Though normally not a viewer (I have a dislike for any program which involves the public voting), I happened to see the end of the semi-finals the week before, where there were three couples dancing.
The normal procedure is for one of the couples to be eliminated and for there to be a final dance-off between two couples the next week.
However, this year it was decided all three couples would go through to the final. The next day it was revealed that the reason for this was that with the way the judges scored the couples, the top two couples were guaranteed to go through regardless of how many phone votes the couple in last place got.
Unfortunately the two hosts of the show didn't know this and encouraged the viewing public to phone in anyway to try and get their favourite couple through.
Due to the toughened up regulations on telephone voting, the BBC panicked and decided to let all three couples through, then add the votes that were cast to the final in addition to the phone voting which normally takes place (the judges do not cast votes in the final, the ultimate winner is chosen purely by public voting).
In the end, the couple who should have been eliminated in the semi-final went on to win and in my opinion completely stripped the show of any integrity it may have had (for this season anyway).
Possibly the greatest irony was that the winning couple, Tom Chambers (the celebrity) and Camilla Dallerup (the professional dancer) seemed to perform better than the runner ups and had the circumstances being different would almost certainly have deservered to win the compeition. Unfortunately in these circumstances the win was thoroughly undeserved and any records of the win should be accompanied by an asterix.
The reason I feel the win is undeserved is because the competition began with one set of rules, and because of a unique set of events (the judges scoring and the hosts urging people to phone vote) ended with another.
In trying to avoid punitive action from OFCOM, the BBC failed to protect the integrity of the show, which is far more important.
What they should have done was to donate any money made from the futile public phone voting to a charity to avoid accusations of defrauding the public and braved whatever punishment OFCOM dished out.
And in this case, OFCOM should have warned the BBC over it's conduct in the future but restrained itself from imposing a fine on them, or at least only imposing a suspended fine.
Because there is no material prize at the end of the show, all the entrants are competing for is pride - something that can mean far more to competitors than anything material.
The runners up this year didn't lose to a better competitor in the end, they lost to a unique set of circumstances and to me a loss that can be hard to understand and hard to accept.
Because of this my condolensces go out to Rachel Stevens and her partner Vincent Simone.
