I often feel I am the only one living in the real world.

Why do we have a dance off when the judges are not remotely interested in who dances best.

By their own admissions, they have already decided who should go, and faced with 2 celebs who they always say should not have been in the bottom 2, they then state that the celeb they have chosen has more potential or has shown greater resolve yada yada...In other words, the dance off was a show filler.

When we, the ignorant public, had the power it often was a genuine dance off as we had only 2 celebs to vote for rather than the whole entourage.

Yet again the BBC treat the paying public as idiots...

I'm too good for this forum....

I think the dance-off has it's pros and cons:

Pros:
- it should eliminate the possibility of good dancers falling by the wayside early (e.g. Spoony from last season) unless two end up in the bottom two of course
- it's a safeguard for the notorius middle of table performers who may fall to the bottom if their supporters don't feel they need their support that week

Cons:
- the public no longer have the final say
- Len has far too much power and will only not get his way if all three other judges vote in unison against him (which let's face it is highly unlikely as they hardly ever agree with one another)

To address the latter I think they should (dare I say it) take a leaf from X-Factor and if the judges panel is 2 votes for each couple revert back to the public vote and eliminate the couple with the lowest polled vote.

I think the judges are doing a great job, imho they were right to save Letitia, I believe Stephanie was just in it for a laugh, they were also right when they gave Karen and Brian the push, I could never see Brian as a dancer and if the fans had the vote they would have been another Ballroom Bill senario with Karen and Brian lumbering around for weeks on end. I also agreed with last weeks results, I believe John is showing more progress than Willie did.

Um, when did the public ever vote on the last 2?

Like the last 4 SCD's.........

casting me aged mind back as I remember it - we voted, they announced who went through and then did the whole these are the bottom 2 couples and then they would say which of them went through. we only ever voted once - we didn't then choose between the bottom 2

There was no bottom two scenario in previous SCDs. The couple with the least votes from the public went. They only left the last two couples standing as a nailbiter before announcing who had been booted off.

yeh thats what I meant though you put it a lot more succinctly then me

what I was mainly getting at though was we only voted once - we didn't vote again between the bottom 2

Your point being?

The judges are seemingly interested in who they believe is the best overall dancer. It would have been ludicrous, for example, for Penny to have been voted off if she was in the bottom two last week because although she certainly had an off week she is generally a much better dancer than say Kate, Willie, John etc...

If they didn't take overall ability and potential into account and vote accordingly then we could end up with a final with just the average people in it - in other words, who's the more deserving winner, the couple who dance excellently every week bar one off week or the couple who are just 'okay' every week?

Der Chef

I mentioned this a few weeks ago if any of Penny, Kelly and Alesha get voted off by the judges before final night no matter how badly they dance on the night or in this "dance off" I will eat my head gear


Ohhh Yeah

except of course when they 1st introduced the dance off into the last series and we voted between louisa and emma but that was the first time

I was never aware of Ballroom Bill lumbering around

As I remember it he was a very popular contestant with the public and Bruce and Tess were almost in tears when Karen and him exited the show.

Brian didn't have a chance to show us really if he had what it takes ( even though his top line was very good which seems to be the opposite of most men new to ballroom dance )

But as far as I'm concerned Kenny definitely didn't and still hasn't got what it takes

The dance off is just another gimmick to milk a good programme to death. The public have already decided by voting who should go, and the BBC should honour that vote.

You are indeed entitled to your opinion as I am to mine. :yawn::yawn:

My point being the simple statement made by Bruce and Tess several times to the effect that the celebs now have a chance to impress the Judges in a dance off.

A dance off is a competition.....pure and simple.

As I said, why bother?

My memory must be going....

After the two had been chosen, we had a brerak of about 1 to 2 hours to continue voting. The two drop outs would then prance around the floor and shortly after (not before) they had both had another go, the lines closed.

This gave the public the chance to vote out the looser and the public a SECOND chance at voting

QED

Because the judges (and a proportion of the public) were peed off with good dancers leaving early. That seems to be the reason given in various places.

Thanks, that hits the nail on the head.

It is what the judges want...not the viewers, and this is what ticks the judges off.

Please remember this is all about the viewers and not about the judges. It is the viewers money that goes to children in need and the license payers money to the judges.

I do think the dance off is a waste of time....and the fact that it is shown the next day doesn't help. I liked the fact that in previous years the public had more say. I know the system was not perfect (to say the least) but at least your vote was worth more.....you could actually save someone. I haven't actually voted yet.....and usually by now I have....I wonder if the new system will raise as much for children in need as it has done in previous years.

There are 2 things being discussed here. One is the judges having the final vote when faced with the bottom 2 contestants. That I agree with as this way the likes of Georgina Bouzova would have gone in week 3 last year instead of Spoony.

The other thing is the actual dance off, i.e. the 2 bottom couples having to dance again "to impress the judges". Now that I don't agree with as the judges aren't really watching the dance and deciding based on this - they are busy deciding who they're going to keep in based on previous form or future potential, as they do on fame academy and other similar programmes. The dance off is a pointless exercise.

How can the judges having the final vote be kept in without the "academic" dance off? Simple - a Big Brother type "best bits" VT after the safe people are announced and we're left with the bottom 2. Then the judges in turn decide who stays. Whoever goes then has a "last dance"

Well, that's what I would do if I produced the show

I agree.........but the Dance off fills air time.........Personally I`d rather see another pro dance or possibly introduce the general public(Like Me) to those Dancers who still compete on the pro circuit.