No.

Adored her as a contestant but fail to see what qualifies her to be a judge. (nothing personally alesha)

I don't like the way Arlene has been ditched in favour of someone "younger and prettier."


what was wrong with arlene?


if the bbc wanted someone to replace arlene why didn't they use one of the other professionals like karen i think she would be great on the panel ( i haven't been fan of karen dance's on strictly)

As much as I like Alesha - no to judge, yes to replace Tess!

I agree with you. I do NOT think any contestant should be a judge, but IF they have to pick one, Jill would be the only one I consider appropriate. And I don't even like Jill that much.

what makes Jill more qualified than Alesha ?

Jill is a trained dancer outside of SCD and her technique was much better than Alesha's.

I think Jill would have more gravitas as a judge.

I can't really explain why I think that.

If Alesha want to be on SCD full time, then I agree with this comment.

No she shouldnt be a judge.......if the BBC were so desperate to have her on the show they should have given her something else but not a judge.

What Jude said.

I've voted Yes because if Alesha feels equipped to do the job (presuming it was all explained to her in the job description) then why should she not be given the chance to show what she can do?

I adore Alesha and my only concern is that any detractors she may have (and I know there were a lot from fans of co-competitors in the series she won) will use this decision as a chance to jump on the bandwaggon in criticising her.

I have to say I am surprised at her decision seeing as how fantastically well her music career is doing at the moment, but I am really looking forward to seeing her week after week.

No, it’s an insult to the audience and, more importantly, the professional dancers. It’s basically saying your professionalism and expertise acquired over years of training/competing in ballroom/latin count for diddly squat, let’s go down the route of luke warm entertainment, since Ms Dixon has no expertise in the former, do a few cart wheels, bring out a few dancing poodles, and hey ho, you’ll get a great score. No one has ever believed it to be a “serious” dance competition, but it at least had a foot in that world. We’ll be back in the land of ballroom/latin being on in the dead of night and watched by two drunks and their dog.

Why the hell they skipped over Karen Hardy is a mystery; it would have been perfect for her, she has the dancing/judging/tv presenting experience, she is known and respected by the Strictly audience, and it would have fitted in perfectly with her own dance studio commitments. She also has the strength of character to be honest with her fellow professionals. But oh no, the grey suits get it wrong again!

Shame on you BBC, you should respect your talent – grey business suits are two a penny, the actual guys with the talent who put themselves on the line for this show are not!

Alesha is getting all this exposure because her role in Strictly would have been known by the “insiders” and they are cashing in early – I wouldn’t say her music career is particulary hot!

How can an amateur have the knowledge and judgement of an experienced dancer/choreographer.
Better surely to have Darcy Bussell or someone else who is a trained dancer to take Arlene`s place.
AND howwill the celebrity dancers feel when they are being judged by an amateur who only learnt to dance two years ago.
Bad decision on all levels

I am amazed she had the cheek to accept such a position. Could she not have the grace to say sorry I'm just not qualified to accept such a task.
Can you imagine her critquing Matthew and whoever his partner is or Brendan or Erin?

I had to vote 'no' based on the fact that the lovely Miss Dixon is not in any way qualified to judge dance. I think that the Beeb would have been better served to replace the awful Winkleman woman, I think Alesha would be great on 'It Takes Two', where her experience of having to learn to dance in a restricted timetable would have been useful and would also have given her a better chance to show off her winning personality.

Unless they add Streetdance (Which Alesha is trained in) NO!!!

I love Alesha, probably more than any other contestant/winner and normally I can't wait for Strictly to start each year, but this is a big mistake. Sorry BBC I might not even watch this series.

No the judges should stay the same why change a good format

I voted No. Alesha is a lovely girl but she is not qualified to judge on this. If they had brought her in to replace Tess I wouldn't have complained.

NO!!!

For reasons that I just can't be bothered to go into again :yawn::sleep: I'm starting to lose the will to live ....

I pretty much agree with all of your post but would add that replacing Arlene with Alesha is actually quite cosmetic and not quite the seismic event that many seem to be assessing it as.

While I would argue that Arlene behaved very badly last year, she certainly wasn't the only one - and, moreover, all the judges' blatant favouritism ran wild thanks to the voting system and the producers' inability to rein them in. The only vaguely sane one was Craig - which is why he should have been made head judge and the others all offed.

What we have instead is a watered-down version of the bigger changes that should have been made, which makes Alesha's appointment stick out like a sore thumb. We know nothing about changes to the production team - yet they should bear greater guilt than Arlene. After all, they are supposed to manage the talent, aren't they?

Everything now hangs on the new voting system which has been alluded to in press reports. If that fails to restore greater power to the public, I predict another riot ...

You just said everything I wanted to say, only better! Thank you!

No way

Work is tough to come by in the world of showbiz and we're in the middle of a recession, so it doesn't surprise me that Alesha has seized this opportunity with both hands.

I would have too.

She obviously didn´t think of the consequences. I think her popularity will suffer.

I´m not mad about Alesha anyway, never was. I guess nothing can be done now.

Hmmmm, to all those who slated Arlene in the past I'll remind you of the old saying "be careful what you wish for"!

I actually voted no, but, in all honesty I think it depends how they use her. Alisha could be the "nice" judge who can empathise with the contestants, which in turn would add another dimension to the panel.