Then why bother with a public vote?

Austin was not the worst dancer on Saturday night. He had two good dances, lisa had one really good dance and a poor dance. Imho they were about the same overall.

I don't think he was weak, as such, but he was the weaker out of the remaining contenstants.

But the judges gave Austin the second highest Latin score. Below him were Tom and Lisa. It's just my opinion but Austin was all over the place in his Salsa and yet still managed to get a ten... I honestly don't believe that there is a judges' favourite. This competition as regards them is wide open. It's clear though that the public favourite is Tom.

Then we will have to agree to differ. Personally I thought, this week, that Rachel was quite clearly the best dancer; then Tom, and that to my untrained eye Austin and Lisa were the worst (Lisa's jive didn't seem that great - she looked a bit round shouldered to me). However I'm happy to defer to the judges greater knowledge here.

Actually, I think they get a bigger share than that now it's a 2 dance situation - I'd say they get three-quarters of the total vote share.

Two chances to rank the leader board with the 2 dances and then another quarter for the dance off choice.

Before Saturday, he was strongest in just about every way you can rank the contestants.

He had the highest culmative vote score.
He had the most top scoring dances.
He had been at the top of the leader board more than anyone else.
The public vote is always difficult to assess, but on the weeks when direct comparisons could be made he was scoring higher than Lisa/Rachel.

yeah that was before Saturday

on Saturday he didn't perform well - just get over it and move on

and he was overscored for his paso anyway

it'd be interesting to see the voting figures on this one and see whether the 80% of the audience who haven't been voting up to now decided that enough was enough and Austin couldn't be allowed to stay in after those two dances, compared to the other three.

I'm with the 'grow up and move on' brigade. Austin was the weak link this week and he was rightly removed for it. For once there really is no front runner and the judges can only go week-to-week.

Nothing to get over here

My phone remains untroubled, and all I've had this series is a list of slightly less meh contestants than the others.

I just think at this stage of the game, the judges choice should be jettisoned and the person who is the bottom of the leader board on combined scores be the one to go.

If it genuinely is the closest contest, if it genuinely is the best final 4, if any of them are genuniely good enough to win it, it if genuinely is literally a tragedy than any of them have to go ... then it's really irrelevant so the least popular over all with the judges/voters should be the one to go.

The judges thought he was the worst. Why have a public vote? You tell me. The public's choice was John Sargeant and he was attacked by the judges and the press until he bowed out, such was the outrage that he was getting the highest public vote. Would you have been happy for John Sargeant to win? Personally, if it's what the public wanted, I wouldn't have minded, but plenty of people on these boards and in the media were getting into a real lather over the prospect. So should Austin be the winner if he - according to the show's experts - is not as good as the other remaining dancers? I really don't see why.

I meant that he was weaker on Saturday's show than the other 3.

That's the material point - the balance has gone it used to be that the mixture of judges scoring and public voting would cancel each other out and seeing off both the fairly talentless public favourites and the uninspiring technicanians and other over-rated judges pets. This year this hasn't happened and both sides were engaged in a war almost - John Sargeant created a lot of bitterness amongst the judges and some pros (and no doubt some contestants) by his fans creating a situation where he out-stayed his welcome from them whilst what's created the bitterness is that talented and entertaining invididual has been booted out in favour of a couple of ladies who the public on the whole find un-endearing and over-rated (pick from a list of smug, over-competitive, boring etc.). In the past the fanbases of popular but talented contestants have been able to save them from the bottom of the leaderboard and restore the balance (i.e someone good and exciting doesn't go because they had a bad week) - this time a couple of unpopular judges favourites were marked (arguably over-marked) too highly to make this possible and a contender went because he had a bad week and some of his fellow competitors were at least in the opinion of his fans (like myself) and some neutrals and supporters of other contestants (like my husband who is a Tom supporter) . It is this which creates the ill-feeling.


