As we all know, the judges on Saturday night were divided, and it came down to a decision by Len. Len said he had to make the decison based purely on the dance performed in the dance-off.

However, as someone points out in a post on last night's ITT thread:


My guess is that Len was thinking that there were already 2 strong potential girl finalists (Alesha and Kelly), and they need to keep a couple of decent male dancers too, so he'd better save Matt.

Then he "justified" that decision with the "best dance on the night" argument, forgetting that he gave the opposite reasoning, though probably with the same objective in mind, the previous week.

I loved Penny don't get me wrong but imo the reason they were voted off was because Matt and Flavia were better. Better on the night, better in the past, better overall.

If i was to question any of the judges motives it would be Arlenes tbh

Matt has definitly got more potential too, Penny can not do latin dances at all.

The real reason?

She wasn't popular with the public and then she was the worse dancer in the dance off.


Only 1 of the 4 judges voted for Penny. Hardly divided.

Did anyone else feel that Penny tried to do her dance off a little slower and not so busy looking. She didn't seem to enjoy it so much and had lost her humf as though she knew that she would be out.I feel that by doing this she showed
that she realised that the judges were not with her on this dance off. I think she knew from their marks in the main comp. Shame we lost one of the nicest celebs.

Penny had been in the dance off before, Matt hadn't. It could be that they save you once and if you end up in the bottom 2 again with a newbie to the dance off you are seen to have had your chance.

I've always wondered - with the X-factor as well - if the judges aren't told the order of the public vote and just vote off the one who would have gone anyway, with a bit of arguement just for dramatic effect.

Exactly. I thought she wasn't very good on Saturday and I think Matt has a lot more potential. We aren't going to have another "Gabby" are we?

Yes I don't understand why she said she thought Penny had more potential at all. Matt has shown promise at both Latin and Ballroom, Penny only at ballroom. Don't mind her preferring Penny, but I just found her reasoning wierd

I don't think Penny did anything spectacular from week one, and was frankly lucky to survive her first dance off.

I wouldnt be surprised if the judges deliberately arranged to be divided so that the losing candidate would feel better about it.

Penny seems a very nice person, but I didn't like her as a dancer, her ballroom was ok but with her long legs she really did look ungainly in the latin. I think she should have gone when she was up against Gabby.As for the judges I can't see three to one as a divided vote.

John was saved twice - on neither occasion should he have been in the bottom 2 and the judges recognised this.

Same applied on Saturday, neither Penny nor Matt should have been in the bottom 2, but given that they were the judges had to make a decision.

Penny's long legs did struggle with the Latin, had she been dancing ballroom the judges might, arguably, have saved her. Mind you that's just hypothesis.

I'll miss her and I was surprised at how I warmed to her. Prior to the show I though "oh yeah, Mrs. Rod Stewart, fame by association," but she was surely one of the nicest ever contestants on SCD.

personally i was shocked Arlene said to save penny, Matt is consistently better at his dances and shows far more potential.

Penny's latin was terrible and her ballroom was pretty mediocre really.

The judges were saying yesterday that they shouldn't have been in the bottom two, yet they judged Kate and Penny as the bottom two (18 points and 25 points). According to the judges points, Matt shouldn't have been in the bottom two, but Penny should. Clearly they were just showing their frustration that Kate continues for yet another week.

That's true, I'd forgotten that she shared 2nd bottom with Letitia - just a pity she wasn't joined in the dance off by the one who truly deserved to be there - Kate.

I agree that the judges cannot put someone in the bottom two themselves and then castigate the voting public for putting them there too.

I think they become increasingly frustrated at Kate slipping underneath the radar.

Der Chef says

Penny seems like a very nice person and Ian waite is my favorite male pro dancer. However it was a no brainer that she would go on saturday, her performance was not that great and I dont think she has that much public support.

There are loads of threads screaming at people for voting for Kate G however I dont see too many screaming at people for voting for ANTON which I think might be happening here.

TBH Penny was on borrowed time she should have gone 2 weeks back.

Ohhh Yeah

Penny was not popular with the public. If she had not had good scores from the jusdges the last weeks she would have been in the bottom two with Dom.

What Der Chef said ^^^

Anton is that popular? I can't stand him. I always fastforward when the dynamic duo is on As for Len, if he tossed a coin and used that as a result, it's still be OK, it's his decision. And maybe he was just trying to sugarcoat his decision for Penny.

penny cant dance the fast moves simple as that salsa samba all of them shes uselss whereas matt is quite consistent it was only a matter of time before penny went

and arlenes a hypocrit she hated it on saturday yet saved them

Perhaps in this case, 'potential' means Rod Stewart might have a new show that needs a choreographer. Not that I'm cynical or anything.

This is what I reckon too. It's a shame but unfortunatley imo Matt was/is a better all-rounder than Penny.
I personally prefer Penny's personality from what has been shown on the VT's ITT ect but who knows if that is just good editing. Matt is coming across as an immature whinger at the mo imo, I hope he pulls himself together as he is a lovely dancer.

I thought that was the whole problem with all the dances Penny didn't excel at.

OK I am and was aware of the problems 'tall' people have with the likes of the salsa and jive, but the overriding impression was the frenzy in all of them.. Shout at me if you want maybe her size created the impression of frenzy, but that is what I saw and I have to say Penny losing out in a latin dance was going to happen sooner or later...

AS for yet another Len bashing. Has anyone thought he might be going on his skilled analysis in the dance off each week, but of course the beeb and the GBP (who let's not forget put him and the others in the daft situation in the first place) want a twenty second shock answer for his choice. Not a full blown critique on failure of technique or style.

But to be honest with you Len probably isn't the judge who's cheating.