Austin could still have been in the dance off even if he had the most votes, because, if Tom had got 3 points from the public, Rachel only needed to beat Lisa to avoid the dance off.

Even if he had been top of the public vote by 500 miles the fact he was bottom of the judges vote made it very hard for him to stay out of the dance off. The max he could get was 5 points. In fact he may well have been top of the public vote - we don't know.

not in the least OTT.......

fire and fuel......

How do you figure that Rachel does not have the public support? She has been in the bottom two once in a week early in the series when she was second on the leaderboard and could very well have been deemed to be safe by her supporters.

How do you figure that Austin was the public favourite if he ended up in the bottom two the week before the semi-final?

Do you really think in the big scheme of things the points given by four people have a huge bearing against the amount of votes from the viewing public?

Hand on heart I do think both girls are better than Tom........he has very flat feet and his head positioning is all wrong (like Craig said it looks sympathetic) and it really does depend on the AT next week, Vincent should have no trouble, Brendon is as you say a clever choreographer and Tom.................unfortunately has Camilla

If Austin had been the public favourite , he would not have been in the dance off .

What I was trying to say, Peely, was that SCD has not "paid the price" in past series for failing to ensure that any particular "favourite" went through. Many were disgruntled that Darren Gough won instead of Colin Jackson, yet SCD continues undiminished by this travesty. Maybe if the rules had stayed the same as in previous series, Austin would have gone through and won, on the strength of his fans voting for him - I never intended to suggest that his fans didn't vote enough for him, but that they were powerless to save him no matter how much they voted, because the judges had the final say. It seems to me that the dance-off is a "Good Thing" when it works in favour of your favourite who is saved by the judges and a "Bad Thing" when it doesn't.

Ah but Brendan has never done the AT on the show before.

Camilla has ( with Gethin last year) and Vincent is the world AT champion.....

The leakest voting figures from a few weeks ago had Tom well ahead of the rest of them after JS, and whilst I don't believe everything I read in the papers, Tom has never yet been in the dance off despite never being top of the leaderboard! He must be getting public votes.

I still think the dance off is unfair as it gives the judges a second bite of the scoring cherry. It hasn't achieved what it was meant to when it was brought in which was to get rid of popular but not very good dancers (Kenny and Kate last year - JS this year) before better dancers. All it has achieved is the public voting in even more droves for the popular dancers and they actually lose more "better dancers" early on. They don't have dance offs in any of the other SCD type shows around the world - its only OUR precious judges who insist on havin a dance off to pad out a totally uneccesary second show

Yes he could have been.

Rachel 4+2 = 6
Tom 3+3 = 6
Lisa 2+1 = 3
Austin 1+4 = 5

Austin v Lisa dance off, even though Austin was the public favourite.

Well yes, I can agree with you there... I'm sceptical whether he's in the best hands to get him all the way to the final.

Pedants of the world unite! I bow to your superior knowledge regarding the voting system.

In my world he didn't get enough votes from the public, therefore he's gone.


If I had my way all four of them would contest the final, but the rules don't allow that.

Oh please please let it be..............

My first post would be because I love statistics...

There is one scenario where Austin could have got the highest public vote and still been in the dance off. The public vote would have had to be (from highest to lowest):

Austin
Tom
Rachel
Lisa

in order to end up with Austin and Lisa in the bottom two.

This may not have been what happened, but it is a possibility.

Actually, because he was bottom of the leaderboard, he could have got the most votes and still been in the dance off.

Camilla is a nice enough person and I understand she did have help with the AT last year, but the AT and Paso were just a step too far, her ballroom is beautiful but her latin......well, knee slides (the mark of an unimaginative choreographer)

You are not allowed to be philosophical.

The sky is about to fall - and chicken licken is in mortal danger.

thats why he got the lowest judges vote......and Lisa was over marked......AGAIN

If a poster's philosophy is that single digit sums with a total of no more than eight is pedantry, I think the sky has already fallen on them.

OK...I'm slitting my wrists. The SCD World is no longer for me.

I bid you all Goodnight and Sweet Dreams.

I agree. Personally I'm not that bothered about Austin staying or going, but I don't understand the point in having a dance off at this stage. It just gives the judges a chance to completely override the public vote. Why not just have one in the final and have done with it? Last year it was impossible to be sure that Gethin hadn't got the most votes in the week he was voted off.

The trouble is, of course, that they've decided to have a Sunday show and it's difficult to justify without a dance-off. So they'll have another next week, quite possibly lose Tom, and then have a final no one wants to watch. Genius.