I think the reason Erin was so upset about leaving this year is because she had had so much fun with Austin and they really could have gone to the final.

On the C2C tour they have suggested they want to come back But Erin's said before that she wouldn't do SCD without Anton and he won't do it without her so if the BBC really want to keep either of them they're going to have to keep both of them. And after the things with Matt and Nicole's contracts they'll know to wait to make sure they both have them before they sign!

Well i do not know if the show needs sexed up but, I do think changes need to be made.I would like to see them keep things fresh by introducing new dances and new professionals every year as i beleive the American version does.I wish they would concentrate on the dancing and the original format of the show.I am a bit fed up of the....who could be a possible showmance....who could be rivals like they did with Tom and Austin..... also the professional dancers seem more more desperate to win each year and the celebs more desperate to further their careers,its becoming very predictable.........so i do think it needs changes.

I really hope that they dont try to "sex" the show up, I don't think it needs it. I've been watching SCD since Series 1 and the format hasn't really changed since then (apart from the dance-off which I'm not really a fan of) and I think it works perfectly fine.

In my opinion, I think the only reasons why the series wasn't as popular last year was because Series 5 was always going to be difficult to follow up, there were too many couples (I think it went on for too long, which I never thought I'd hear myself say! ) and I just found it very difficult to support and take an interest in any of the celebs. I think if anything the producers need to take it back to basics and perhaps stop trying so hard. I was a big fan of SCD 2 and SCD 5 and nothing really significant happened in between so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!

And as for making the girls wear less to appear sexier, well I really hope they don't. Some of the outfits are tiny as it is without making them smaller............!

ETA - I do hope that a lot of the same pros come back as well. Although I do think it's exciting to have a few new pros in, I think that the majority of the pros that are on SCD at the moment are fantastic (obviously I'm a bigger fan of some more than others!) and I hope that they don't replace some of them for less experienced and less able dancers. One of the great things about SCD is watching the pro dances and their fantastic choreography .
Last edited by laura21 : 01-04-2009 at 15:03

I don't think SCD5 was a hard act to follow at all
It depends on your perspective, but plenty of people probably thought SCD6 was the best series yet.

There are definitely too many couples at the moment, but unfortunately I don't see that changing. They should take it back down to twelve, that way they can get rid of the boys night/girls night thing which has never worked fairly or well.

I agree, cut it down to 12 couples. I love SCD but it really did run too long last year.

Ok then, well I think it was a hard act to follow .

I never really liked the boy/girl night either, especially the fact that it was always the boys that had to dance the first week whilst the girls were safe and did the group dance instead. I hope they change it this year, although to be honest I can't see it happening.

I'd settle for the dumping of the dance-off and returning to a max of 12 couples

SCD doesn't need sexing up, doesn't need new dances outside of the ballroom/latin disciplines, doesn't need pointless crap like Ask Len on ITT and it certainly doesn't need manufactured rivalries and inane speculation on the participants love lives...

...Or at least I don't need any of the above

Sure SCD6 was the best series yet - if you like the judges displaying blatant favouritism to keep in their favourite, even though that contestant was unpopular with most viewers ...

Bar the four tens debacle in the semi-final, SCD5 was difficult to top. The production team got things badly wrong last year and great dancing moments had to battle for attention with the judges' egos.

laura21 - you are not the only one! SideshowStu - I totally agree.

And yes, there are too many contestants ... but I can't see the BBC changing that when 15 weeks of Strictly on Saturday and Sunday will boost their audience share.

i'm 15 and love strictly just the way it is, wouldn't want them to sex it up too much.

I would never say SCD6 was the best yet, but I'm sure there are plenty of Tom/Lisa/Camilla fans who think it was!
Re. the blatant favouritism- admittedly it reached new heights with Lisa, but that has been a feature of pretty much every series to one degree or another- think Denise (largely deserved marks, but one 'it had a lift but I'm still giving it ten' moment from Bruno ), Zoe, Emma etc.

Which series was the best depends largely on your perspective... for me nothing has topped the SCD3 final! I don't make a secret of the fact that Darren G and Lilia were my favourite ever Strictly partnership, so you might say that I'm biased, but then I wasn't even supporting them before the final which shows what a big impact it had for me that they are still my favourites over three years later!

The SCD5 final did have two strong dancers so I can see why people loved it, but then the SCD3 final had a fabulous dancer, the judges' favourite, and the peoples' favourite... the first male winner, the only time in the first five series that the winner didn't top the judges' leaderboard, the first appearance of the legendary/cliched Strictly 'journey'! Plus for me the first three series had a genuinely nicer atmosphere where people weren't so obviously doing the show purely to kickstart their careers.

Although I love Erin and was really pleased Austin was paired with her, I could never understand why Austin wasn't partnered with Ola. And therefore Andrew with Erin. It seemed the obvious partnerships to me given their heights. Andrew was clearly too tall for Ola and Austin would have been a better height match for her. Similarly Austin was the shortest in height partner that Erin has had. I'd love to know if these were the original partnerships but were swapped for some reason.

