The last two columns separate out the votes of fans (who are graded by how often they watch). You can work backwards from there to gauge a rough estimate of the votes of people who have never watched the show. Oddly enough, the vast majority are "don't know"s.

That's what I said in post #2 - glad I can still read survey results after being away from that work for years now!

85% of a board filled with Strictly fans say no. The BBC should be taking note.

Loved her as a contestant, but I'd rather see a professional dancer/choreographer as a judge. What's the point in having judges otherwise?

I feel the questions in the survey are very leading and cleverly worded to suit the instigators of the poll in the first place, namely the Daily Mail

They should have asked

1: Do you think the BBC was right in not renewing Arlenes contract
2: Do you think this decision was ageist.

3: Do you think the BBC was right to appoint Alesha

4: Do you think replacing a 66 yeard old with a 30year old is ageist

5 : Do you really care who is on the panel

I'm sure the answers would have been slightly different had it been worded so, may well have had a similar outcome but it would have been a more balanced outcome

Two further questions that should have been asked:

6: Would you have agreed with the decision had Arlene been replaced by another experienced dancer/choreographer, such as Karen Hardy?

7: Would you have liked to have seen Alesha be given a different role on SCD, such as a presenting role?

Balanced from whose point of view?

Quote:
4: Do you think replacing a 66 yeard old with a 30year old is ageist

When the replacement has no qualifications and little experience - yes.


You only have a choice of yes, no or dont know like in the survey,
you obviously dont feel it was ageist or you wouldn't need to qualify your answer by adding the part about qualifications, so therefor we must summise that you think the answer should be NO or at least dont know.
But unfortunately the survey would not allow you to explain your answer resulting in slightly corrupt info being returned, magnify this by the number of respondants who found themselves in the same situation as you due to the wording of the questions and you have a survey designed to return the answers you wanted to hear. The daily mail would never set a poll that would disagree with their agenda..

OK - so in the absence of qualification, the answer is an unequivocal YES!

Is that clear enough?

As someone who read the actual questions by clicking on the link in the original post ( http://www.yougov.co.uk/archives/pdf...7-Jul-2009.pdf), I don't think there is anything wrong with the questions that were asked tbh.

Have you watched recent series of Strictly Come Dancing on television?[LIST=1][*]Yes, I never miss it[*]Yes, I watch frequently[*]Yes, I watch occasionally[*]Ye,s but I have seen it only once or twice[*]No, I have never seen it[/LIST]
The BBC has recently announced that it is to drop Arlene Phillips from the programme's panel of judges in favour of Alesha Dixon. Do you think the BBC was right or wrong to sack Arlene?[LIST=1][*]The BBC was right[*]The BBC was wrong[*]Don't know[/LIST]
Arlene Phillips is 66 years old; Alesha Dixon is 30 years old. Do you believe the BBC is guilty of ageism in sacking Arlene because of her age or do you think the BBC genuinely believes Alesha will be a better judge?[LIST=1][*]BBC was guilty of ageism [*]BBC genuinely believes Alesha will be a better judge[*]Don't know[/LIST]
Do you expect to watch the next series of Strictly Come Dancing?[LIST=1][*]Yes, I do expect to watch it[*]No, I have watched it in the past but won't watch it[*]Not applicable, I have never watched Strictly Come Dancing in the past and have no interest in it now, whoever the judges are[*]Don't know[/LIST]
Am I the only one who thinks these questions hit the nail on the head?

Just tackling question 2, it's trying to force down 4 schools of thought :

It was wrong to fire Arlene

It was right to fire Arlene, but wrong to hire Alesha

It was right to fire Arlene, and right to hire Alesha

Don't know

Into 3 options. At the very least it should be separated into 2 different questions.

I think question 3's just a mess. It's leading, it's not clear what's being asked, if you read it straight off without thinking it sounds like it's a proven fact that Arlene was fired because of her age, the two answers aren't mutually exclusive (I personally don't think Arlene was fired because of her age or that the BBC think that Alesha will make a better judge? Where do I fit in?). It's horrible.

