I saw Rachels foxtrot tonight and yes, it was very good. But it wasnt deserving of a 40!!

Im not having a go cos her rhumba last week was absolutley EXCELLENT, and that DID deserve a 40. This, however did not. It didnt have any WOW factor to it. It was executed very well, but even Arlene said it wasnt perfect yet she still gave a 10!!

... methinks the producers are now wanting a boy/girl SCD final now that there are only 2 finalists going to be there. Which means poor Tom is likely to get it in the neck which is a pity as overall he has been better than Rachel.

I cant help but feel that Rachel is being artificially over scored to ensure she becomes a finalist!!

<deleted>

Yes - it's shocking isn't it?

That the best competitor could actually end up being in the final thanks to the judges high marks?

Disgraceful!

Sorry but my attention drifted after the excitement of some of the other dances :yawn:
Clearly very good but not a perfect score in my opinion

Im sorry thought it was the best dance of the night- beautiful & faultless

I sewcond that.

And for the final - Rachel, plus Austin or Tom. Which makes it look silly as we should have had a 3-couple final of course.

Even though she didn't deserve four tens, if she is being promoted for the finals then I don't mind because I dread a Austin V Tom final :yawn:

Although I want to see Jodie in the final with maybe Austin.

I have just started a thread on this subject! She blatantly missed steps- yet still gets a 10? Thats ridiculous. They are trying to protect her. I think they know who is getting the most votes, and its not Rachel

it was a terrible over mark.

Rachel is just so dull. I cant see her winning. She doesnt seem to engage with the public.

And of course the judges - quite disgracefully - can put her in the final no matter what the public think or how they vote. Why why do they retain the dance off into the semi final - it should go once they are down to the final 5 (as per X factor).

In my opinion the two finalists should be the top 2 in the public vote in the semi and the judges view shouldn't count!

Why don't people want good dancers to be in the final at all? Why does it have to be ALL public view? Why can't it be split? I don't get it - I don't WANT to watch a final with poor dancers, it's no fun.

The marking has nothing to do with the position on the leaderboard - 9s would have had the same effect. .

A Foxtrot isn't a wow dance. That was intended as a subtle version of it too......

Tom hasn't been better than Rachel - he's been more inconsistent. No one would argue he was better tonight or last week even if she hadn't got 10s. He wasn't even markedly better at the beginning.

The idea that Rachel has been set up throughout as the finalist is contrary to all evidence. Len downplayed her chances from before the series started, Cherie and Lisa and even Jodie and Christine have all been spun as contenders at some time. The whole theme of the series has been Tom's competion with Austin. Austin has been such an obvious finalist that he even got to represent the show dancing on other TV shows.

Rachel has made herself look like a contender by pulling out the right dances at the right time. If anything thats probably surprised the producers as Len and others clearly thought she would be better at fast dances than the slower ones she has turned in the performances with.

I would agree its a no brainer that Austin, Tom and Rachel should on merit be the finalists and would have a close competition. They should all be there. That only two will be is another consequence of the anti-judge vote keeping JS in. It will be even worse if the best two get there only for the best one not to win because enough people think that judges shouldn't give their highest marks to their best dancer.

That was last months spin. Repeating it doesn't make it true then or now. Even if it was true still nor does anyone else left in either - the highlight of the series for many seems to have been JS marching or reading his paper.

If you watch the show or ITT the opposite is clearly being shown on every VT and camera shot . You could argue that its spun that way but as there is no other evidence at all, that exposes the dull label as literally made up on the basis of no evidence.

Neither do I. I liked Rachel's foxtrot, a notoriously difficult dance to do without it looking boring.

And imo, she didn't succeed, it was really boring. It was back to their cute, shy Rachel!

I think the reason they gave Rachel 40 was to get boards like this talking about the overscoring which has completely overshadowed JS's leaving. Very clever producers, you can hardly even tell that John left from the front page of this board this morning!

She probably did deserve to top the leaderboard, although I personally preferred Tom's tango, but she didn't deserve 40.

Ah, there's always room for another conspiracy theory. If you miss one, there will be another one along in a minute

She should be in the final...on merit.

She dances brilliantly.

What's she doing so wrong that makes her unlikeable?

I don't get it, she's not smug, or nasty or cocky...

Rachel is totally Meh!
The judges HAVE to give her high marks or she's gone, totally dull overly marked individual, I'd rather watch paint dry any day!

They will keep her in for a few weeks, but basically serving her an injusitce, she' not popular, and with her complete lack of personality will never be, completely dull God love her, She'd be better off out of it now, every week she comes across as more vacant, At least she has her looks, bless, she REALLY needs them!!

It's amazing how many people are stating that Rachel has no support and it is only the judges keeping her in. There is no evidence of this, just supposition and conspiracy theories. Maybe, just maybe, people are voting for the better dances (and yes we have to ignore the JS effect over the last several weeks).

I saw an on-line poll last night that had Rachel top of the 'most popular female celebs on SCD' so she obviously does have support. People seem to think that DS is the authoritative voice in these matters but the fact is that it's only a very small proportion of the viewers that participate here, and therefore does not represent the larger voting public.

Edited to remove spoiler. Apologies to anyone who read it. My mistake.

I think the judges know the voting figures (or the producers do and are telling them what to do) and know that she doesn't have the public support so are marking her high so she isn't consistently in the dance off.

Tom has been the most consistent dancer and still hasn 't managed a 10, for him most annoying I'm sure.

Can we avoid spoilers outside the spoiler thread please

I think the judges are just marking Rachel according to their view of the dance. As foxtrots go it looked good, although to be honest I've seen others which are obviously better crowd pleasers.

The voting figures from the Sunday People (see other thread), suggest that the men generally have much more support than the women, although Rachel's support seems to be approximately on a par with the other women. Unless things change considerably, it looks like the winner will be a man.

I don't necessarily believe all that the Sunday People says (!!!!) but the figures do look credible. Obviously the performance that the celeb turns in that week will make some difference to the figures.

If she does get to the final mainly through judges votes and they do a "Bunton" it doesnt matter because doesn't viewer vote equal more?

i.e
Rachel gets top marks from the judges so 2
other finalist gets 1

Public reverse it so Rachel gets 1 and the other gets 2.....the public 2 wins?

I loved this dance and i think that it deserved the mark that it received.

thenetwork babe's comments reflect mine so i wont state any more than that.

IMO Rachel has been a contender from the start..