In the final and eventually runner up was a young guy from Eastenders, who if anything was worse than John is this year, but the sour faced hypocrites (i.e. judges) didnt run to the media to moan about that. Its always been a popularity contest and just like in other RTV such as Big Brother (bringing back Nikki in BB7), when the viewers vote against the wishes of the producers, they just change things around.

Whats the point? Anyone voting this week is a fool. Unless you vote the way they want you to vote, they will just change the rules to suit them.

I agree, but I think there were 4 key reasons why Series 1 was seen differently to now:

1) Popularity - SCD was just a show that was supporting Sport Relief. Nothing big, not a huge television event. Just an interesting fundraiser.

2) Dancing skills - bar Natasha the standard in series 1 was pretty low. In comparison, I think this series is the most skilled yet.

3) The Pros - the Pros enjoyed it, they didn't see it as a competition; not like James Jordan does now. Chris Parker got through? Wow...so what's the dance next time?

4) Lower expectations - people didn't know what to expect from the show, and therefore anything was great. Now, it's become more selective.