The Voting System
James said “vote for the dancing”. Certain of the judges have in the past made similar comments.
But what is the function of the public vote?
Does it exist in the hope that the public will somehow arrange themselves to deliver a result which matches the judges’ leader board? How would that work? How can each individual know how the rest of the viewers will vote, in order that the right proportion of votes is delivered for each couple? That’s clearly impractical. It’s also pointless: why not just have the judges’ scores alone, if all the public vote is supposed to do is replicate the judges’ scores? So that can’t be the function.
Nor are we all dance experts, so we can’t vote technically, as the judges do.
So, all the public can do is individually decide who gets their vote, and decide for their own reasons. That the public may deliver a different verdict to that of the judges is well understood by the programme devisors, or why is the outcome decided by adding the two scores together?
What, then, does James’ plea mean? How are people to follow that advice? It isn’t entirely clear. What is clear is that what James or the judges think is important in a performance isn’t always the same as the public’s view. It is the tension between those two sets of values that left John feeling he was in an intolerable position. It was clear from James’ reaction to John’s resignation that there was nothing John could have done in order to do the right thing: he wasn’t supposed to have got this far, but nor should he try to bow out.
This contradiction is a problem for the format. Not from the viewers’ point of view - the ratings prove that. But some involved in the show - whether as judges, professional dancers, or “serious” competitors - clearly haven’t got their head around the fact that what they value or prioritise is not necessarily always what all of the public values or gives priority to.
There were problems about this contradiction before, and the system was re-jigged to keep the judges happy. But they didn’t like the consequences of that, either.
In fact, the contradictions can never be balanced until the interest group within the show who were irritated by John returning week after week realise that the show is light entertainment - yes, with dancing, and some of it very good - but not a niche show for dance purists. Either that, or they only book athletes who have been pre-screened for dance aptitude. In my opinion, that would be a very different show, and would not attract quite the same audience figures.
- will try and find out more
