Sorry to dig up something thats old news, but even after all this time, I still can't watch Erin without thinking of THAT dance she got Colin Jackson to do in the final all those series ago.

It was long before my time on this forum so I'm wondering what others thought of it.

DISAARRSTER is the word that springs to my mind......

I do remember watching it open-mouthed. I guess in those days Erin thought it was an entertainment show and not a dancing competition

I remember being glad that it meant he probably wouldn't win

really didn't like that final though, with Zoe going out and my two least favourites in first and second place

It was jaw droppingly bad. Hope Erin gets to redeem herself with Austin!

Austin in the final!

All of us at home had big grins on our faces because it was a fantastic final all the way through with 3 great dancers until....that. The smiles were frozen into disbelief.

And the embarrassment in the studio was palpable. It was hideous.

He wouldn't have won anyway but apart from Darren's showdance, I remember it as the main talking point on here the next day so whatever it was otherwise, it was an impact dance.

I understood why she did it, she explained it quite clearly, but it did backfire spectacularly.

I didn't watch Strictly until this year but my friend has told me it was hideous - why did they keep Erin?

Because Erin is a good teacher, and even teachers make mistakes?

You can't fire a great pro because of one brainstorm. She did a brilliant job with Colin until that.

I fervently hope she can erase that memory in the final this year, the girl's suffered enough with the replays of it in the documentaries.

I don't like her and I haven't even see 'the' dance.

I loved watching Colin Jackson dance and thought he had a good chance of winning until that. I remember watching it in disbelief screaming a silent 'Noooooooooo!!!!' in my head. Shocking - still makes me cringe a little bit thinking about it now.

She shoulda read this forum...

Is that the one where they each danced with dummies?
They've repeated that this year except the dummies are real.

Ah, the good old days when we could have three in the final. Seems so long ago now ....


Still, that routine was a quite spectacular misjudgement.

I'm interested to see what she puts together if they get to the final, since her specialty is Ballroom, and most show dances have been Latin based.

That could have been our house that night.

I cringe even now when I think of it. Really bad move by Erin.

The 3 series since we have been unbelievably unlucky.

Colin's losing had nothing whatsoever to do with the muppet dance!

Darren had already won before the showdance due to winning the public vote after the first show......

The judges leaderboard at the end of the first show was

Zoe 3
Colin 2
Darren 1

However - after the public had voted - Zoe had moved to 3rd place which means that the public had put Darren 1st, Colin 2nd and Zoe last (the only scenario which would have put Zoe out and kept Darren in

Zoe 3+1=4
Colin 2+2=4
Darren 1+3=4

Zoe went because the public vote counts for more than the judges.......

So Darren had already won on the basis of the public vote at that stage.... The showdances were just for show and Colin could have turned in a spectacular Goughie/ Alesha/ Ramps style showdance and he STILL would have lost that year.

I agree completely caro and have said as much elsewhere , though not explained so well !

Erin and Colin were my favourite partnership from that series, his ballroom was fantastic. I was really looking forward to seeing their showdance and was disappointed by the muppets, just because Colin was capable of so much more than that.

I can see why Erin did it - she wanted to show how well Colin could dance without having to be lead, but it just didn't work very well unfortunately. But I agree with CaroUK that it didn't cost them the final, Darren was just really popular that series.

Hopefully if Erin reaches the final with Austin, she won't try anything gimmicky this time. I'd love to see a ballroom-based showdance, something like the American Smooth would be good.

I just remember thinking ( and hoping) that know way would they do the whole dance with the puppets, I was convinced at some point they would throw them away and do a "real" dance!

Yes, I kept waiting for that too.

Numpty here...

How do you know that Darren's public vote at the knockout stage was more than Colin would get by the end of the show?

It's been published in Darren's book, also it's been said I'm sure on ITT in the past. It's well documented. Darren got something like over 3million votes out of 5million on the final.