according to The Sun. Producers want Alesha Dixon as their 'Cheryl Cole'

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...e-Dancing.html

Not sure about the Arlene aspect, I CAN kinda believe it (shes the weakest of the 4 IMO- the other 3 are either too powerful or too popular to go) but the Alesha bit is wish fulfillment bollocks made up by some jourrno.....

and heres the proof!!

http://www.ents24.com/web/artist/130...sha_Dixon.html

... well theres that rumour f****d before it even got out of the starting box!!

Pretty silly if true. The show's big problem is with the voters voting for any pretty male and anyone who the judges point out is bad. Its becoming impossible to get the people who dance well to where they should get to - which undermines the whole show as it means the judges are ignored and the celebrities may as well not bother doing well. . The people who vote for pretty males are not following Arlene even when she votes taht way and her comments are among the more moderate ones and don't stir up the anti-judge vote. I don't see that the negative voters are going to be swayed by Alesha saying what needs to be said more nicely.If she undermines the judging consensus by being nice to the dismal she's just going to complicate things.

Whilst its true that Alesha has danced she hasn't got the experience or the expertise of anyone else on the panel. If her role is to mark the overall performance and not the technicality she's going to fall into the problem Ruthie did on DOI - any view is going to be subjective and disagreed with by all the voters who don't see what she sees or think the bad dancers should stay and don't vote for the good ones. Cheryl at least is primarily a singer judging a singing show. She's current and currently one of the best around - even if thats not saying much given the opposition. I don't see Alesha pulling in 16-24 year olds either as she has had the short musical career that everyone seems allowed nowadays, she's not a mega celebrity magazine/tabloid player like Cheryl and probably gets her sales now from an older age group anyway.

She wouldn't look out of place on the judging panel and makes it look younger but I can't see any way she's more useful than Arlene. If they want the show to look more youth friendly they need some younger celebs. The problem is the audience vote off the pretty young females, so its dubious if any will bother turning up. Logically they would do better using one of the people the voters got behind and who did well even when they were not very good to judge - the voters might believe someone they had supported pointing out that someone else was bad - though probably they would just keep on reversing the judges scoreboard.

It looks like default casting. Alesha is a female and you would need a female to replace Arlene. There is no young female pro equivalent of Bruno. Arlene is the most disposable given the others have big characters to play. Emma, Bonnie and Rachel who all qualify on dancing ability were less popular with the audience than Alesha.

Perhaps the report is just wrong........

Good i cant stand Arlene Philips

Utterly idiotic.

Why does the show need a younger demographic. It's not on a commercial station so doesn't need to please any advertisers, it just needs to get the viewers - which it has been doing!

If anyone should have gone it should have been android Tess.

don't tend to believe all that is in the sun ... but doubt it will be alesha since she has her tour then, but it could maybe be an opening for either Camilla or Karen (Well any of the pros really)

That has made my morning! Arlene is just an embarrassment, I don't care if she judges fairly, her comments to the male celebs are just cringe worthy.

I think it could be true, despite what it says about Alesha, who obviously can't be a judge with her tour coming up. It doesn't say they've got her, just that they want her.

It could in fact be good news for Camilla, who has made it clear she would love to be a judge (with an enormous cut in hours, big increase in status on the show and a huge pay rise, who could blame her?), and doesn't seem to have anything else planned. And it would actually raise the show's credibility to have an experienced latin dancer judging. Although it would create a couple of problems with Ian and Brendan probably still competing in the show, as well as her rather eccentric taste in choreography. Karen would probably be a better choice, but maybe she is coming back as a pro dancer.

but why Alesha in Arlene's place???
Alesha wasnt even a great dancer better at ballroom didnt like her latin at all. It would make more sense putting a pro dancer their instead

Luckily Alesha isn't free, I reckon it could be Camilla's lucky day!

I can't see how a celeb could do the job, they don't know anywhere near enough to judge, it would make it even more about performance over technique than it already is.

... and I don't care, because Arlene did my head in!

Yeah Katie I can't stand Arlene too.

Alesha's just been on GMTV and Andrew asked her outright about it. She didn't answer either way, she was really vague, but she did clarify that her tour starts in October.

Seems like a lovely girl though.