As for Anton and Erin coming back this year I think they have both confirmed they are. I know I've heard Anton on the radio say that anyway.

It's interesting that a few of the pros have already confirmed they are coming back, because I got the impression that part of the 'Nicole' issue last year was that pros weren't invited until nearer the time, and Matt didn't know Nicole wasn't on SCD6 until he had already signed??

I think its that the pros have confirmed they'd LIKE to come back, they havnt confirmed they will definitly be back. As far as I know the contracts aren't out yet.

IMO I think the BBC need to drop the ridiculous 'competitive' celebs rubbish they wheel out each year, drop the blubbing and bitchy, catty remarks which are so contrived and obviously cut into VT's to make it look like there is conflict where there really is none. Cut the weeks back to 12 - SCD is my favourite ever show (apart from the original) but even I thought it was too long last year.

Lose the drivel that is used as fillers in ITT such as 'Ask Len' and add more practice footage and more time with the eliminated pro's giving us the lowdown on the dances etc etc.

It doesn't need sexing up it just needs some care and attention to see what the glaring mistakes were last series.

I don't think sexing it up will help win them younger viewers. They're wasting their time if they're heading down that road. I think SCD is a concept that will appeal to you or not and sexing it up may bring a bit a lot more publicity but that'll be about it.


Even as a Lilia fan I don't think Austin being paired with Lilia wouldn't really have made much difference to his latin. Looking at the work she has done with various partners she is more known for producing high standard ballroom dancers rather than consistently producing standout latin dances. And Austin pretty much had similar potential as Aled, Darren and Matt.

Agree. Last years series felt so emotionally heavy, the crying, oh everything is sooooo hard...It was too much.

Yes, of course there's been favouritism previously but nothing to rival the public vs. judges split that we saw in SCD6. The conclusion of Sergeant-gate could (and should) have ended it but instead it became worse, not better. At least the public had the final say - but lessons should have learned from the way the series was managed (or, rather, not managed ... ).

But I entirely agree with your point about people using SCD in desperation to kickstart their careers. So true. Naming no names ...

And Puffle - ABSOLUTELY!

I think Lilia produces far better latin than erin ever has to be honest and she HAS competed at latin Erin never has with Anton and it shows

Far better really?
As far as how well their latin routines were received by audience and judges I don't see how or where Erin managed to do much worse than Lilia did with similar partners. And ultimately it'll be the audience and judges who decide who goes through and wins. Seeing as you seem to think Lilia would have got Austin further.

Yeah obviously Erin is not a professional latin dancer, so obviously Lilia's a better latin dancer but as far as teaching on SCD goes it's hard to acheive a consistently high standard of latin even when a latin pro is teaching.

Perhaps they realised Austin had too much ballroom potential to be wasted on Ola

For my money Ola is the weakest teacher/choreographer of the female pros- Erin's latin may or may not have let Austin down, but Ola would never have given him such beautiful classic ballroom.


It is a tough one when you start trying to work out potential. Obviously those three did have a lot of potential from the start, however sucky Matt and Darren were in their first performances! But where I think Austin is at another level, is that he was the one everyone was talking about from the start, with a really stunning ballroom routine in the first week. Then in week three, when all eyes were on him really, he looked (to me) as if the routine was actually too easy for him.

I do think Lilia thus far has produced standout ballroom and her latin routines have been easier, but that I think is largely due to the fact that her celebs, like the majority of male celebs on the show, are less keen on latin. Aled got better scores from the start that Darren or Matt in latin, but he never liked it. Whereas if you look at Austin's routines, he's clearly loving dancing on his own! I think he did have more ability in latin that any of those three, but it mostly stayed untested. Whether Lilia would have pushed him that bit further is uncertain because she hasn't partnered anyone like that, but she didn't play it safe with ballroom routines for her partners so I'm guessing with a celeb good at latin she would have been the same.

There have really only been two or three male celebs who have shown obvious potential at latin right from the start- for me Colin, Mark, and Austin. You could possibly add in a few others but I think most of them started ok and got better. But those three were obviously going to be great. So it's not necessarily about whose 'turn' it is to get an all-rounder, because they're few and far between (although I think we can say, it's not Erin's turn since she's had two!). But if I was in charge, I would pair any potential all-rounder with either Lilia or Flavia because you know they won't be let down on either side. I think Erin's ballroom routines are unsurpassed, but Lilia and Flavia produce great routines on both sides, which Erin doesn't.

It's also a case of how watchable the pro is- I find Erin dancing latin quite cringeworthy at times (not that I could do better), whereas the latin pros naturally add sparkle to the routines which helps the whole thing along.

I would have loved to have seen Austin dancing the beautiful Rumba Lilia choreographed for Matt

According to Darren and Lilia, contracts aren't issued until June at the earliest.

