'Strictly' voting system to be reviewed

BBC

The BBC is to review its Strictly Come Dancing scoring system after receiving nearly 200 complaints about Saturday's semi-final.

After Lisa Snowdon and Rachel Stevens emerged equal after the judges' scores, the decision was made to also bring Tom Chambers into the final as he could not be kept out of the dance-off by the public vote. All votes cast for the three contestants will be carried forward to the final.

A BBC spokesman said: "[The producers] are going to look at ways in which they can avoid this situation happening again, definitely. Exactly what's going to happen is yet to be debated and agreed, but that process will begin soon."

Jon Beazley, controller of entertainment production for the broadcaster, said: "We have so many contingencies for a live programme of the complexity of Strictly Come Dancing, this was one extra set of circumstances we didn't have the contingencies in place for. Everything else, we could have legislated for. But that's the nature of the beast."

Contestant Stevens defended Strictly bosses over the controversy, saying: "I think some decisions had to be made on the spot, I think that happened."