When Tom went through to the final two with only one point on the leader board I then realised how popular he was, so I'm not surprised.
Imo he turned it around for me & showed he deserved to be there; with that showdance & if the public love him that much who am I to argue????

If everybody had problems getting through with votes then surely it evens itself out between the three competitors.

I think Rachel danced brilliantly - but as she had danced on stage with S Club 7 she was at an advantage. Tom improved week on week and danced brilliantly in the final so thoroughly deserved to win - well done him!

Personally I think the JS bandwagon would have run out of steam before the final anyway. As others have pointed out, bad dancers have always managed to make it into the later stages including all the way to the final in the first couple of series, but in the end a good dancer - if not the best - has always won. There's really no way of knowing how it would have gone for John Sergeant had he not walked, but once he was going directly head-to-head in the public vote with the likes of Tom or Austin, I find it hard to believe he would have been saved.

So do I...if it had got to that point I'm sure in my heart and head that the innate sense of fair play that the Brits have as well as general boredom with JS would have ruled then. It always has in the past series.

John may well have won, or possibly Austin. But Jodie? Christine? Surely not!

I;d love the figures to come out as I;m sure Tom crucified the opposition.

There is likely to be some relationship between the number of people who vote and viewing figures. (I accept that it may not be a simple linear relationship). The BBC will definitely care about viewing figures.

Jodie and Christine were both very popular - amazing considering they are both attractive, personable young women and so apparently according to some quarters of the forum never going to attract a female following . But they were in the dance off with Lisa and Rachel. I would be interested to know the voting % for those weeks and if the judges/public were in synch with who they considered should be the ones going home.

Lisa was given the part of 'offical biggest journey' which was a bit considering she scored 32 for her first ballroom dance and 35 for the next the week after with the AS and was joint top of the leader board. When she was in the dance off with Jodie a full 5 weeks later her score for the quickstep was still 35 points. Jodie had scored 30 for her jive that week - which was actually 8 points more than her first Latin dance 7 weeks before.

I said on another thread my gran has never voted in six series of Strictly but after Tom's showdance phoned and ask me to vote for him on her behalf.

I'm sure he had a huge majority of the votes and thats why the BBC dont want to reveal the figures. I bet Rachel got buger all.

Easily my favourite dance of any series. I think Tom's a great advert for the show.

A situation similar to that which occurred in the semi-final has occurred in the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special where FOUR dancers have tied for first place. It was decided to ask head judge Len Goodman to order these four dancers. According to Karen Hardy on BBC Breakfast, this is normal procedure in the dancing world. Had Len done this in the semi-final, the leader board would have looked like this:
Lisa 3 (as he awarded her 20/20)
Rachel 2 (as he awarded her 18/20)
Tom 1
It was obvious from the leader board at the beginning of the final that Tom had had the most viewer votes, giving him a further 3 points, followed by Rachel and then Lisa. As this is an exact reversal of the judges’ points, they would have all ended up with 4 points. However, as the viewers’ votes take precedence, Tom would have gone through, leaving Rachel and Lisa in the dance-off. Therefore it WAS right that Tom should go through to the final. It was also right that he win the final as this was decided in exactly the same way as every other final. It is not the first time that the supposed “best” dancer has stumbled at the last hurdle (sorry Colin, no pun intended) and I doubt it will be the last.

Tom had less personality than either Rachel or Lisa. If they were dull, then what does that make him? He won because he's a man and not bad looking. It had nothing to do with him having a stunning personality.

Tom had more relevant dance experience than Rachel did. Have you seen the dancing she did in S Club?

You have hit the nail on the head perfectly there.

Sadly no matter what the reality was there will be those who will whinge forever because Tom was not booted out in the semis, when in all likelihood the tied scores actually saved both Lisa AND Rachel.

That self-taught tap routine? Rachel had years of leanring to dance (albeit not ballroom) to choreographed routines.

Tom and Austin were far more desperate to win- their compettion was the big story of the series. They even only saw each other as threats. Brendan was as competitive for the same reasons but I don't think Lisa ever believed.

The fact that Tom won with a big majority just shows how pointless the public vote is if its going to vote for any male under 40 who looks good in a string vest and acts like one of the lads or even one over 60 who can't dance at all.

The size of the majority also kills the idea spun by the BBC that he won on the basis of the show dance -there wasn't time to get a massive vote in after the showdance. He won for the same reason as he won in the SF - a female audience will vote for a male who they find attractive in any sense even if his dancing standard is behind two females.

He went to drama school too where everyone learns some dance .....she didn't.

Depends why you think there was a tie. Len produced it by giving Rachel an 8. The result was the tie. The 8 was perverse - out of line with the other three judges with an explanation no one else thought valid. If he did engineer the tie he did it to make sure Tom went (it blocks his escape route if the girl's popularity is in the wrong order) or to make sure that all three would go through by causing a problem(less likely) If he knew he would have to decide a tie in those circumstances he wouldn't have engineered it. He could just have given Rachel the 9 and put Lisa into the dance off with Tom. Tom would have gone against some one with a 40 dance and all 4 judges.

It does not follow that most votes equals most popular winner. Firstly his opponents were not particularly popular - thanks to the dance offs. Seondly the cost of voting was cheaper than ever before; 15p as opposed to 25p previously. Why did the BBC abolish the practice of giving half the phone vote money to Children in Need - and they didn't even own up to it.

I love Tom and im thrilled he won but im not sure he is the most popular winner ever.
HE was up against two women that had been in the dance off 5 times between them. Hardly the toughest competition.
I think if he was up against previous winners like Mark, Alesha or Jill he might not have won by such a huge amount. As they were all very popular too.
He is one of my favourite winners though and i did vote for him so im pleased he won by a large amount

Whatever the voting figures reveal is irrelevant.

Tom came 3rd in the semi-final and should have been eliminated. On dancing ability it should have been Rachel the winner.

When interviewing voters those voting for Tom said things like "I'm voting for Tom cos he's so hot". Therefore they only voted for him for one reason only.

It's a popularity competition. On the final night he also stumbled in the first dance.

People vote for who they like. He could have fallen flat on his face but cos he's "hot" (in their opinion) he couldn't lose.

Rachel should feel cheated.

It's not a popularity competition. It's a competition in which 50% of the marks are on dancing ability and 50% of the marks are on how engaged with you (whatever the reason) the public are. If you can't put bums on seats (whatever the reason), you lose 50% of the marks and are toast. It's as simple as that. You have to do two things to win Strictly - get quite good at dancing AND engage the public. You can't do just half of that and shout "I'VE BEEN CHEATED!", whatever half it is you do.

Oh please. Don't resort to playing the sexist card :yawn:


All 3 had some sort of dance experience so I guess they all started more or less equal.

3-3-1 was divine intervention. Whom the gods have saved, let not men oppose.