores for the top 4 women, being 33, 31, 30, 29. Under the rules judges' rankings were then added to phone vote rankings to derive the final placing (lowest number best, where combined scores are equal, the phone vote takes precedence).

Although Brucie did not say so, the announcement of Safe Candidates was traditionally done in order of combined score, best score first - Penny. Inferring backwards from the combined score, the phone vote could have been as below:

Penny -- judges 3rd - phone 1st -- combined score 4.
Alesha - judges 2nd - phone 2nd - combined score 4.
Kelly ---- judges 1st - phone 3rd -- combined score 4.
Gabby -- judges 4th - phone 5th -- combined score 9.
Kate ---- judges 7th - phone 4th -- combined score 11.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Laetitia - judges 6th - phone 6th - combined score 12.
Stephanie - judg 5th - phone 7th - combined score 12.

Despite the boost of winning on judges' scores, Kelly only came third on the phone vote. She clearly has an electoral problem, just as Emma had a problem last year. Lets see how Kelly comes across on It Takes Two when she appears.

It's unclear if Kate scored 4th or 5th on the phone vote, either could have explained the final score. Gabby would have a problem, if she had been leapt over by a one-legged woman.

I really like Kelly. She seems like a really nice person. I hope she does well. And she looks fabulous.

Not true.

I think you are wrong and you have the scores wrong . Top gets 7 down to 1 so Kate got 1 with the judges and Kelly got 7. Similarly top with telephone vote gets 7 and last gets 1 .

Kate MUST have scored very high with the public .
Also it is usually in no particular order , except the most suspenseful so to speak !

I take your point.
No doubt many would be interested in the actual phone vote returns if anyone could let on, or hint.

Most certainly would be interesting


Yes you`re right with the scoring.

Kate must have been placed at least 3rd I would think, maybe 4th with the public vote. Too late in the day for me to try and work it out properly.

I enjoyed her dance on Saturday as well, I was just getting fed up with being of accused of jealousy when I don't even dislike her, just found her comments on Saturday a bit annoying.

Kelly and Penny were joint first on the judges' leaderboard last week.

They always make a point of saying "in no particular order" when they announce the safe couples, so I don't see how you can work out the telephone vote from that.

hmmm if having a laugh, working hard, dancing well and generally enjoying it is bringing out the worst - I'd hate to see what their best is!!!

I am not a fan of Brendan Cole but I do like Kelly. She is a truly beautiful woman.

However I think she has wound people up (me in particular) because her publicity machine has gone into overdrive - for example yesterday she launched her own perfume - I know all the contestants go on SCD to raise their profile - it is just that Kelly is not being too subtle about it...Consequently this year SCD is the Kelly show

But she does that kind of thing anyway. Ok, not perfume before, but clothing. It probably is timed to go with SCD, but it's not clear that gives her more media coverage in total than if she'd done it separately, and it doesn't have much effect on SCD. I don't see how it can possibly make it the Kelly show.

I think some people have just become "sensitised" to her, for example when they become annoyed by how much she's in the press. I'm a bit surprised by how little coverage she's getting. The tabloids normally feature Kelly at the slightest excuse, I've hardly noticed anything, apart from a few Start cover articles (which were negative and so presumably not down to her PR). I've seen more magazine articles about Kate than Kelly.

(I'm sure there are things I haven't seen, but I'd have to make an effort to find them.)

Well said Veri, I'm sure if any of the other female contestants brought out something relevant to them at this time, it would hardly be mentioned or seen in a positive light - but because it's Kelly........

No that is not true (certainly in my case) - Just because I have been critical it is not to have a go at Kelly - For example, last year Emma annoyed me by releasing her single during the series - I do think Kelly's publicist has been in overdrive - one could say good on her "make hay while the sun shines" however I just think she has been overpublicised - I have nothing against her personally

Much of the publicity she and Brendan receive has absolutely nothing to do with their publicists - it's the red tops making a meal out of anything they can get their hands on because they know it sells papers so you can hardly blame either of them for that as it's totally out of their control.

By the way, that wasn't an attack at you in any way shape or form - just an observation from the way these forums behave in general

Do you really think that sort of thing has nothing to do with their publicists or PR people?

Yes, the red tops have been doing it for years.

They pick up on a piece of gossip, or something minor that happened and blow it all out of proportion - example is the huge fall out Kelly and Brendan are supposed to have had a couple of weeks ago with Kelly threatening to walk out, blah blah blah - when asked both of them said yes they'd had a difference of opinion BUT not nearly as explosive as the tabloids made out and certainly not to the extent that Kelly was ready to walk.

The press are not very scrupulous as to where they get their stories most of the time, just as long as it sells papers.

Like Brendan, not a fan of Kelly. Bit of a problem really!

A lot of Kelly's press has been, and continues to be, negative (and negative in a damaging way). Either her PR people have secretly had it in for her all these years or they're not really behind it all.

We wait a whole week to see a dance, then it takes only 90 seconds? Questionable if members of the public without ballroom dancing background will remember more than an impression of the 90-second whirligig.

Personality Appeal

By contrast there is far more than 90 seconds of footage showing practice sessions with the interplay of expert and learner, man and woman, sparing no unguarded moment, censoring no revealing word. I believe last year Matt Dawson's easy grace and humour won him a mountain of phone votes which he could not have won from the dance floor. Unfortunately by the time Matt reached the final both he and Lilia became overawed by the magnitude of the prize before them. Matt tensed up losing his greatest asset and whatever chance he might have had.

Whereas a politician's set piece is a speech rather than a dance, his or her voter appeal is not least affected by how voters would see him or her as a guest at the family sunday lunch. After only two weeks of SCD I believe more vignettes still need to televised before the public take each celebrity to heart -- or not.

SCD is a runaway success, its predecessor Come Dancing was not. Like SCD, CD showed glamorous dancing, good-looking dancers and dresses, with judges marking and making colourful comments. Unlike SCD, CD offered no intimate background footage of 14 candidates on a journey of self improvement.

The similarities between SCD and The Apprentice are striking. As in Big Brother and The X-Factor, the carrot of decisive voting power gets viewers drawn in even more.

Actually I think you'll find Come Dancing was very popular in it's heyday but times changed and with a new decade, Ballroom dancing became unpopular so people stopped watching. Also the format was entirely different - CD was region competing against region with established Dance Schools and dancers from those areas representing those Regions where as SCD is about Celebrities learning a new skill - ie reality TV.

When CD was popular there was no concept of Reality TV like there is now. People watched because of the glitz, glamour and the dance skill - not to see the behind the scenes training footage and progress each week.

I saw only one CD onsite in Bournemouth, round about 1994. The show was was VERY beautiful, as were some young contestants whom I still remember.

CD contestants were of a very high standard indeed towards the latter rounds. Because of this high standard and lack of background footage the mass of non-dancing viewers did not identify with inidividual candidates, turned over at a rate of knots.

If CD were to be revived which it could be, given that ballroom dancing has now received a 300% boost nationwide, I believe the latter type of footage would likely be added.

You caught it in it's decline, as I said before during it's heyday Come Dancing was fabulous, it really was but unfortunately it became dated and people lost interest.

I do believe that if they bought it back re-vamped it would be a ratings hit but the powers that be remain to be convinced.