If the public vote means nothing then the show may as well dispense with it. Since three of the judges are choegraphers and not true ballroom dancing judges then it's not as if it's really a true ballroom dancing contest either. This is part of the problem it seems like trust between the judges and sections of the public has broken down and both have taken to abusing each other's choices and almost (at least it is being percieved in that light) working to undermine them. It's become a power struggle to the detriment of the show.

If Tom goes next week (which will almost certainly due to similar over-marking of the ladies issues which land him at the bottom of the leaderboard if it happens) then the final will between two ladies that the voting public have proved themselves over and over to be distinctively 'meh' about at best and I think this will as much of a travesty as the victory of John Sargeant which he quit to prevent - as it's just as out of balance and against the spirit of the hybrid the show is.

We should be thankful he left for the following reasons:

- We hopefully never again have to see Tess sigh "guns", followed by a half-faint and a quick licking of the lips.

- He took his shirt off - wouldn't have done THAT in the final...

- For the last two weeks I hardly registered anyone's dancing, his nipples had me transfixed.

- Did I mention he took his shirt off ?


Seriously, lighten up, nobody died, nobody's career was ruined. It's just an entertainment show

According to a thread from a while ago, SCD died. Some of us in the non-appreciation thread were considering a funeral.

So you've already decided they will be "overmarked" before they've danced a step. Perhaps your mind is not entirely open here and the judges are simply marking it as they see it - which is their job.

No I think it's because the judges aren't voting how katmobile would like

I really don't get all this furore about overmarking in favour of one contestant or another - they are all overmarked. None of the dances this year have deserved tens. Having said that though, I honestly think that the judges call it as they see it.

trunkster you seem to be assuming everyone has a favourite. I think RichmondBlue's post is spot on and I haven't had a favourite all series and I'm not alone judging by the other posts on here.

Why on earth would the judges choose to promote a celeb with less dancing talent over another better one? What's in it for them? How would that affect their credibility within their profession? I think their marking has, most weeks, been very fair (in that it coincides with my own utterly inexpert viewpoint). This includes all the weeks that Austin got fantastic scores.

I think that would require objectivity which they don't have at this stage.

Its become a battle between the public and the judges which is upsetting the balance of the show.

The judges were peeved cos the public kept voting jon in and the more they got peeved the more the public voted, now its payback and the judges are ensuring that the public's least favourite keeps getting to the next round. Two of the judges particularly have massive egos and are out to prove a point to the public about it being "their" show as opposed to ours. Craig said as much this morning on Breakfast TV when he said that the judges are there to ensure that the best dancers get to the final. Errr no. They are there to play a part in trying to get the best dancers to the final - they should have no business in "ensuring" that is the case. If they have the power to "ensure" then they have too much power.

Ego basically.

At this stage it isn't just about dancing talent - its about all round ability and entertainment. Its clear that Lisa is not entertaining the public, as if she was then she would not be in the dance off.

To assume that the professionals always know best is a little short sighted imho. To assume that they do not have their own agendas and egos to massage would be wrong.

The judges are out to prove a point. It goes all the way back to when the public were voting jon back in week after week.

But the judges aren't in charge of the show...it's the producers!! If it really is all a fix, (which I don't believe it is) then the instructions are coming from much further up than the judges. They are employees of the show, just like the dancers - just as replaceable. Ultimately, we're all manipulated to a certain extent in the footage we're shown of training, etc. Certain people are projected in certain ways and put into labelled boxes that the production team want us to believe.

With all these conspiracy theories floating around, I'm surprised we're not all checking our telephones and computers for bugs!!

They tried their best to keep Zoe and Emma in after both being in the dance off a couple of times but the minute the public had the final say both were out.

Very sensible trunkster. My husband felt much the same though he likes Lisa.

That's life, Austin did great but on the night, others did just that little bit better.

No shame in coming fourth.

In answer to the original OP's question.....yes, SCD 6 is a farce. How many 10's we've had recently?

Also, I've noticed, Trunkster, that you roll your eyes at people a lot, and tend to get personal. I don't think this helps your arguments tbh.