One viewer, one vote? Just too risky

IT'S clear to me now that some viewers just can't be trusted with a phone vote.

The worst example of this was Rachel "Far Too Nice" Rice winning Big Brother.

She deserved to do quite well because she had a hard time in the house, but her win was a huge and annoying shock. Why did so many people vote for such a bland character? Her best bits were as dull as ditchwater. True, there was no clear winner, but at least someone like Mikey or Rex had a personality and didn't go completely overboard over a bunch of grapes.

Then came more mad voting in the Eurovision Dance Contest, with the added obstacle that we were also dealing with foreign viewers. That meant that, as in the Song Contest, the UK entry of Louisa Lytton and Vincent Simone were never going to win, but at least we didn't come last.

The fact that not every country voted for us came as a huge surprise to commentator Len Goodman. "I'll never set foot in Finland again," he exclaimed. "Not that I've ever actually been, but I'll never go now."

Then the brilliantly grumpy and xenophobic Strictly Come Dancing judge said: "Where is Lithuania anyway? I don't think it was a country when I was at school."

Yet again, viewers got it wrong on Monday when they went for Sue Perkins over Goldie in the Maestro contest to turn celebs into conductors. Sue was good but the Wolverhampton DJ was robbed.

Still, the voting in last night's National Movie Awards was a little better. Cinema-goers made good choices and certainly improved on last year, when Daniel Radcliffe embarrassingly scooped Best Male Performance over Johnny Depp and Daniel Craig and Emma Watson was considered a better actress than Dame Judi Dench.

Johnny got his reward this year for Sweeney Todd, with voters wisely ignoring Batman Christian Bale - why on earth wasn't Heath Ledger included in this category?
And at least too many people weren't stupid enough to vote for the dire Love Guru. Whoever put that in the Best Comedy category should have their sight and hearing tested immediately.