Meh, maybe those two should have danced better to begin with, rather than complain that "oh there is so much more to come" once you are multiple weeks into the competition.

So sorry for my incorrect spelling - please forgive me

Now, would you like to comment on the actual post?

Chris Parker was invited to join the tour because he helped to put bums on seats. I gather takings were as high as £40K for one night, and the pro dancers have not been known to complain about Chris's presence, even though I remember once seeing James on camera tearing Chris's SCD paso run to pieces.

Not in the least convinced the 6 remaining couples resent John and Kristina (and how she will pack the tour full house to overflowing, £££ kching ). On ITT Darren was most complimentary about Kristina's cha cha choreography, as was Lilia. Brian who was evicted remained cordial and warm, while Heather who was evicted when marked higher than John made no bones about her pleasure at supporting John.

As JFK used to say, bad news sells newspapers, good news does not.

Poor John! And I don't mean that in an 'ooh, those nasty other celebs and pros, cutting him like that.' But I do feel huge pity for him and the position he finds himself in. Because what else can he do? Commiserating with Cherie (particularly after James' rather ill-judged comments) would look rather like rubbing salt in the wound. And what can the remaining competitors say to him? Congratulate him on getting through? That seems a bit pointed with Cherie and James standing there. Commiserate with him? Hardly. He is in a completely invidious position, one which he has been put in not by the judges, who marked the dance that saw, or by his partner, who choreographed the best routine she could for him, or even by himself, having danced to the best of his ability and accepted the criticism and marks he received for it, but rather by the members of the GBP who chose to vote to keep him in at a stage where he is very unlikely to match any of the other competitors in terms of dancing ability.

I have been saying this for a couple of weeks now, but I honestly don't think that John himself is enjoying this much any more. A great deal of the wit and humour that characterised both his dancing and his comments seems to have gone since the paso and he appears to be going through the motions more than anything else. And, again, I thought I caught a glimpse of resignation as much as excitement in his eye when his name was called. I could be wrong, but I do wonder if, when the end finally comes, we won't get a Stephanie Beecham-type reaction of huge relief that the game, for him, is over, played out with great courage and dignity, but, at this stage, not much real pleasure. As I say, poor John.

Well said, and yes I too think people would vote for John even if he begged them not to.

All this expense on phone voting and the one to benefit most will be the company organising the premium phone lines. Don't even think the Beeb get anything out of this either due to their previous dodgy phone votes

Having been reading these posts I feel I need to say something.

For all the people that say that its an entertainment show and not a dance competition are wrong. The entertainment part is the dancing and how great the celebrities become, NOT someone who can't dance getting closer and closer to the final and knocking decent people out.

Yes it is always fun to start with to see the underdog do well just like Kate last year, but when it starts to get to the part where that person ie. John, is still in the competition and now starting to knock good, improved dancers out, then it gets to be beyond a joke.

Cherie going this week was wrong, If there had been the proper bottom 2 of John and another, then John would have gone, NOT Cherie. She would have been back on ballroom next week and probably back up the leaderboard and so would have stayed again. I know that someone gets voted off each week, as that has to happen, but at least with John gone, the dancers would have all been at a pretty similar standard and so it would have been ENTERTAINING to watch who would have got through to the final.

By leaving John in week on week, the public are making a farce of the show in my opinion. I feel it will be awful if another good dancer goes next week because John gets to stay. I know it is not his fault as he doesn't vote, the public do but it is getting ridiculous now. As quoted on the show, John will be back on the Latin this week and probably doing a jive, now I am sorry the jive has to be performed properly and there is no way that John will be able to produce the flicks and kicks needed to do a good jive. If he then gets through again on a rubbish dance then can't the public see that this is wrong.
I know it is a dance show that is entertaining but if John is really awful, how is that then fair that another celebrity goes out at his expence.

I know that he does train each week so that shows that he is committed but for him then to come out and not dance very well after doing just as much training as the other celebrities and so NOT improving as much as the others but then getting through, does that not show that it is not fair on the celebrities that have worked their arses off for that week.
Again I say I know it is not John fault as he does not vote but he does not help either as he does play up the the public on his VT's and when he goes backstage with Tess.
I think even Christina in the way that she reacts when they get through, shows that she doesn't think they were as good and so should not have gone through and did expect to be in the bottom 2.

Come on people, see sense and stop this madness

Would you like a rope to hang your straw man from?

But it IS why I and many others watch! It's a Saturday night ENTERTAINMENT show and for me, John is the most entertaining of all the dancers.