I don't agree with your assessment about it being the audience's fault - if the audience don't like attractive young women - why is Alesha so popular and Jill Halfpenny isn't old or unattractive either. From my experience with reality tv (ok Big Brother) women tend to vote for women they could imagine themselves hanging out with so they tend to vote for girls who are one of the girls - ok it isn't to do with who is the best dancer in this case and it's still wrong but it's a bit more sophisticated than voting against attractive women. Nor is this the entire case - yes there is an eye candy vote for attractive men but in that case what went wrong for Spoony and Ray Fearon they were quite attractive and yet didn't get the votes. Besides you can't second guess or do anything about the audience which are diverse bunch of people with variety of reasons for voting. I don't like the sympathy vote either - but I can excuse it for people whom are just having a bad week (the 'not your dance darling' syndrome and I'm afraid I'm one of the pillared lot who vote for Matt DA during his meltdown and even my father in law who hates sympathy voting voted for Peter Schmicheal during his latin weeks probably because his ballroom was pretty good but possibly just because he was a likeable bloke), who are injured or whom are not brilliant but are entertaining.

At the end of the day last year the judges were as guilty of excess in favour of their favourites as the public - maybe as no expert I'm missing something but Lisa seemed to get 10's for dances I didn't think were all that and spotted gapping in and other people spotted that and other mistakes. It is worth pointing out that most of them are choreographers and not ballroom dancing experts and so aren't that much better informed than the public - it's interesting sometimes to see the contrast between what the expert commentary said about a performance and what the judges did. Len is probably the worst offender for capricious marking but he is a ballroom dancing expert at least. I suspect Arlene may have gone (if she has and this isn't total gubbins which in the case of the red tops you can never totally rule out) from a mixture of not being as big a character as the other three, sexism and possibly because she was the most vocal about John Sergeant out of the context. However wrong him still being in the competition was - the judges berating the public for voting him back in out of the context of ITT wasn't much better and Arlene I think particularly over-stepped the mark in calling JS lazy - which even if you argee with I think counts as a personal attack beyond the pale.

I'd be very surprised if this is true........given the fact that that Alesha is touring during Oct/Nov.

I don't doubt that the BBC want Alesha to have some permanent role with SCD but i can't see it happening this year........

Who know's though ??

Arlene and Craig are the only judges that give any sort of critique.

Can you remember what she said ?? .........Alesha is very straightforward and honest so if she was being evasive there will be a reason.....

I'm not saying this report is true because to have Alesha as a Judge is a big leap from only learning Ballroom/Latin dancing 2 yrs ago,her career path has always been music first..........she may have been "sounded out" though and the BBC may be trying to find some role for her.

i think karen would be best choice she has a lot of personality

I hope this is complete tosh.

I like judges who actually know what they're talking about.

This is typical of the television industry. Lets get rid of the old woman but then leave the half dead judges on the show cos they are male and put in a girl who is young enough to be their granddaughter!! Arlene is not the first older woman to disappear from our screens. What do these producers want? Should we women just die off when we pass our sell by date of 50!! It is amazing how experience is so important with men's careers but not recognised in women's careers!! Now SCD want a younger audience well if they are not careful they may end up with NO audience/viewers.

I never liked her. To me, she never fitted in. She has a strange personality, a bit awkward and embarrassing to watch.

I have no problem seeing older women on TV but Arlene is just an embarrassment. I wouldn't want to see anyone on the panel, however knowledgeable, who made the type of remarks she did.

It doesn't fit in with wanting a young judge, but i would love to see Karen as a judge. She was always my fave pro.

I think she's really the most suitable, as she has fewer ties with the existing pros than someone like Camilla, is a very respected professional judge, and has the experience of Strictly to back her up.

I think as an extroverted personality she's probably more what the existing panel needs than someone like Camilla as well.

They should bring in Alison Leonard who was a judge on Dancing with the Stars in New Zealand. She more than held her own against the judges, Craig Revel-Horwood, Brendan Cole and Paul Mecurio. She was way better than Arlene.


Dancing with the Stars - New Zealand

Arlene annoys me a lot of the time, but I really like the combination of judges on Strictly. I like the fact they are all older and wiser and were originally based on their experience of dancing so could comment on the technicalities.

I don't see why they have to keep changing the format to appeal to a 'youthful' audience. (Is the Sharon Osbourne rumour true by the way? I really hope not.) I love the fact Strictly is gentle, old-fashioned entertainment for all the family, and the current combo of judges is one of the things that creates that for me.

Okay, there is no bigger fan of Alesha than me but I doubt that she would be the best choice. She doesn't really know all dance techniques back to front like Arlene or another professional dancer does and she does habe a lot of emotional ties to some of the pros. It is fair to say she will, not by purpose, favour Matt or Ian or Karen's celeb pro partnership as she did seem to have the closest bonds with the pros.

Karen is the best choice.