Strictly Come Dancing: Semi-Final Results!

I've been having problems accessing Blogger on the weekend hence the late post about Strictly Come Dancing. Of course, I watched the show! It was the Semi-Finals and very exciting it was too. The three couples competing were, Ali Bastian and her partner Brian Fortuna; Ricky Whittle and his partner Natalie Lowe; and Chris Hollins and his partner, Ola Jordan. I think all three couples danced beautifully but of course only two couples are allowed to go through to the Finals. There wasn't a dance-off in the show on Saturday night so the selection was based on the combination of the judges' scores and viewers' votes. The lowest scoring couple was thus automatically eliminated from the competition. The shock of the results was that despite scoring a perfect score of 50 for the American Smooth, Ali Bastian is out of the competition! I still can't believe Ali is out. I think she and Brian deserved to be in the Final. What a shame there wasn't a dance-off. I'm sure that would have made all the difference. I wonder what the judges think about this change. What do you think? Do you think the dance-off should have been dropped? Chris and Ola have fantastic chemistry and Chris noticeably improved - but I don't think Chris should have got through. On the other hand, Ricky is a very talented dancer so it was right that he got through. So it's down to two couples now. Who do you think will win? I think Ricky should win but I predict it will be Chris. And finally, what are your thoughts about Darcy Bussell, the former ballet dancer, who was brought in as an extra judge on Strictly Come Dancing? I think that as a professional dancer, she's obviously more qualified than Alesha Dixon as a judge but I'm not sure I like the way they keep messing with the show's format. I prefer it when there are only four judges not five. What do you think?