Should there be a new elimination format next season?

I think that it is time for a change in the elimination system.  Keep in mind that the percentage format has been in use for 18 seasons (9 years).  It has been for 10 years (all 20 seasons so far) that the couple with the lowest combined total goes home.  And there have been some really shocking eliminations because of this.

The judges' scores and viewer votes would still be converted to percentages, but the weighting changes as the season progresses.  I call this a "sliding scale":

• From week 1 until after two couples are eliminated, the judges' scores count 75% and the viewer votes count 25%.
  
• Then, until week 6, the judges' scores count 70% and the viewer votes count 30%.
  
• Starting in week 7, the judges' scores count 60% and the viewer votes count 40%.
  
• On the finale, the judges' scores count 50% and the viewer votes count 50%.
  

And, instead of the couple with the lowest combined total being eliminated, the judges choose who is eliminated.  They actually did this in Season 14 for three weeks.  Except now, I think it should be permanent.

• Until week 6, or if there is a double elimination, the judges choose from the bottom 3.
  
• Otherwise, they choose from the bottom 2.
  

Keep in mind that there should be a good balance between the judges' scores and the viewer votes.  If they made these changes last season, maybe Willow could have stayed longer, and Nastia might have made it to the finale.  So what do you think?

I personally like it the way it is now. I would not see the point of even voting my favorite, if my vote was not really going to count for much and would be overthrown by a judges majority vote. The premise of the show is America's favorite. Ive been disappointed many a seasons from one of my fav's being eliminated early on, but they were not the majority of who the viewing public wanted to see, so I just mumbled under my breath and moved on. This show really is not about being technical or who is the best dancer. (best dancer is subject really anyway, as the majority of people voting have no dance training themselves so are basing their opinions only on which dance/couple they enjoyed the best. Which could be different people, as we all have various opinions on what we like.) People base their vote on personality, dance ability, favorite pro, and a myriad of other reasons they enjoy that particular couple, and I am fine with that.  I think if they want to make it more of a judges choice, and technical, then use real people with formal dance training. Using washed up, old, d-list celebs, vying for a silly mirrorball trophy, the format is fine just the way it is. Its not like these celebs are winning millions of dollars or an olympic gold medal for winning. Its just a bunch of cut up pieces of mirror glues onto a round stand!

I would like to keep it the way it is, but add 1 or 2 "Judges' saves." I agree that this isn't strict dancing competition. It's entertainment. We all have different preferences. So many aspects of this show make it difficult to make it seem "fair" to everyone. This show can't be fair to everyone as a straight up "competition" when you start with people at so many different ability levels and prior training. Add to that they, encourage people to vote however they want to. Of course people will get upset: politics, religion, ...DWTS!

I think the voting should stay 50/50, however, I REALLY like the idea of a "Judge Save" and that the Judges select from the bottom two. Those would, hopefully, keep good dancers on the show.

Hi! I'm new to the board and this is my first post.

I do think there should be a change in viewer voting if what I read about people staying up all night voting online hundreds/thousands of times by using different e-mail accounts is true. Maybe take away online voting and have phone voting open for longer than an hour after the show. More judges saves might be a good idea as well.

Thank you USN! I'm looking forward to the new season and discussing it here.

Thank you, Starz!

I've always liked/favored the concept of not voting anyone off until After the second dance. Can you imagine how some of these contestants are as they start their journey on the show. Bundle of nerves best discribes them to me. They did do this one or two seasons back in the beginning and they should have kept it up

Welcome Flashysocks!!!!

moo2meow wrote:I've always liked/favored the concept of not voting anyone off until After the second dance. Can you imagine how some of these contestants are as they start their journey on the show. Bundle of nerves best discribes them to me. They did do this one or two seasons back in the beginning and they should have kept it up

Glad that you finally joined us Moo!
I agree with you. Let them ALL dance for a dew weeks before eliminations. We're in no hurry.

I agree about giving them at least two dances before any elimination.

I like the voting the way it is now. Of course, the celebrity that I think is best doesn't always win and several times, my fourth or fifth choice has won. However, the randomness of the public's choice keeps things interesting.

I do like the idea of not eliminating anyone until after the second dance thus giving us an extra week each season.

I have (several times) suggested changing the judges scoring procedure and I think the change would be good in some Olympic events too. Based on the mandatory 10 score used in some states for boxing, I came up with this.

Scores range from 0 to 20 (or 0 to 10 in half steps). The first couple always gets a 10 from each judge. The succeeding scores can go up or down. The idea is to eliminate judges holding back from giving a low score to a great early performance so as to have some room for the later contestants to show improvement. If the first couple gets all 10s now, a better later performance gets penalized; if the judges give a 10-worthy performance a bunch of 9s, (to have some points in reserve) that performance gets penalized. This doesn't eliminate bias or idiocy, but it helps a bit.

The host (or assistant) do need to explain to the audience that scores are relative to that night only.

One more change I'd like to see (besides bringing back the orchestra) is to have some of the pros demonstrate the various dances. Another idea would be to require each performance to include several (3 or 4 maybe) characteristic steps of each dance. (Or characteristic hand movements or poses for jazz and contemporary.) Sometimes it seems like each dance looks like a showcase cha-cha.

maybe each judge could save 1 couple per season? I think it would've helped willow and nastia

Let me tell you why I developed the "sliding scale" scoring system, and in my opinion why there is a mathematical flaw with the current elimination system.


Short Answer:  It levels the playing field more.


Long Answer:  In the current format, the disparity between the judges' scores' range and the viewer votes' range can vary widely.  For example, if the difference between the highest and lowest judges' scores is 7%, and the same difference with the viewer votes is 7% or somewhat close to that, the playing field is reasonably level.

But the problem occurs when the viewer votes have a much larger range than the judges' scores.  This is where the "shocking" eliminations usually occur.  For example, if the highest and lowest viewer vote counts had a 10% difference while the judges' scores only have at most a 2% difference, there is a big disparity (8%).  Even though the scores and votes are simply added together, in this particular case, it seems as if they are combined in a 5:1 ratio (10% vs. 2%), or 83.33% viewer votes and 16.67% judges' scores.  Of course, this ratio will effectively vary.  When this case or any similar one occurs, the viewer votes tend to overpower the judges' scores, skewing the results.  And that is why shocking eliminations tend to occur more often than they should.  In addition, a lot of times, the judges' scores are pretty close together.

However, the advantage to the current format is that if the judges' scores have the larger range, the better couples will usually stay, while worse ones will go.  As I said earlier, there needs to be a good balance between judges' scores and viewer votes when deciding the eliminated couples.  But that doesn't happen very often, and there have been too many shocking eliminations under the current format.



And yes, I think the judges should have two or three saves per season, like the one on American Idol.