Just because Austin got voted off By the look of some of the threads and posts on here a lot of people need to take a serious reality check

It will be ever thus whenever a big favourite loses their place, no matter how much worse than the rest their dancing was (JS being a case in point).

I know the fall out and reaction on here have been so predictable.
My other half voted for Austin, but got over it quite quickly by breaking open an extra large bar of Green and Blacks last night
Why can't others do the same?

I'm delighted with the final three - really don't mind who wins now

nope its not that its if it was left to the publice vote then he wouldnt of even been in the bottom 2 and even coming top in the public vote would of meant him still being in the dance off as it was obvious lisa was going to come bottom as always.

But his two dances were the weakest of the 4. Are you saying the female "public" would vote for him regardless of how he danced on the night?

I think the farce comments go a lot deeper than one incident. The judges' behaviour for one thing.

did you hear/see I didn't then?

I think it's all gone very well.

Austin was my favourite personality and he made a sizeable contribution to the entertainment this year...but for reasons I've set out many times personality is far less important to me than the quality of the performance on the night.

I think he's a better dancer than Lisa but luck was on her side.

The dance-off is absurd but it has been with us quite a while now.

amen brother (or sister)
I wasn't Austin's biggest fan but I accepted it when he got through on merit

if he'd have got through this week it wouldn't have been right, he was the worst dancer ON THE NIGHT

No, not exactly a farce.
But...you can have a great game of football that is almost ruined by poor refereeing, even just one or two bad decisions.
I would say over-marking and blatant favouritism ( though that's nothing new ) by the judges have blighted this series..it still remains one of the best family entertainment shows on tv.

So would you have overlooked "favouritism" to your favourite celeb/pro then?

The show was a farce long before Austin was voted off!

Couldn't agree more. He genuinely was the weakest on the night. If Strictly is a farce this year (and I'm not saying it is), it's because a genuinely popular entrant was pressured by the judges and press coverage into feeling he had to step down. Nobody should have to do that. If the public wants to vote for the most improved dancer, or the most entertaining and original routine, let them.
However, as many of the same people who were moaning about John staying in despite being the worst are now moaning about Austin being out (despite being the worst on the night), I now think all the contestants should all be judged by the book. The winner should be whoever the experts consider to be technically most gifted (I'm not even sure who I think that is). The real people's choice this year has been "knobbled" - and his name wasn't Austin; why not just let the expert panel chose now?

An example of a deliberatively misrepresentational post trying desperately to negate peoples genuine concerns about the show . Austin going ,as you well know, continues a series of incidents that dismisses the public vote. For those for whom the public support element is an important part of the show this damages the shows credibility. The farce element for me is in the pretence that the publics opinion matters, if the producers were honest about the fact that they choose the final participants fine! they'd get the show and the audience they fairly deserve.

I don't think it's a farce but I do think it's faintly ridiculous that we could be left with a final where the public must choose between two contestants the vast majority didn't even want there.

All the last four could dance and it wouldn't have been a travesty if any of them won.

Whilst I appreciate you're upset that your fav celeb/pro got voted off, remember 'public votes' gave us Chris Parker in a final. We would also still have bear baiting and public hangings as well if 'the public' had their say

Its not necessarily a farce but by keeping lisa over austen then the outcome is more predictable and far more dull than if he had still been in the mix.

The public do not want to watch lisa - that much is obvious - and the judges should have taken that into account. It isn;t their show, although they seem to think it is and that somehow they are the guardians of good taste when it comes to dancing and we know nothing.

Public votes would probably sitill be saving JS had he not withdrawn and so by this stage we might have had only 2 of Austin , Tom , Rachel and Lisa .

I agree with you.

The judges completely controlled the outcome of this week by ensuring austin was at the bottom thus giving him absoultely no chance of being saved by the public given how the others finished. They then secured that by getting rid of him in a dance off.

Two bites of the cherry at this stage is ridiculous imho.

Just let the judges pick who goes through next year if that is what they want, and then they can be sure of getting the "best dancers" in the final. Whether they will get many viewers however is anyone's guess.

Did they also control the fact that Austin performed quite weakly this week?

Yep. they probably got 'evil' Cherie to drug his tea beforehand

It's a conspiracy!!!

As am I. Well, I would prefer to see Lisa or Tom win but I wouldn't mind a Rachel win. Austin and Erin were my least favourite couple from the final 4, didn't like them at all.

I don't think he performed that weakly in comparison to the others if I'm honest. The marking was all over the place. Rachel was over marked for her cha cha and Tom was undermarked for his rumba. I don't think he was the best dancer on the night, (I think that was Tom) but he wasn't the worst dancer, in fact imho there wasn;t much to choose between lisa, rachel or austin on Saturday night.

If Austin had gone out on a public vote after being bottom then I would have no problem. My problem is that the judges should not be picking who goes through to the next round at this stage of the show. With the low numbers of competors it gives the judges far too much influence over how things go and what the public want, at this late stage, should matter more. Its like we get a third of the say and the judges get two thirds.

imho the judges marked quite fairly on the first dance. However, it was clear in the second dance that they adjusted their marks to get the exact result that they wanted given that they know who is and who is not popular with the judges.

The Judges' behaviour has been questionable from very early in the series... If you had read my post properlyI said the farce comments went deeper than once incident. So rolly eyes back at you!