...to be outraged that the two black contestants in Strictly Come Dancing...

[seeker]

...were bottom of the public vote, even though it was obvious to anyone with eyes in their head that they weren't the worst two dancers?

[LurkerOfTheUniverse]

really?

can't say it even occured to me

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

YANBU at all - I was similarly when I saw how it ended up.

[SmileandWave]

Didn't occur to me either. It sometimes isn't the 2 worst dancers in the bottom two though. Look at last year when it was Penny Lancaster and the other leggy one in the bottom two...and the GMTV crap woman was still in. Now that was shite.

[PeasForTeaAgain]

Erm... possibly seeker. Remember what happened to that other woman last year? Public outrage etc. She was white... not sure how helpful this is without her name! You know who I mean. More the fact that they are possibly not the most charismtatic people when they dance, rather than tehnical ability or colour of skin?

[LurkerOfTheUniverse]

and Heather was a bit rubbish

[No1GruffaloHunter]

I think they were always going to be vulnerable this week.

Jon is Mr Nice guy and also being bottom meant lots of folks voted for him.

Mark wore the right shirt for the female vote.

As for Andrew it must be the GMTV effect can't think of any other reason.

Really sad to see Don go I thought he'd done a good job...but Heather didn't deserve to go either.

Another eg of how Strictly isn't particularly fair.

[MrsMattie]

The thought did cross my mind, yeh. Heather Small is pretty good, too. Don whathisname is crap, though.

[LurkerOfTheUniverse]

Aleesha Dixon won last year!

[mabanana]

Well, Alysia won last year, didn't she? And didn't Mark thingy win too? I really don't think this is racist. Heather is dull and chippy, and poor Don isn't v good, even though I love him. Lots of people won't know who he is, and he doesn't have the GMTV viewership behind him.

[liath]

Generally the public will either vote for the worst dancers out of sympathy or for the best dancers - I reckon the danger zone is being 4th or 5th from the bottom. I think it's pure coincidence that they were both black TBH.

[mabanana]

sorry Alesha.

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

I thought Christine was rather good actually.
Mark and Andrew were rubbish - way worse than Don or Heather. John obviously is in a seperate category.

[FAQ]

and Colin Jackson won the Christmas Special a year or 2 back.

[MrsMattie]

People vote on personalities as well as the dancing, don't they? Alesha was fabulous last year - but she is also gorgeous and bubbly. That can't have hurt.

[Pannacotta]

I thought the same, as neither Heather nor Don was anywhere near the worst.
Cant believe that Andrew, Mark and Jon are still in...

[ladymariner]

I agree, liath. I didnt want don to be voted out but he isn't really that well known, not like andrew or mark who were the two who should have gone, they're really embarrassing!!

[Freckle]

But it's not just the public vote is it? It's that combined with the judges' scores. And, re the public vote, it's more to do with their fan bases. Both Heather and Don don't really feature in the public consciousness these days, do they? Although I have to say, I'm not sure who is voting for Mark, as he's not terribly well-known and doesn't have an obvious fan base - other than women easily swayed by a tone torso.

I really don't think there is anything racist in this. John was perhaps a worse dancer, but I think he absolutely wins on entertainment value.

[unknownrebelbang]

yabu.

[seeker]

Obviously John is in a different category - we voted for him because he's fab. But it was so obvious that Andrew and Mark should have been in the dance off that I found myself looking for other reasons for Heather and Don being there. And I could only think of one reason.....

[Heated]

It's because they don't have a huge public following. How many of us have had to explain who Don Warrington is to the dcs? And they weren't sufficiently diabolical to get the sympathy vote. It's never about the worst dancer!

Anyway if you want to get picky, you could say the public are prejudiced against Eastenders cast-members since 3 of them have gone.

[seeker]

It is the public vote, Freckle - the judges don;t have a say in who is in the dance off.

[ladymariner]

You only have to remember how crap fiona phillips and kate garrwaway were and how long they were kept in to realise there is a certain sadism to the public voting