Bristol Palin does not belong in the finals. That is for certain. The fact that Palin has beaten better dancers suggests that America still has problems treating minorities fairly.
Palin has finished on the bottom of the leaderboard for seven episodes but has remained in the competition. Palin has beaten Audrina Partridge, who finished first on the leaderboard the week she was dropped from the show. She also beat Brandy who got a perfect 30 for her Tango last week.
Is DWTS a dance competition or a popularity contest, that is the question? How are the actual stats compiled? According to Wikipedia:
The scoring begins with the judges' marks. Each judge gives a 1 to 10 score, for a total score of 3 to 30 (the lowest individual score, however, was a 2 for Master P's Paso Doble in season 2, and the lowest total score for a dance was an 8).
When multiple performances are scored, only the cumulative total counts. The contestants' "judges' shares" are calculated as the percentage of the total number of points awarded to all contestants that evening. (For example, if a team earned 20 points on a night when the judges awarded 200 points, their judges' share would be 20/200 = 10%.)
The bottom two couples are identified in the results show, and the couple with the lowest combined total is eliminated. See the update at the end of the article for ABC's expalantion of the scoring system.
Public voting is conducted via a toll-free number, the ABC web site, and, most recently, text messages; contestants can vote during and immediately after each performance show. The maximum number of votes per voter per medium is equal to the number of couples performing that night, or five votes, whichever is larger.
In November 2010, the Washington Post reported that online voting appeared not to require a valid email address, and accordingly that a large number of votes apparently could be cast by one person.
The scoring system appears to be convoluted. it needs to be simplified and the judges ratings should count at least 50 per cent of the final weekly rating.
The contestants could be rank ordered by the judges and the public. Standard competition ranking, which is similar to ordinal ranking, should be used for both the judges scores and the public voting.
Regardless, we suspect that Palin will fall tonight. In the finals, there is a judges only round. That is how DWST has gotten rid of sub-standard dancers with a large fan base in the past. Marie Osmond is a good example of what Rightrdia is talking about.
It is also clear that the best dancer does not always win the competition. Shawn Johnson in season 8 was certainly not the best dancer in the competition. Rightardia also though Mya was the best dancer in season 9.
We also hope one of the DWST judges, Len Goodman, becomes more objective regarding Palin. Goodman has been passing Palin while Carrie Ann Inaba has been low balling her. Goodman has been looking the other way when Palin dances.
Update:
ONLINE VOTING REQUIREMENTS:
The Internet browser on user computers must allow cookies, have Javascript enabled and have the latest version of Flash installed in order to vote. If cookies and Javascript are disabled and Flash is not installed, users will be unable to access the online ballot.
This is how ABC explains the scoring process which Rightardia believes is overly complex. a simple competition scoring system would make more sense.
THE PROCEDURE FOR ELIMINATING COUPLES:
Each week every couple receives points from the judges and votes from the public. For every couple we work out the share they got of the points given by the judges on the night, and the share they got of the public's votes on the night and we add these two shares together. The couple with the lowest combined total is eliminated from the show.
For example if couple A, B and C receive 38, 26 and 14 points from the judges, we calculate what share these points represent of the total awarded by the judges on the night.
In this case the judges gave 78 points in total, and each couples' share of 78 points breaks down as follows: 38= 48.72% of78, 26= 33.33% of 78, 14= 17.95% of 78. Let's suppose that when the public votes are tallied, each couple has the following shares: A= 20%, B=40%, C=40%. To determine who's eliminated we combine these two shares for the total:
Couple A: 20+48.72%= 68.72%
Couple B: 40+33.33%= 73.33%
Couple C: 40+17.95%= 57.95%
In this case, the bottom two couples would be A and C, and C would be eliminated.
In a competiton scoring system the ratings would look like this because the team with the top score of the three couples would get a three and the bottom couple a one.
couple a: 1 + 3 = 4/2 = 2
couple b: 3 + 2 = 4/2 = 2.5
couple c: 3 + 1 = 4/2 = 2
In this example couple B would finish first. Couple A and C would would be tied for elimination. Notice that the results are different from the way that DWTS would compute it. In this case, couple A or C would be eliminated. We think the ABC example is bad because it is highly unlikely that two teams would tie on the public vote count. However, there could always be a judge's scored dance off if two teams tied for the bottom.
As the DWTS scoring now works, the contestant with the largest fan base will almost always win because of the similar judges scores in the semi-finals and finals. DWTS needs to improve their scoring system.
If Bristol make it though the night, the judges scores will become a huge issue. For example let's say Jennifer Grey and Derriick Hough gets all 10s and end up with 60 points for the night. Bristol gets all 8s and gets 48 points for the night.
You might think Jennifer Grey just had a big victory, but she will only pick up 55 percent of the points in the competition. Bristol would pick up to 44 per cent of the vote.
If Bristol can swing 56 per cent of the popular vote or more with her mom's Tea Baggers and fans, she wins.
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