This week's 'Strictly Come Dancing' semi-final saw the remaining 4 couples battle it out for a place in the Final (instead of the usual 5 due to Will Young's departure from the show). However, the semi-finals saw fan-favourites Claudia and AJ eliminated after a dance-off with Danny Mac. While it's sad that they left the competition, it's the context in which it happened that really bothers us. 

There was a technical glitch with the 30 minute voting window, where fans couldn't get through to vote for Claudia or Danny (I know, I tried!) - the two contestants who ended up in the Dance-Off. The official BBC Strictly page acknowledged the glitch and fixed it, yet gave no extra time for voting. Due to the judges undermarking them (see below), they ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard and due to the glitch, the public could not save them! The last time it was concluded that the public couldn't influence the vote in the semi-final (2008), there was no elimination and all 3 contestants went straight through to the final. So, we call upon BBC to do the same thing this year with the 4 of them!!  

Furthermore, despite delivering incredible routines all season, Claudia and AJ were consistently undermarked, while other dancers made noticeable mistakes that were completely overlooked, scoring tens! The consistent amount of undermarking they have suffered has led to them becoming the People's Champions as their base of supporters continues to grow. In fact, last night, the judges criticised AJ and Claudia by citing their young ages for their supposed "lack of chemistry", despite delivering a technically perfect routine. And while some judges had no problems with their Quickstep, they still scored them a nine, while scoring other contestants tens despite making mistakes.I know I'm not the only one that noticed this, and I hate to use the word manipulation, but that's exactly what it appears to be! How can two technically perfect dances score lower than ones with clear mistakes? It seems like the judges wanted Claudia out. And as this is a competition open to the public, we call for the usual 4 Person Final (and Claudia) to return so we can make the decision for ourselves!

Claudia and AJ haven't got the respect they deserve, and now due to the voting glitches and the judges' undermarking, we call upon BBC to bring back their usual 4 person final! Prove it's not a fix and leave AJ and Claudia's Strictly fates in the public's hands for the final!!