[petertard]

Could his return up the ratings (by about 2m) ?

[bloodynora]

If he is allowed back on the programme I will not watch it, Louis Spence showed that you can give constructive critism without resorting to nasty personal comments!

[thenetworkbabe]

Originally Posted by petertard

Could his return up the ratings (by about 2m) ?

No telling how many they have lost for good.

Louis served no useful purpose. He wasn't panto, or authoriitive and he commented randomly on the whole performance, pointless detail, the skating, the acting and T and D's choregraphy - most of which he was not qualified, or not wanted there to do. He alternated between not commenting on things because he saw himself there to comment on a narrow range of issues and commenting on anything.

Jason filled the panto role and usually made comments that reflected the overall quality of the performance - he just went too rude and personal at times later on. Bringing him back would bring back an element of surprise and drama but it would require some backpeddling, upsetting some viewers, and risk taking which the powers that be might not be up to. -

Louis isn't their biggest problem. Losing Emma cost them viewers too - the popular fourth judge is there on judging panels for a reason - both presenting a general view and leading the audience vote. Having two skating judges was just dull overkill - and fatal with Louis claiming to be confining himself to technical dancing detail or making very odd general comments.

Their biggest problem though are Robin and T and D's choregraphy. Robin now sees the show as being about technical skating skill - and marks and comments accordingly.He wouldn't get away with it with Jason or a fourth judge, there, but he's now got no one on the panel to bring a more rounded perspective and shut him down. . On the last series, he drove competitors into more and more technical moves and marked them all compared to a male pro. The result is people doing things that add little, never get done well, and fail to happen on air. You end up with Jorgie trying to do landings that she can't do, and no one else on the show's history ever could, endless comments about blade angles more and more comments on how inadequate T and D's choregraphy is ,and marking of the choregraphy not the performance.T and D's lack of good choregraphy is a real issue, but pointing it out,and penalising competitors for it, just weakens the show and is plain bad marking.

The result is no panto without Jason, but its also a show with split purposes, technical comments that few find interesting, people being put on TV to do moves they can't do, and a failure to come up with really good routines - even when they have cast some of their most able people. It fails as entertainment as its judges take it away from entertainment value, and fail to provide it themselves, and its choregraphers rarely produce anything entertaining. Thats understandably going to lose viewers.

[Saturn]

Emma going won't have affected the ratings. She was a cow.

Holly's boobs going definitely did though.

[Patti-Ann]

I prefer Jason to Louis

[Tiger Rose]

I doubt Jason coming back would get anywhere near 2m viewers - 200K would be generous. As for Emma Bunton...2 would be nearer the mark.

[cnbcwatcher]

I don't like either of them but as long as they get rid of Louis next series I won't mind as much. Now all they have to do is get rid of the Bleakley.

[CaroUK]

No

He was rude, personal and ppatronising, and the show is better without him.

IMHO, Louie did everything Jason did - but without being rude or insulting, and he has more credentials than Jason does as well!

[Snow_Leopard]

They have a very good judging panel at the moment, so why change it? I like Jason too, but probably he was a bit too rude at times.

[kaycee]

I liked Jason as a judge. He's actually an OK sort of guy, but have to agree he did overstep the mark once too often.

But I like Louie as a judge as well. He sticks to commenting on what he knows - performance - and doesn't try to pretend he knows anything about skating. Together with Katarina & Robin I think they are a great panel.

As for affecting the ratings - I can't help thinking the show itself is the reason the ratings dropped - not the judges. It's all become just a bit too "samey" and badly needs a huge overhaul to liven it up and refresh it as a whole.

[CaroUK]

What would make a HUGE improvement is cutting down the number af ad breaks they seem determined to shovel in....

Last night we had a 2 hour slot for what was essentially just over 1 hour of viewing time.... I was watching on the live player - and didn't watch the ad breaks - but spent them doing other things, so I (and I will bet a lot of other viewers too) didn't even spare a glance for those expensive ads.

Oh - and get rid of the girl with perfect teeth/ caterwauling corncrakes etc by Macleans - they aren't of interest to anyone I've discussed the show with either!

[kaycee]

Originally Posted by CaroUK

What would make a HUGE improvement is cutting down the number af ad breaks they seem determined to shovel in....

Last night we had a 2 hour slot for what was essentially just over 1 hour of viewing time.... I was watching on the live player - and didn't watch the ad breaks - but spent them doing other things, so I (and I will bet a lot of other viewers too) didn't even spare a glance for those expensive ads.

Oh - and get rid of the girl with perfect teeth/ caterwauling corncrakes etc by Macleans - they aren't of interest to anyone I've discussed the show with either!

Trouble is without the caterwauling girl with perfect teeth there would probably be no DOI as Macleans sponsorship keeps the show going.

Our answer to the ads is not to start watching it until it has been on at least half an hour, then everytime the ads start we ff through them ..... (the joys of Sky+)

[Deleria]

Jason WAS the show, he's greatly missed from the panel, and Louis is too eagre to please everyone when surely he was cast as a nasty queen? Doesn't exactly make compulsive tv.

[conchie]

If Kevin Pieterson can get back on the England squad... then why not !!! I like him, he just took it that step too far, but if that could be reigned in, why not ! I have to mute the tv when Louis comes on, can't bear him.

[*Sparkle*]

I missed Jason and thought Louie was a pale replacement, but bringing him back would be a backward step.

Most of Louie's flaws can be worked on, if he's willing. The most important one being that he seemed to think he was the only person on the panel/show who knew about choreography and how to interpret music. He does know about that, but Robin and Katerina do too, and their credentials for that (never mind the skating) are better. The same for Chris and Jayne, so while his opinion is fine - it riled when he tried to make out he knew better than the rest of them. He plainly missed the point of some performances last year, so either he needs to make sure he's briefed, or he is a bit more thoughtful before passing judgement.

I wouldn't mind if they replaced him with a relative unknown. Louie's dance knowledge/experience isn't that hard to find, so it's just a case of finding someone who can handle the tv side of things. However, he's had a year of DOI, so he hopefully knows a bit more about the skating side of things. I don't expect him to judge the skating as such, but an appreciation of what is easy or hard to do is required to make sensible judgements on the quality of the dancing.