CON DANCING?

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Dec 14, 2008 | by KAREN ROCKETT

STRICTLY Come Dancing was at the centre of a phone voting fiasco last night after the BBC suspended the public poll.

All three semi-finalists were astonishingly put through to next Saturday's final despite tens of thousands of viewers ringing in to save their favourites.

The BBC switchboard and internet blogs were full of complaints from viewers who felt conned after pointlessly voting to save a couple.

On one message board a viewer, posting as CoolGloo, wrote: "X Factor final is on, the BBC want to beat it in the ratings and we just wasted Saturday evening - plus cash if you voted."

Another, BlackOpal, said: "I am furious! How dare they fix this to keep Tom in."

And on the same message board, Fredster wrote: "They must've had hundreds of complaints."

Last night the BBC admitted they had been inundated with calls from confused viewers demanding an explanation.

The voting shock came after Rachel Stevens, 30, and Lisa Snowdon, 37, were way ahead of Tom Chambers who could not be saved by public vote.

Last night a backstage source said: "Lisa and Rachel are really annoyed and frustrated - they feel they have worked hard all week but it's been wasted as they've not gone anywhere. Even Tom, who stayed in although he was last, is baffled.

"I think the Beeb did it because they wanted to appear clean after other voting scandals."

A BBC spokesman said: "We have had a lot of calls. It isn't that people are angry, more like confused.

"We found ourselves in a unique situation because of the way the voting system works. Because Tom Chambers could not be saved by the public vote we felt it wasn't fair because he couldn't be saved from the dance off.

"As far as we are aware this has not happened before and we didn't anticipate it."

Holby actor Tom, 31, fully expected to face one of the other contestants in the dance off after he scored lowest on the judges' leader board.

He burst into tears when he heard he was in the final and all three contestants hugged.

Minutes earlier presenters Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly announced suddenly the phone lines had been frozen and voting had stopped, before telling the audience all three were through.

A notice was flashed up at the end to tell viewers their votes would not be wasted and would be carried over to next Saturday's final.

What went wrong?

THE top couple get three points, second two, last one. Rachel and Lisa tied for top in the judges' scoring, so each got three points.

Tom came last with one point.

Even if he won the public vote and got three points he would have just four.

Rachel and Lisa would then get either one or two points from the public vote giving them four or five.

That left Tom in the dance off. But as the public were asked to vote to save him - and he could not be - the BBC shelved the vote.

'How dare the BBC fix show to keep Tom in'

'We have wasted Saturday evening & our cash'

-VIEWER ON INTERNET