According to the press today Louisa has expressed sadness about the departure of Arlene- saying amongst other things how much Arlene supported her during her time on SCD. So far Aled, Rachel and Fiona have all spoken out in support of Arlene - I wonder if there will be anymore will speak out - though I doubt whether poor Georgina or even Jan will be amongst them!

Austin said on Loose Women that he feels sorry for Arlene but also said that he thinks Alesha is a great signer and she'll do a good job. He suggested though that as a former contestant if he'd been offered the job of replacing Craig he would've declined.

Austin is wrong. Alesha is not a great singer - far from it.

No you are wrong.... again, she has had great success and sold over a million records last year, I have heard her single the boy does nothing was top 10 hit all over europe, she has a platinum album in the UK. so i suggest you actually stick to constructive criticsm and facts, not your own badly informed opinions based on no knowledge of the facts.

None of the "former contestants" have actually said having Alesha is a bad idea, they are merely sympathising with Arlene, as any normal person would do, so again stop trying to make mountains out of molehills

I wonder if Ms Lytton would have refused the gig had she been offered it?

Probably because she is joining the Royal Shakespeare Company to appear in A Midsummer Night's Dream!

Selling cds does not make you a great singer, most are sold through marketing rather than vocal abilities.

Teletubbies, Bob the Builder, Aqua to name a few, also sold a great many records, they aren't great singers either.

Yes, why offer an actual opinion on the matter at hand when you can put a sulky b*tch in instead?

Hope the board doesn't descend to all that nonsense again too early this year. The word 'smug' is still getting over the abuse it suffered last year...

Arlene may have been lovely to the contestants but unfortunately she came across very poorly to the public. You want a Mr or Mrs Nasty on your judging panel but you can't really have 4 of them.

Depends on what you think 'great' is. I have no opinions of Ms Dixon's singing abilities at all. Plenty like her, plenty don't. However, success in terms of people downloading songs only indicates popularity, not necessarily quality.

ETA: Great minds think alike, Dome.

Bob the Builder was the top selling single one year.

Mr Blobby, anyone?

well one million people in the uk thought her singing "great enough" to buy her records. but i'm guessing that certain members bleating here about "Ageism" also think there have been no "Great singers" since about 1950.

You mean your opinion is different from Austin's - he isn't wrong just because you don't agree.

Clearly all the people who buy her music have a different opinion to you too - they are not wrong either.

One million people bought the Bob the Builder single!

You can like someone's music without thinking they're a great singer. I like her well enough to have tickets to see her perform, and I've got a couple of her songs, but I wouldn't class her as a great singer.

ETA And there have been plenty of great singers since 1950!

Same with Katherine Jenkins. Personally, I think her diction is lamentable - but one of the two of us has an amazing career as a singer, and it ain't me! Plenty others love her. Yet on the scale of greatness, I could name dozens of sopranos better than her. But she sells records and people adore her.

Back to the first post. Will many of the former contestants dare to come out and say that they think Alesha's appointment was wrong? So far there's only been Fiona Phillips. The former winners have been remarkably silent...I'm assuming that's because they know Alesha to an extent and will feel awkward at the idea of giving any offence, if they do have any private misgivings.

Who knows, they may not have any!

Louisa, whilst not directly criticising Alesha, has come out in support of Arlene; so too has Rachel Stevens and I think Austin paid faint praise to Arlene too.

Maybe she'll be singing her jugdements

OH I didn't know that! Nice one Louisa....

I didn't know that either! Well done indeed

Lesley Garrett, who was on the Loose Women panel yesterday, also said it was terrible about Arlene.

And in last weeks Woman, Matthew Cutler was asked about the rumour that Alesha was going to replace Arlene and he said that it would be great to have Alesha back but he didn't think they should chuck Arlene. Nicole Cutler also supported Arlene and said she really knows what she's talking about.

It was ridiculous binning Nicole

Why is it that the suits seem to tinker for changing sake- if it works keep it going why change it

Nicole was bland, didn't miss her at all. Anyway the former contestants are only doing it to engineer themselves some publicity, i see through them like glass.

I have not actually heard one of the "former Contestants" actually say they thought Alesha was a bad choice, only that , like most normal people, they sympathised with someone who's contract was not renewed. that is very different from trying to say they thought the decision wrong

Maybe they read the threads we have every year asking for the BBC to replace Bruce, Tess, Arlene, Bruno, Len, James Jordan, the twirly cameraman, the costume designer, the tea boy etc and decided to do something for once.

Maybe the former contestants, who possibly know or at least have met Alesha, are not in a position to tell the unvarnished truth. I take their remarks that they would have peferred Arlene to stay to mean if they were on the show they would prefer to be judged by people qualified to judge.

No one dislikes Alesha. I voted for her to win her series but I now want her to be sacked from this job in which she will be incapable of performing well due to her lack of dance experience.

Anyone who says that being on the show is enough is wrong. The public decide the sort of things that Alesha will pronounce on.

People who say that she can judge performance are also wrong. I saw her on SCD singing - not particularly well - and dancing, as she always did, with bent knees.

Fiona Phillips has said so.
http://uk.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9mSvdx...5875-21510861/
And I believe Lesley Garrett also said so on LW, though I can't see anything by googling.

As for the others, it's possible that some hope to keep their options open for work with the BBC, and criticising them at this stage might not want to bite the hand that feeds them.

It's also possible some of the former contestants do actually think Alesha may be able to add something to the show:

Comment from Jill Halfpenny

There may also be some who just prefer to wait until they have actually seen Alesha in action before they give an opinion on her role.

Some won't be in favour of Alesha, but no comment on her isn't necessarily a negative against her.