But Cheryl is a member of a very successful pop group...a group born as a result of tele-voting....she may not be the greatest singer but at least she has an insight into what any X-factor contestant can realistically achieve......Alesha is not qualified to judge others.....I`am very surprised she accepted the BBC`s offer....she must surely be aware that she may end up looking like a fool as she will not be able to critique any dancer....Except for stating the obvious....that was rubbish/alright/good/excellent or fantastic

Bad move by the BBC
Whilst I have nothing whatsoever against Alesha, I think she is a great singer and performer she isnt the right person to replace Arlene. Alesha is good at what she does - singing and performing! She has no credentials to judge what is essentially a ballroom and latin competition -what experience does she have? None whatsoever - she was a contestent on the show for gods sake! Will she be able to judge on technique? I dont think so - what expertise will she bring to the panel? None IMO Why oh why have the BBC decided to do this? If they want to replace a judge on the show pick someone who has the experience and knowledge to enable them to judge fairly

arlene might have not been everyone favourite judge but at least she knew what she was taking about, sorry alesha, you do one serie of strictly and she is expert? bring back arlene or get karen on the panel i think she would be great

I meant more with the generic comments "you're so good", "I loved that!", "you're amazing" etc.

Karen would be a great judge but she might be biased towards certain pros. It's no secret that she's not Brendan's biggest fan.

I've not always been the greatest fan of Karen's routines on the show, but I do think she'd be an exceptionally good judge. I don't think she would let personal likes or dislikes influence her, as she is well used to taking that role.

I do agree with you but I reckon people will accuse her to being influenced if they get a result they don't like.

Isn't that what Alesha will no doubt be accused of

I think it will be tough for Alesha to mark Matt's partner without being accused of bias. Equally I'm sure there are other pros on the show she likes or dislikes. She might even have problems overcompensating, like voting Matt down too much to make sure she isn't being too nice to him.

More subtly, since she has only ever been taught by Matt, her knowledge is skewed towards his preferences for style and choreography. So she'd maybe have a preconception about the type of thing someone like Brendan or Karen would produce, which would be significantly different.

On the bright side, she'll always have the defence that she got the mark wrong because she's got no idea what she's doing

In other wsords she is on a hiding to nothing- she's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't

You are right that the BBC doesn't have to pander to advertisers' stupid demands - but it feels it does have to justify its relevance to a younger audience. All part of the Licence Fee argument.

That's why there's been horrendous commissions such as Bonekickers and Spooks: Code 9 - all intended to draw in younger viewers. (And the vast majority of them flops).

I share your frustration with this, but I would argue that Strictly did some changes making (see all the other threads on DS! ). Both the producers and the judges made gaff after gaff in SCD6, and Arlene became a liability ... so, IMHO, did Len and Bruno, but it's only Arlene who has been sacrificed.

Actually, the only change that really needed making would be to give the public vote greater weight than the judges'. That would have disempowered the judges and nixed their appalling favouritism. I'm not sorry to see Arlene go, and I'm happy to keep an open mind about Alesha - but the changes to the voting, which have been alluded to but yet to be confirmed, will be much more telling.

Hell - who is?!

Oooh that is easy- judging by last series

Cheers....obviously I mis-understood the point you were trying to make

I absolutely agree with you. Not many of SCD's fans are keen on Alesha - not that the Beeb listens to us

In a nutshell.



Sorry, but I'd say she's probably the most popular SCD contestant ever and polls back this up.

I love Alesha and think she's just the sweetest person in the world - but I also think that's a problem for this job. I can't imagine her ever criticising anybody EVER - and I think it would break her heart to hurt somebody's feelings. And don't you need to be a dancer or choreographer to judge properly? I just don't get it.

I'd love to see Alesha in Tess's job though. And I'm sorry to see Arlene go but I hope she has great success elsewhere. The other job the Beeb's given her makes me feel a squidge better about things, but -- well, I hate this. Brucie can stay at 81 - Len can stay at 65 - but the only female judge Arlene is out at about the same age as Len??

If the jobs going I'd gladly take it .

Though theres a few others who would probably fight me for it .

I think there will be a backlash against Alesha. I wanted her to win series 5 but to make her a judge of dancers who may well be better than her is ridiculous.

When she was invited back to sing on SCD I was surprised to hear how poor her voice was, rather flat with little musicality in it. This is something I would never have posted before. An opinion I would have kept to myself but now she has taken on another job for which she doesn't have the qualifications I feel I can speak the truth.

pmsl

I don't really understand what a performance judge can add to the show, there isn't a huge amount they can say is there?

Can the judges that judge on technique not also judge performance?

To be honest I never really bought the whole "Len marks on technicality, Craig marks on performance, Arlene marks on performance of choreography blah blah blah" stuff. They all marked on whatever stupid arbitrary scale they wanted. The show just said that to justify why any of the judges apart from Len were there, when none of them were "qualified" to be. Whatever "qualified" means.

Thats pretty inevitable as a non technical judge can only comment on the overall effect and that as often or not will entail pointing out that the choreography was dull or entertaining. The only other option is to give everyone 7 or higher.

Thanks for posting that it was very interesting to hear Len's opinion - and I for one think he's spot on. And I do see this decision as sexist AND ageist - I hope Alesha remembers that one day she'll be the older woman getting ousted for the younger, prettier girl.


I thought Alesha was great in series 5 and was glad when she won but that doesn't mean I want to see her on the judging panel.

I totally agree with you regarding Alesha's voice! I thought she was a pretty poor singer when she appeared on the programme to be honest, but like you I didn't like to say. A catchy song but not sang brilliantly. I couldn't remember the girl band she was in so after the hype I expected more than she delivered. But that's a personal opinion and I'm sure others would disagree.

The pros would accept being criticised by any of the other pros, because they would accept they know what they are talking about. Also they are all used to being judged by other pros at comps, and their dancing "written up" in dance papers such as Dance News.

But being criticised by a non-dancer such as Alesha? That's a whole different kettle-of-fish.

I think some people are missing the point here, the celebrities are the ones that are really being judged, the pros are all pros so they should know their stuff. It's about the celebrities learning to dance and how they tackle it