I am livid about the news today. I cannot believe what the producers have done. I did not always agree with Arlene but I respect her knowledge and vast experience. She is so very passionate about dance to replace her with someone with no experience, to me makes no sense. No sense at all.
For me it stinks of ageism. None of the male judges are spring chickens (then neither am I) but why replace a highly qualified female judge with a former contestant (alebit winner) who was at pains to convince us during her time on the show that she had NO previous dancing expereince. I love SCD but this has left a sour taste - returning home from Wimbledon last week I heard a group of women at the train station discussing this and they too were not happy. I could be wrong but I think this will go down like a lead balloon and given that the majority of veiwers are female I think that this will affect ratings.

Anyway goodbye Arlene and thanks for your wonderful/sometimes infuriating/never dull/knowledgeable contribution to the show -all the very best

Arlene was my favourite judge. It does strike me as a sexist decision too.

This has been handled terribly

I would have binned Bruno too- who was too obvious in favouring Lisa and Rachel last year. Regarding Alesha's selection for the judges panel- she is being put in the wrong job

Karen or Camilla should have been ahead in the judges queue of Alesha

I'll miss her too.

The worst decision the BBC could have made - as a woman in her 30's I am disgusted with the blatant ageism/sexism and really sad to see Arlene go. Decades of dance experience, respect in the industry and from the Pro's and both technical and performance knowledge base and she's shoved aside like an embarrassing Aunt at a Disco.

Thanks for everything Arlene and I hope you make an almighty stink out of this!

Arlene and Craig are the judges who i most agree with in terms of comments and marking and i will miss her.

I'll be sorry to see Arlene go. She and Craig are honest judges.

She may have ruffled feathers but in my opinion Arlene was the most accurate when it came to handing out her scores. Usually if someone had a glaring problem she would point out what they had to do to put it right for the following week. And even if there were certain dancers she preferred, she never over-marked them and indeed would come down heavily if they disappointed, which is more than can be said for some.

Personally, I thought her the best judge of the four and I am extremely sorry to see her go.

Like Bruno for one- Rachel could have fallen over last year- he would probably have still given her an 8 at least

Why Alesha and not Camilla- when Camilla knows more about ballroom and latin

Arlene more than made up for Bruno's Rachel-love by constantly fawning over various male celebs. However, that is old ground.

Fair comment about Alesha though, and while I was not a great fan of Camilla's dancing, I do agree that she would have been a far more appropriate choice for judge

The other thing is that if this goes wrong- it'll rebound horribly- and Alesha will get the blame for it- my opinion is that she should have turned it down

Arlene did fawn over the male celebs, but she didn't give them inflated marks.

Yes it is a gamble, but on the other hand it must be one huge ego-trip, and perhaps too tempting to refuse?

My other thought was the judging line up for the Strictly Tour, which is played more for laughs - don't think I could put up with that cackle for a whole evening

I'm actually going to miss Arlene. She didn't annoy me, sometimes I found her comments silly but she gave good advice. Her and Craig ended up being the only two I'd listen to because Len and Bruno just at times seemed to be in a personal war and a fight over who could give the silliest mark.

She wouldn't have been the one I'd have personally chosen to go (that would have probably been Len) I'm not too sure about her replacement as I don't see what they are really gaining by replacing her with Alesha and agree with many who have said she would have been better suited to some kind of mentor role going and helping the celebs over actually judging them. But until we see what happens you never know.

Would have to totally agree.

I am saddened that she has been sacked and replaced by someone who, in my opinion only, shouldnt be there!

No offence to Alesha whatsoever, but to replace Arlene who has to many years experience with a former contestant is wrong and an insult to Arlene

Arlene - you will be missed - I didnt always agree with some of the things you said but you will be missed

I'm sad for her, as she clearly loves the show. At least she realised there are scores below 5.

Yes, I agree. Bruno should have gone. Alesha is wrong for the job and has gone right down in my estimation in accepting it.

bring back arlene bbc are you nuts

how could the bbc do this, replace's someone with all her experience with someone who has only completing in one serie of strictly

You've summed the situation up perfectly


Is there nothing she can do about this blatant bias? Didn't Selina Scott take Channel 5 to court for something similar? Old Len and ancient Bruce are still there but Arlene a fantastic looking 60 odd is sacked? Someone with her knowledge of dance and VAST experience is pushed aside for a bit of totty like Alesha? OK she's been a contestant but no way does she have the knowledge of Arlene. There's something vastly wrong here


And Camilla expressed interest in the job when she quit the dancing side last year. I honestly thought they'd have put her on the panel. But then again she hasn't got Bruce fighting her corner like Alesha has she


Exactly, it was a bit of a laugh with Arlene. Bruno however shows absolutely blatant bias and always gives his favourites big marks even when they make glaring mistakes!


OMG that laugh. I hope she doesn't do that the whole time or I'll be switching over to the X Factor. And yes, it must be a massive ego trip for her - but I hope she knows she's only there for her looks and not because of her vast dancing knowledge.


She must feel completely humiliated. As a viewer of anything to do with Strictly from the first series (including It Takes Two and breakfast TV), it's the first time I've been tempted to switch off in protest!!

After her unprofessional behaviour the last series I'm not at all sorry to see Arlene go and I would have been happy to see Bruno go too.

I'm not in any way saying Alesha is a suitable replacement, but I think some people on this thread have very short memories or are wearing rose tinted glasses.

When Arlene gave her professional opinion she was very good, but she over stepped the mark last series too many times and ruffled a lot of feathers - now she is paying the price.

She wasn't the only one. So why single out Arlene?

Quite agree - Bruno should have gone for his blatent favouritism in the latter stages last year

Read my post. I didn't single her out - I included Bruno. Arlene was the worst imho as she didn't keep her comments to when the show was on.

I completely agree 100%. As a Mattesha supporter even I can say this isn't the best thing to happen but what happened to waiting to see how it pans out before giving your opinion on Alesha's judging performance. As far as I can see, Alesha hasn't taken to the judging chair yet.

I do agree with you, not everything she said was good. Though personally I would rather of replaced Bruno or Len over Arlene. Hence why I'll actually miss her. Though to be fair whichever judge had left probably would have ended up paying the price for the way they've behaved, none of them were amazingly brilliant last year.


For me personally its not that Alesha is going to judge, because I know she's a fan of the show and will therefore do her best. Its more a shock for me that someone with about as much dancing knowledge as I do is going to judge professionals. I'm sure she'll be pretty good as a judge, I just don't like the idea of a ex celeb judging. And its not anything against Alesha but the person that made the decision, instead of replacing Arlene with someone with a dancing background or a judging one or whatever they've replaced her with a popular ex celeb if I made any sense what so ever (I apologise if I didn't I'm not sure how to say what I'm thinking).