Strictly Come Dancing 2015

I've watched it since the first episode and never missed one since. I knew nothing about dancing when it started, but I am a fully qualified armchair judge now!

Being a rock chick shouldn't stop you watching Cher53!

I just hope the producers realise that their secret is out and potential audiences thoroughly put off by it. It stinks! Hope Twitter and Facebook and other social media highlight it and the producers get the message. They might lose a lot of revenue because why bother phoning in votes?!

As DH remarked this morning, 'It's only a tv show!'

I do know that. Your DH isn't the sole possessor of such penetrating insight !

Wilma, you have confirmed all our suspicions. I love your revelations! I never vote by phone. It costs nothing to vote on line!

I watched the first series and haven't watched it since until this one. It is so different, which is to be expected, but it is fun and a bit of razzamatazz on a boring saturday night and great to see how much the 'amateurs' progress over the weeks. All these reality programmes are manipulated and 'choreographed' - everything is pretend.........

I have always loved Strictly but the obvious manipulation of the results is spoiling it. Peter Andre did not jive at all - he did one of his pop dances and although I think he is actually a sincere and nice guy, he should have left instead of Jamelia. She clearly danced better.

The highlight for me was the "Fred and Ginge" dance done by Katie and Anton - gorgeous darling! It's so good to see Anton showing what a brilliant ballroom dancer he is. I hope they get to the final.

The whole show is obviously a fix. Why else would totally rubbish dancers like Jeremy Vine and Carol Kirkwood get as far as they did when much better dancers were "voted" off?

I wonder if the contestants have contracts drawn up at the beginning showing how long they will stay?

It is more of a popularity contest than a dance competition.

I once appeared on a reality cooking show (no audience voting) and we contestants predicted the result before we even lifted a wooden spoon! Each day of the week one person got the boot. We got it spot on - very funny. Totally manipulated by the production team. The hotel we stayed in said that happened each week of the run. I am sad SCD has come down to this but it is an entertainment show, not a dance competition - two very different things, but in this case it is disgraceful as viewers have spent money voting for something that was pretty obviously a done deal.

I never bother to vote and I am so glad now that I have saved my money. I did not realise that it was so manipulated by the production team until WilmaKnickersfit let a few cats out of the bag. I was not aware that I am so naive.

The BBC doesn't make any money from phone votes on any show. It's part of the BBC Charter. It's different on the other channels like ITV and C4.

I vote for free online too using my ID and my husband's so I get 6 votes!

Social media went bananas about the result! Darcey was on BBC Breakfast this morning, but she never mentioned the Dance Off. I suspect this weekend was the first time she had been in that position. It's been a while since it happened.

I think the manipulation by the producers started when they changed and they've changed twice. The first ones brought in the Dance Off amongst other changes making the show a bit more showbizzy like the American version. But the biggest changes started in 2010 when the current producers took over. That's when celebs with dancing experience started to become far more common than in the early days, when they were the exception. The producers took over the music choices, made couples use props and brought in more themed weeks. Instead of every couple going first or last, etc. at some point in the series, the producers decide the running order. 2010 was the first year we had a real ringer in Kara Tointon who had loads of dancing experience. I stopped voting then and only started again when the free internet voting came in.

Lots of people don't watch any more and although the show is very different now from when it started, I still love it.

Not to mention pretending that the dance off etc was filmed on a Sunday when we all know it was done after the Saturday show.

gillybob Jeremy and Carol were very popular and I wasn't in the least bit surprised they stayed in so long. They had big fan bases before they started. Jeremy won the hearts of so many voters and Carol is known as The Goddess on message boards because men of a certain age like her so much!

I don't think there's any fiddling when it comes to the phone votes because of all the phone scandals years ago. Independent auditors are part of the voting set up. The way the show is manipulated is through the music choices and the running order. These are enough to make a big difference in the outcomes and there's no doubt some couples are favoured in these ways by the producers. I don't even think the judges are normally part of any manipulation, although that doesn't stop them having their own favourites and giving them an extra mark or two, or ignoring their mistakes. Believe it or not, I think what happened last night is quite rare, but it was a real doozy because Jamelia clearly danced better than Peter in the Dance Off. She danced better the second time than the first and Peter didn't - and I don't think the producers expected that at all.

It's always been a popularity contest, but the dancing element used to count for much more because that was what made show the show so popular. It used to be all about the journey a complete beginner would take as they learned to dance. It was great to see someone like Mark Ramprakash fall in love with dancing after a difficult start. These days the complete beginners are in the minority, so your choices are limited.

I didn't vote for Kara, Denise van Outen, Natalie Gumede or Caroline Flack and I won't vote for Jay either. They are all fabulous dancers, but I don't think they should have been on the show because of just how much dance training they all have.

PS I voted for Jeremy (amongst others), but not Carol!

I just can't stand the screaming audience----!!!!!! It really spoils the whole show

I think Jay will be the next one "voted" off. He made some truly awful comments on It takes Two the other night. I could hardly believe it.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3331710/I-want-chop-hands-feet-bag-kick-Strictly-star-Jay-McGuiness-shocks-viewers-bizarre-rant-toddler-Takes-Two-show.html

DH often reminds me of the time we had our arms twisted to go and watch his sister in a dancing competition. His Yorkshire family all love ballroom dancing but he hates it!

I'd never been to anything like it before. I thought it would be all 'Palm Court orchestra' and polite clapping. As the first competitor hurtled towards us in a Viennese Waltz, the man next to me leapt to his feet and yelled, 'Come on, our Sharon!'

I was mortified and loudly shushed him. Thankfully nobody heard me as the audience burst into wild applause but I thought his wife was going to hit me.

DH made a run for the bar!

We were never invited again

That baby would have looked cuter if they had put some trousers on him.

I was astounded at the eloquence of the little red headed 5 year old boy, and he was quite posh with it.

Right result tonight. Better late than never. People seem to have been pretty sheepish about last week's shenanigans-defiantly defending what happened but wasn't convincing especially after Ola's comments.

I agree, best result but I did wonder if Peter would go because it leaves Jay as only male non professional now.

DD was in a dancing competition many moons ago. She was about 9 or 10 at the time.
We thought she and her partner were far and away the best (of course!!!)
The girl who won, with her partner, went on to become a famous film star.
(Kate Beckinsale)

Interesting that the judges have started to comment on the acting, particular Helen George's in the Vienna Waltz. It has often been said of Ginger Rogers that it was her acting that made her Astaire's best partner.

I agree Jane10 and also about Helen's acting but she did look as though she was genuinely loving it. My BIL is in love with her- he says she is a dolly.

She does look like a "dolly" Teetime . A sort of dancing Barbie.

I'm not sure I like her, she always seems so over the top sickly sweet.

I was very suprised that Jay stayed in the popularity contest this week after his recent bad publicity.

I cannot put a finger on it but I do not and have never liked Jay. It has not helped that he has had 6 years of dance training whereas somebody like Anita Rani has has zilch.