YouGov have a really bad reputation as a polling organisation. They produce surveys to order to match the agendas of the people who ask them to create them, and they pay people to take them.

The poll in this thread, whilst not perfect, is a far better question than either of the two main ones in this survey. And nobody paid anybody to come up with it.

I am at a loss as to why the Daily Mail is being maligned with such penetrating insight along with


The YouGov poll was commissioned by the Daily Mirror, as clearly stated in:

the quote below,
in the DS article,
in the poll results pdf.

I did that poll for YouGov.

No...don't see how Dixon qualifies as an expert in the dancing field. Don't see it at all.
Say what you like about sour puss Arlene but she has the 'West End' track record to at least defend a plea for some sort of experience.

With bringin' Alesha in it's apparent the beeb wants to pull in a younger crowd . I highly doubt it will do that:sleep:.

Futhermore I fail to be optmistic about a working chemistry with the other 'left overs' in the panel. I mean they part of the furniture along with Brucie and Tess.....if you want to spice it up well then don't change one puppet and leave the remainder of geriatrics...No offence, remember, for me Arlene didn't have to go.

Wow Gill, you physically stood in a shopping area, clipboard in hand, and asked the questions? Were there specific rules on how questions were to be asked? Was the text of the questions as published in the pdf the same as you asked them?

Maybe Alesha isn't the perfect choice, but she has to be better than Arlene.

I'm amazed about the outpouring of anger about Arlene getting the boot. There were always plenty of calls on this forum and the BBC one for her getting replaced, people were getting sick of her terrible puns, pointless illiteration, nonsensical ramblings etc.

The BBC obviously wanted to get Alesha onto the show. I would have preferred for her to take over Tess Daly's role, but since they chose to get rid of a judge Arlene was really the only choice.

I voted no.

I love Alesha, she’s a great girl, I think she’s funny warm and entertaining, she was a fantastic contestant. But she is not qualified to judge the other contestants imo. If they had to replace a judge I would rather they’d done it with someone like Karen or got another expert in.

I would have even have been happy with the guy who used to do the red button commentary, even if they’d replaced Arlene with him. I know that would have made the panel an all male affair but I personally wouldn’t have cared about that if they were the right four. The male female ratio was out of balance anyway, so personally an all male panel wouldn‘t have bothered me, I accept I‘m probably in the minority there though.

If we had to lose an original judge I would have chosen Len, dodges tomatoes being chucked at my head , sorry but he’s annoyed me on the past couple of series. I hate the way he shouts others, especially Arlene, down when he disagrees with their opinion, I think it’s patronising and rude, like his opinion is the only one that counts. He also, if I remember rightly, kept saying that he wasn’t sure he wanted to come back anyway because he was doing the American show. My solution would have been to respectfully drop Len and bring on the guy from the red button. That wouldn’t have solved the issue of the beeb needing a ‘young’, pretty, popular girl on the panel though would it, how silly of me!

I’ll honestly give Alesha a chance and I really, truly hope she proves me wrong and is a valuable member of the panel, I certainly don't blame her for taking the opportunity.

I voted yes. I loved Alesha as a contestant and will enjoy seeing her on TV every week. Go for it Alesha!

No. Love Alesha dearly but she is not experienced enough to judge others. It's a shame because many people are blaming her but it's the Beebs fault not hers.

But she does have more experience than the celebs she will be judging

I voted no...

Much as I enjoyed Alesha's dancing I'd far rather - if for whatever reason it was necessary to replace Arlene - that they had replaced her with a more experienced judge.
I've always enjoyed listening to the professional opinions, even when I disagree with them! I like it when I think a dance was brilliant, or think it was missing something, and can't put into words why - and then an explanation comes from one of the judges. I'm not sure what Alesha is supposed to add to the panel...