Vincent and Flavia always say really early on that they will be doing the next show, I think at most though they have been told unofficially. I wouldn't have thought the BBC could confirm anything until they have a solid list of celeb names that they can partner up with pros. I think one year on DWTS one of the male regulars (Louis van Amstel) couldn't return because they couldn't find a female celeb short enough for him!

I agree with this. I think, as a general rule, celebs tend to fare better with ballroom routines than latin ones.

Yeah because Erin taught him that ballroom. If your using a high standard week one ballroom routine as any indicator of potential then Erin deserves a lot of credit for creating it. So it’s not necessarily a case of give Austin to someone else then everyone starts talking about how great he is.
For their jive could it be that Erin was able to teach better jive technique so he made it look easy? I don’t think a jive is something that you can have a natural ability at. You can’t really have a natural flair for bounce, sharp flicks and kicks. And Austin had a major injury to his knee IIRC.

I’m not sure how liking to dance is any indicator of ability. I’m pretty sure some of the poor dancers liked to dance but that had no affect on their ability. Erin can’t always rely on the fact that she can dance around her partners and add sparkle so naturally you are going to see more of them dancing on their own. Because she's not a latin dancer it's almost become her style to showcase her partner more. TBH I don't really recall Matt being reluctant to dance latin, or Aled...

You can’t really compare ballroom and latin in that way. Much of ballroom is in hold so there is only a limit to what you can do to make it difficult.

I’m actually surprised you would put Austin ahead of Matt DA in terms of potential. I still don’t see what gives Austin so much potential other than appearing to love dancing on his own. Wasn’t Darren’s big selling point that he learned to love dance but I don’t think that had any impact on his latin dancing even at the end of the competition.

As to which pro gets the good partners then that’ll be based on what you want to see. I like Lilia and Flavia's choreography but it’s ridiculous to give only two pros, with distinct styles, all of the good partners especially when what Lilia can do is partly based on guesswork. It’s not even a matter of it being fair it would just get boring very quickly!

It's kind of chicken v egg there, yes I would give Erin credit for Austin's ballroom, but being that good at the beginning rather than working up to it suggests to me that potential was a bigger factor with him than someone like Matt Dawson, who started with a modest Tango and worked up to a beautiful Waltz. Like I said I do think it is tough to try and establish potential, but I would have said Austin started with far more than the average male celeb, even ones who went on to be pretty good.
I do give Erin an awful lot of credit for her celebs' ballroom routines, in fact I think she is by far the best at choreographing slow ballroom routines. I just don't think that makes up for her latin routines.


Perhaps I phrased it badly then. I was really thinking that Austin was very comfortable dancing on his own. I think that does set him apart from weaker dancers who almost always prefer the reassurance of dancing in hold. I didn't mean to imply that was the main reason for thinking Austin had potential though.

I'm not sure what you're getting at saying ballroom and latin can't be compared though. They are difficult in different ways surely?


I guess the difficulty here is that it's difficult both to define potential, and to explain it. Matt DA's first latin dance was pretty ropey, and to be honest apart from his Salsa, I'd find it tough to recall another latin routine he shined in. I certainly didn't mean to imply that what I see as Austin's potential is based on his comfort in dancing on his own. That confidence in dancing on his own reflected something more, IMO, and it was based on something solid- he danced with technical ability as far as I can see (I'm happy to be told otherwise on that point though, I don't know anything about the technical aspect of dance, I just have a vague idea about what 'looks' accurate!). There again you could say that is all down to Erin, but in spite of that whenever I watch their Jive it is striking to me how limited the routine looks compared to how well he is dancing what he has been given. I do think that means there is a problem with the level at which the routine has been choreographed.

ON the subject of Darren loving to dance, like I said I didn't mean to imply that Austin enjoying dancing alone was a huge factor in what I view as his potential, but if I did I would point out that Darren freely said he didn't like latin as much. He loved ballroom far more than latin.


It's not going to happen so that's not really a problem! Yes it is partly guesswork to say Lilia would do well for a natural latin dancer, but it's a good educated guess for several reasons- Lilia always choreographs for her partner rather than herself. She very rarely pitches things at the wrong level for her partner. She has choreographed good and memorable routines for mediocre to reasonable latin dancers. And she is a latin dancer, teacher and choreographer, so if she can produce memorable routines in ballroom it's not a huge leap to say she can do the same in latin.
It's not really a case of giving anyone all the good partners as if there are some every year. I'm talking about celebs with real potential, whether or not you want to say Austin was one of them- I don't think there's necessarily even one male celeb each year that falls into that category. All I'm saying is, if I was a producer and I realised I had someone on my hands who could potentially dance really well, I wouldn't give him to someone who choreographs dull latin routines or had any other obvious weakness that is going to hold the celeb back.

I hope the BBC do not sex up Strictly think of the young people who watch it-also spare a thought for the partners and family of the celebs and pro dancers. Sex is not needed on this show dont ruin it there are little enough shows on TV that families can watch together.