But he didn't come top! Stop looking for excuses. We know Tom topped the public poll.

Exactly. Some people just has very stubborn mind-set and refuse to accept such might be the case (and very likely one too).

I'd argue the point that Austin was the weakest on the night and deserved to be bottom of the leaderboard.

Had Lisa's Jive been scored more realistically, she might have slipped underneath him (oooh err that sounds dodgey!).

I agree. When discussing the dances for this week on another thread, the general consensus was that Austin looked to have the easiest ride. He's a good ballroom dancer and achieved a maximum score for both foxtrot and quickstep which are the two dances around which the AS tends to be based. Erin's ballroom is fabulous and I would've laid odds on her producing a great routine; remember, Colin Jackson scored the first male ten for his AS.

The salsa was a trickier proposition but seemed to be less tricky than at least one of the dances of any of the other couples.

Tom had the rumba which is a definite potential pitfall for a male celeb.
Lisa had the jive which was always a possible banana skin.
Rachel had the tango which, after her paso, could have caused problems.

I would have bet good money on Austin and Erin's AS being a show stopper. I'm just sorry it wasn't.

Well, I'm happy for you that you are psychic and can 'know' who topped the poll...:sleep:

I'm not making excuses. I'm not saying he did top the poll. I'm simply reiterating that it was perfectly POSSIBLE for him to have topped the public vote.

You know? How?

You're right of course, but you're probably wasting your time trying to explain it again. Logic and even simple mathematics are lost on some

I do think that Erin struggled with the Salsa, and I only say this because my 9 year old sister walked in while they were doing the dance off and said "She must be a better ballroom dancer because this doesn't look so good " She doesn't watch the show religiously (and she is 9) so if she can notice it then surely it's a factor?

Exactly - prior to last night actual show I was saying that the two who were most likely to go straight through were Austin & Rachel based on the dances they had to do. Didn't think Tom would pull off the Rumba at all & likewise Lisa the jive. Who would have thought that it would be the Austin score for American Smooth that would be the deciding factor. Both in terms of scoreboard but also the fact that he had to do the salsa in the dance-off.

I thought Erin's choreography was perfect. Austin danced really well, he got good scores, it is just that the others danced better overall.

Austin just wasn't all that great. It's as simple as that.

It has nothing to do with Erin. The judges have been overmarking Rachel and Lisa for the past two weeks and this was his downfall. With Rachel at the top of the leaderboard this protected her from the public vote. If she had of been anywhere else on the board she would be in the bottom two with Lisa. The judges knew this so they overmarked both her dances - her Cha Cha Cha was laughable it was so slow and lacking any kind of sparkle, yet she gets marked up. Poor Austin gets criticised for a near perfect dance and given two 8s. He has been cheated out of his place in the final and I blame the JUDGES not erin.

[quote=. He should never have been in position of having to do latin in the dance off.[/QUOTE]

Who actually decides the dance off routine. Even Austin said that it was the dance off routine when he was in front of the judges. YOu could se he was not too confident about it. I felt so sorry for them last noght erin was vey upset and I think even Austin was a tad emotional

We don't know that for sure and I'll willing to bet he got more public votes than Lisa which is surely the point that if it had just gone to the public vote she'd have gone in his place and I would be one of the many people on here who'd be a lot happier.

Austin wasn't deservedly the lowest rank on the night as IMO his latin was quite possibly better than anyone else's that night and certainly better than the over-rated Lisa and her immature dancing partner.

I think it's totally wrong that people get to do their best dance in the dance-off as surely the whole point of dancing two dances is to test people in both disciplines and ulitimately doing your best dance means you can get through on being rubbish or less good at one of them. People should either have to do the worst marked one or the dance off at the two-dance stage should be scrapped all together.

The dance off routine is their highest scorer of the evening. That's why other posters are saying that Erin should have concentrated on making the AS perfect, that way even if they'd ended up in the dance off they would have had an amazing dance to get them through.

When it comes the the last four I think the choice to who goes and who stays should be left solely to the public, it's too easyfor the judges to manipulate by making sure that one of the ones with the least public vote is safe and then they can save the other in the dance off.

Secondly the AS should be the wow dance of the ballroom, what with the lifts and dancing apart, that is wasn't, sadly, was down to choreography. The salsa was not a salsa, it was a latin dance with salsa bits thrown in.

I don't like the Salsa as a dance anyway, none of the show's professionals are that good at it apart from maybe Kristina. None of them are specialists in it is what I mean so it doesn't particularly showcase any of them.

I'd never blame Erin in a million years. The dance of the series is still Austin's Jive for me, mainly because the fusion of the music and choreography just did it for me ... all down to Erin I guess ... and the paso! I hope she doesn't blame herself if she reads such negative comments on this forum.

If we're going to have a lets slag off choreography thread, shall we perhaps start with Lisa's Jive or Tom's "hectic" rumba?

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Austin's ropey salsa got 36 points including 1 10 - how is that not overmarking!!!

but she'd still have been doing her waltz and he'd be doing the salsa, so she still would have beat him

austin's problem was that he had two so-so dances - if he'd have had one great one he woudn't have gone out

Next year I hope one of the couples spends all week perfecting one dance and then literally walks their way through the other. They'd end up in the dance-off for sure, but then they would sail through with their one superb dance against any couple who had been stupid enough to try and perfect two dances in a week.

Brendan pretty much admitted that that's what they'd done this week, but I'd like to see a couple be even more blatant about it and expose what a farce the current dance-off rules are at the two dance stage.

That AS should have been a show-stopper.
It wasn't but it should have been.

What WAS she thinking?

Two not very good dances - that's all.
Alan

I was genuinely surprised about the AS, I thought it was going to be A-MAY-ZING

I think the title of this post is very unfair and a diservice to Erin. Erin, as have all the pros, has done a fantastic job with Austin. I think its very harsh to say she "blew it". One can only imagine the time and dedication placed in putting the choreography together, coupled with the stress of having to put together a great performance each week.
I am disappointed they are out as I feel overall this couple were better than Lisa & Brendan but its the luck of the draw. There are no excuses i.e tiredness etc. At this stage of the competition everyone is going through the same thing.

Yes, it is unfair. Austin was not the best dancer in the competition. Erin did a fantastic job. The pro dancers work very hard and don't get enough credit for what they do. IMO, the judges over-marked to manipulate the result.