I don't really understand how the voting works and can't say I have ever heard it explained properly. How do they combine the judges votes with the public votes.
If there are 5 couples in the competition, the couple who the judges place at the top of the leaderboard will be awarded 5 points, 4 points for the couple who come 2nd with the judges, 3 for the couple that come 3rd etc, down to 1 point for the couple at the bottom of the judges leaderboard. After the public have voted, the couple that come top with the public get 5 points, 4 points for the couple the public place 2nd, 3 points for the couple in 3rd etc, down to 1 point for the couple that comes bottom with the public. They then add together the scores from the judges and the pubic to give each couple a total, and the two couples with the lowest combined scores finish up in the dance off. When there are ties on the judges leaderboard, this always seems to wreak havoc with the outcome! Hope that makes sense.
I love Strictly, I'm a super fan, but quite a few bits and pieces have happened over the last couple of series to make me think that there's too much meddling going on by the producers. I think it was fairer when the professional chose the music for their celebrity partner, as this enables the producers to give certain couples all the best music. They assess the celebrities form at the rehearsals for the group dance, and then decide who they want to pair them up with, hence why some professionals always seem to get to the latter stages, whilst others always get saddled with the duffers. As LATI said, getting certain dances at certain points in the competition can also be advantageous, although there is less they can do about this, as they now like to mix it up more than they used to. The judging was the thing that was most disappointing this series, though, with certain couples being consistently marked up, and others consistently marked down. Brendan Cole even wrote an article about it after the semi final:
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/strict...dancing-column-judges-scoring-beggars-belief/
The judges have, of course, had their favourites over the years, but it was so blatant this year that it just looked like they were being instructed on what to say / score. They are now paying for the fact that they have taught us very well over 14 series all the elements required to make each dance great, so we no longer just take their word for it! Strictly has been such an unprecedented success for the BBC, and has continued to go from strength to strength up until now, but if they carry on like this they could wreck their golden goose. As it's a show on a publicly funded channel and the public are also paying to vote, I think they should release the voting figures at the end of each series, like the X Factor do. Of course it's only an entertainment program, and it can never be an even playing field when you've got those with no previous dance experience going up against trained dancers, but I would be gutted if it were to come to an end prematurely because the producers couldn't just leave the judges to do their thing and the public to do theirs, and let the series play out.