On ITT Yesterday during Len's tedious school report item, Cherie was given an A+. How can she be on a par with Austin after two weeks of poor Latin? All the other grades seemed reasonable, but this? Nonsense!

Len's teachers pet.

The best thing is not to take Len's so called midsemester report too serious. IMO no-one deserved an A+ anyway (that should be reserved for perfection). It's supposed to be a bit of lighthearted fluff.

This has been discussed on the ITT thread. On the basis of the judges' own marks, Tom should have been on a par with Austin rather than Cherie. Perhaps Len didn't want to have two men at the top.

They should have asked Craig. This was just Len being nice to everybody

I feel a bit sorry for Cherie in the sense that she did an interview with the Guardian (I think) saying WTTE of that she was tired being labelled "the old/mature one" and yet if she drops this she won't win....The BBC are pushing the old angle.

I know, it's disgraceful isn't it? and to top it all that evil witch Cherie has refused to pass on the full interest rate cut to lenders It's obviously a Cherie conspiracy to conquer and control the world


I really do dispair at some of the comments on here. It's a light entertainment show!!!!!!

Ridiculous!

Do we really need to obsess that much over a light hearted part of the show that was used to fill five minutes of the programme?!

I don't see why not.

Obivously someone made the decision to grade her on par with Austin - a bit of an odd one since she clearly isn't, but in the end it doesn't exactly have a massive impact on the show...

But could it have? I think we are getting the feeling more and more that the judges have their favourites regardless of what we see with our own eyes and grading Cherie as an A+ gives us seeming proof of that.

Would Jodie and Cherie doing exactly the same dance in the same way be given the same marks? I think nearly all of us are now thinking no!

It could have bearing if they want to keep her in, but in the end that doesn't really matter because the public vote ultimately holds more weight.

I agree with the judges that her ballroom and her rumba were beautiful BUT the salsa was very poor and doesn't bode well for the samba or jive. I think they've got a false impression of her talent - she's excellent but only in certain areas. She's not an all rounder.

It may be a light hearted entertainment show to the viewers, but to the participants (judging by the effort, the angst, the tears) it's deadly serious. The least the participants can expect in return for their hard work is fair treatment by the experts.

Take a look at your own comment before you start criticising others.

The judges can be blatant now....too much power.

Not only can they save their favourites...but also they can unobtrusively eliminate the voters' favourites, if necessary, when we get to the latter stages.

It's also significant if their over-marking is putting her in a higher position than she should be on the leader-board. I happen to think that her Salsa did not deserve '26' and she should have been below Heather. There's no comparison to the Salsa Heather did in week 2. I'm not sure that her ability to pull the public vote is significantly better than Heather's.

Cherie is going on the Tour and it looks to me that she's getting the same sort of preferential treatment as Matt di Angelo did last year.

Cherie is good at ballroom,but her latin is not up to scratch!! ide say B-

To be fair, they probably filmed that segment before the salsa. They didn't show clips of any recent dances so I'd guess it was done before Saturday.

However, and I'm saying this as a major Cherie fan, she shouldn't have been given an A+. Her paso wasn't strong and to put her on a par with Austin isn't right. He's done stellar performances every week (I loved his samba) and Cherie has had weaker dances. IMO her and Tom should have switched - him on A+ and her on A.

It is just a tiny segment though and it doesn't really mean anything.

Obviously not, as some people on here want Len(or the person responsible) taken outside and stoned to death on the steps of BBC Wood Lane

I missed this obviously controversial installment of ITT last night but I have to ask one question: why is everyone so quick to write Cherie off? Or, for that matter, any of the other contestants?

In Cherie's instance, I would absolutely agree that her last two dances haven't been good. Her wobble at the start of the paso clearly threw her, and she has said herself that she had a panic attack at the top of the salsa which destroyed all the hard work she'd put in on what James admitted was an over-ambitious routine.

But some people are talking about this like she has nowhere left to go. Now they may be right - but shouldn't we wait and see? Cherie will be more than aware that, if she gets through Saturday, she will face a new uptempo latin challenge the following week. Either she'll rise to it and prove the doubters wrong, or she won't.

So why rule out any comeback so soon? She isn't the only one with hurdles to get over: Rachel still needs to crack the performance nut and I suspect Jodie has it in her to surprise everyone. And isn't the prospect of whether or not someone will come good one of the things that makes Strictly so exciting? Look at Gethin and Matt last year.

Some posters seem very keen to single Cherie out of a whole group of dancers the judges (dictated by the producers, I would wager) are favouring: Tom, Lisa and Rachel are right alongside her. They are being used by the producers to create a sense of 'it's a level playing field/anyone could be in the final' when it's pretty clear, from what we've seen so far, that Austin has a consistency nobody else can match yet. They don't want to promote this idea as it makes the rest of the show inherently undramatic - i.e. if it's obvious who'll win, why bother watching? Hence this cluster of 'teacher's pets' who are all being marked a little more highly then they perhaps should sometimes. Otherwise how do you explain, for instance, Len's incredibly dismissive comments to Rachel last Saturday followed by him scoring her with an 8?

It's more than apparent that, with two-and-a-half hours to fill every week, ITT looks for every angle it possibly can to hype up the competition. This isn't the first time they've gone over the top and I'm sure as hell it won't be the last ...

Meanwhile, nobody's journey is over - yet. Let's have the post-mortem when it is, rather than before ...

She's the chosen one

Len already determined after 3 weeks that she could never dance "bad".
The woman has 20 marks secured each week from each judge as soon as she steps onto the dance floor.

She'll get a 35-39 for her waltz tomorrow...even if she falls flat on her face

Time and time again we've seen that judges' bias ultimately works against the celebrity they are favouring.

I'm sure that giving Cherie an A+ has done nothing but turn people against her, which is a shame.

have already commented on this on another thread but I think it needs commenting on again!

I think it must have something to do with the tour as well as their favouritism. The producers will want both Cherie and Tom to be in for as long as possible! I mean they don't want contestants who are knocked out before the halfway stage to be on the tour do they? It's a bit like brainwashing methinks - keep telling the public she's amazing and they'll soon start to believe it!

She's a cert to get through this week and then the following with either a Samba/Jive or Cha Cha to do, we'll get to see what she's really made of! I hope that if she's as bad as she was at the Salsa the public will see sense no matter what the judges score her and vote through the better all-rounders!

Although saying that look at Matt Dawson from series 4. His Ballroom was great like Cherie but his Latin was poor like Cherie yet he still managed to get to the final! So who knows what will happen? I am in danger of falling asleep in front of the telly on a Saturday night if she stays in though!

Hey - another Cherie bashing or Cherie fan bating thread. How original.

Unless Cherie's got control of the voting lines I wouldn't put it past her to be the controllers 'pet' as well