Cherie, Lisa, Jodie, Heather are all average dancers (IMO of course) so they're doing average dances without the big personalities behind them and for me, that doesn't make for good entertainment - I kind of 'tune out' when they're dancing because there is nothing about them that captures my attention. John may be the weakest dancer but (again IMO) he's the most entertaining and every week his dance makes me smile PLUS he has a very attractive personality. That is the kind of person I want to see on a Saturday night...not a technically bit better but otherwise pretty uninteresting performer!

C'mon guys, lighten up - its not like its a surprise....this happens every year!

It is a (light entertainment) tv show in the end, and that means its all about ratings.

Theres no point in getting annoyed, its only on for a few more weeks, and its all about entertainment. Some people are more entertained by the likes of John, others are more entertained by the celebs improving. And you cant please everyone.

Its not like X factor where unknowns are trying to break into a difficult industry, its purely celebs (known and not so well known ) gettting V well paid for entertaining the GBP.

If you need to see dancing, and only dancing then go and watch the national and international dance competitions.

Agree totally!

If the makers of SCD don't want this to happen then they should only book people who can dance, simple as that.

As has been said again and again this isn't the first time a non-dancer has made it further than they should (Chris Parker being the prime example) nor is it the first time that others who could dance left earlier than many thought they should (for example Spoony and Gabby Logan).

That's what happens when you let the public have a say, that's how the programe is designed, that's how it has worked every year since it started so it's a bit late to moan about it now.

It's like complaining that the marking in the Eurovision Song Contest doesn't work, or that first past the post politics doesn't allow for proportional representations. No they don't, but that's the system.

The judges can say what they like, as they stated they are there to judge the dancing so no one can fault them for their opinion, but for Bruce to state live on camera that he though it was a terrible decision is completely out of order. He is the compare and as such should be impartial.

Totally agree...

So John is using attempting to away public opinion in a contest that is largely decided by public opinion...how very dare he

That's not "milking it", that's playing the game

I like John - more as a speaker than a dancer, I admit. I don't believe he'll last that much longer and I do feel it's a shame he didn't go this week, when the remaining dancers are all capable of a very good performance, even if not actually winning. He had a reasonable dance, and reasonably good treatment by the judges and I'd rather he left this way, than, say, when it comes to his jive.

I think the judges realised that if they are really horrible to John then many people feel the urge to leap to leap to his defence by voting for him, so they were trying to be nice to him in the hope that less people would get defensive.

Didn't work though.

No a straw man, actually. More taking a point to its logical conclusion. If it is OK for one to get through on a couple of moves and relying on other factors, why would it be wrong for them all to do that?
Alan

I can understand all the debate about whether this is a dancing competition or an entertainment show. I can understand people feeling John is not good enough to still be there and that better dancers are going too early.

What I don't understand is the call for John to stand down or withdraw or ask people not to vote for him. Why on earth should he? First of all he presumably signed a contract to be there until he was voted out unless there were extenuating circumstances like injury or a death in the family. Secondly he would be insulting all those people who pay money every week to keep him in, for whatever reason. Thirdly, he is putting in the hours of practice each week and if he can't do as well as the others, that's not his fault. Blame the voters by all means but there is no reason to blame John.

He is doing all that can be expected of him so all these calls for him to step down are ridiculous in my opinion.

Well, that only goes to show that people dont really care what the Judges say (good or bad), they will vote for their favourites.. even if they cant dance for toffee.

Although I have favourites in respect of partnership and personality if they dance a duff dance I am unlikely to vote for them.

This week I genuinally felt John out performed both Cherie and Lisa and his place at the bottom of the leaderboard was unwarranted. So I voted for his dance.

As for "technique," as another poster pointed out, given that we arent shown the bottom half for most of the routine (and yet the girl's slip up were still monstrously obvious to me) we cant truly judge the technical side. If you note with JS & Kristina though, the camera normally shows full body shots head to toe; we see everything.

Makes you wonder how the other contestants would bear up under such scrutiny

WRONG WRONG WRONG! It is an entertainment show with a competitive element.
It is not a National Championship! If it was it would be on tv (if at all) at 11.30 pm on Monday night like it's predecessor was.

the other dancers must be frustrated though why bother putting in hard work learning a dance when someone walking around the floor will beat them anyway why not do what John does

I agree

A lot of people have conveniently forgotten that John got his best score of the show from the judges this week.

Yeah but it's not John's fault people keep voting to save him is it??

And what would everybody actually be talking about this series if he wasn't there? Whether Rachel is too desperate to win or Christine is really as nice as she appears? If Tom is too smug or Austin too competitive? :yawn: