It's at about this time of year, and this point in the series that I always get a load of questions as to how the voting works and if I think the public vote is ‘rigged’ in someway. I think this is largely because it’s easier to do the numbers mentally with a few couples instead of 16!

As already reported here and elsewhere, this week's Dance-Off has been dropped for the Semi-Final, with the Judges and the Public Vote being combined to give a final score. The couple with the lowest score automatically go home, and in the case of a tie, it’s the PUBLIC vote that swings the result.

So for example:

Chris scores 1 point with the judges but 3 with the public.
Ricky scores 2 points with the judges but 2 with the public.
Both couples score 4 points in total. But Chris was more popular with the public so goes through, and Ricky goes home.

There have been some comments that this takes power away from the Professional Panel and hands it to the whims of the public – but does it?  At this stage in the game does this make it a popularity contest rather than a dance contest? – Well lets have a look at the maths (warning, science bit, pay attention ;-)

Free Dancing in Spitalfields Market.

I know that late NOvember is not the ideal time to be indulging in outdoor dancing, but if you are free on Saturday and want a break from all those Christmas shoppers then there's always this:

FREE CHRISTMAS PARTY SPECIAL: SALSA & TANGO @ SPITALFIELDS!!

SATURDAY 28 NOV 2009, 15.00 - 18.00

With a slight change of location from our usual venue, this time will be sheltered under the covered Spitalfield Market structure (opposite Leon
restaurant to be precise) to offer you a fantastic semi-outdoor dance space.

The schedule for the afternoon will be
15.00 - 15.30: Free Trial class - Argentine Tango for beginners
15.30 - 16.00: Free trial class - salsa for beginners
16.00 - 18.00: FREE TANGO & SALSA SOCIAL DANCING"

In a surprising move (or possibly not) Strictly have announced (via It Takes Two) that the dance off won't happen on Saturday night.

Instead the couple with the lowest collective score will automatically leave the show, with the weighting being given to the general public, not the expert panel.  So in the event of a tie by the judges, it's the couple with the most public votes that will go through.

The suggested reason for this move is that we only have 3 couples for the Semi-Final instead of 4, but this has been the situation in previous years.  I think the real reason for the tweak is after last year's debacle with the tie in the votes and the public outcry at the time.

How the show should run is 4 couples for the semi-final and then 3 couples in the final, with one couple leaving before the second (show) dance.  The last time we saw this was Zoe Ball I think!

Though this seems to be a welcome move, it puts the heat on Ricky.  While he is a great dancer he hasn't been voted for by the public (who probably think he's safe with the judges) and puts Chris Hollins as the favourite to win with the bookies as he hasn't been in a dance-off yet and is popular in the public vote.

To help you work it out (and have a really good guess as to who's going home on Saturday night) I'm in the middle of writing a long article to be posted later.

Saturday night could be very interesting, but remember you'll have to wait a few hours to get my opinion!  Due to a prior booking I'm out (and away from all news and TV)  I'll write it up as I watch the show (fresh and unbiased) on Sunday.

Also remember that I write up the final LIVE!  Sitting with the laptop on my knee and hitting the refresh button regularly.  Hope you'll join me.

‘Results Show’ and Dance off

Professional Performance – Argentine Tango

This dance will sort out the finalists with performance and technique being equally important. Vincent and Flavia show us how it’s done.

Lovely as always – even though she did look like she had come straight from the beach! Some really nice elements shown to great effect.

Professional Performance – American Smooth

Group dance by the professionals. The opener was very neatly done and straight into quickstep with group patterns and lifts. Lovely.

Special Guest – Bette Midler

“Some Say,” Nice rumba. Mr and Mrs do a lovely routine starting with an incredibly difficult dead lift. The Voice on the sofa said “put her down and dance” though!

Dance off

The two couples down for the dance off are:

Laila & Anton
Ricky & Natalie

I genuinely thought Chris might in the dance off, so surprised to see Ricky there again. Obviously on these two, Laila’s going home.

Laila put in a much better performance this time around, but Anton knows he’s going home.

Ricky’s performance also improved on his first.

Foregone conclusion!

See you next week for the Semi final! (eventually!) Given this weeks public voting we could even see Chris in the final. - I promise to update the music page soon too