I'm so upset Alesha is getting the backlash and blame for the Arlene stuff. Lets just say this. If it wasn't Alesha it would have just been someone else like Emma Bunton or Louisa Lytton. So don't hate Alesha for it

Agreed!

She wasnt the one who said, "i want to get rid of arlene"
she just took the contract, knowing arlene was going to go anyways!

its not the end of the world just because they have a new judge, when half of you at least on this forum, wanted arlene to go, so now you have got your wish, and your all complaining! what did you expect?!

No, it wasn't her fault. However, she still took the job after Arlene was unfairly sacked because of age discrimination.

I would have more respect and would admire Aleesha if she turned the job down, but she didn't.

How do you know Arlene was sacked because of age discrimination ? you are only going by the news paper talk and peoples assumptions, there is nothing unfair in not renewing a contract, and Alesha should not lose any respect because she took the job, that's life, if it wasn't Alesha it would have been someone else in Arlenes chair.

From what I've seen, most people aren't complaining that Arlene's been replaced, rather they're complaining that she's being replaced by someone whose knowledge of dancing is minimal. Had Arlene been replaced by Karen Hardy, for example, all this backlash would very possibly not have happened.

There is something wrong in not renewing a contract when that contract has been renewed 5 times previously, and your fellow judges contracts have been renewed, and you are the one singled out without any reasonable justification for this decision. And when your contract has been given to somebody else who doesn't have your experience. Fine if you are being replaced with someone of equal experience, or if the contract for a fourth judge is dropped altogether.

EXACTLY. That is absolutely right.

Alesha's (or anyone else of similar ilk - it is not personal to HER) appointment, to me, simply makes a mockery of all the work the pro dancers do in showcasing their celeb via their choreography - they work so hard trying to get their celebs to learn the dances in a technical sense of the dance also, and to be judged by someone who doesn't have a clue is to my mind being utterly disrespectful of their work. They above anyone work incredibly hard - and I think it is completely thoughtless to put in a judge of no experience to judge their work.

THAT is why I do not want her there in that role, not because I do not like her and/or am slating her.

If you have someone on the judging panel like that, who knows nothing about the technicalities or otherwise of ballroom/latin (and learning routines on the show and winning it quite patently does NOT give you this skill - you learn routines and perform them), it simply "dumbs down" the core of the show - i.e. that which makes it differ from other entertainment shows - clue is in the title!

There are many entertainment shows as has been endlessly detailed on here - and Strictly's uniqueness and popularity has been down to the fact that the celebs have to learn an exacting skill - the entertainment comes from watching them do it and from the public being the power that votes.

If you take away the technical (and performance) knowledge from the judges, then you might as well have the pros teach their celebs the Birdie Song routine - or have the celebs pair up and make a routine themselves! for all the respect that will be given to the pros in this regard!

No-one would willingly slate Alesha personally - I am tired of being told that because I don't want her there, I am slating her - I'm not - I just want to see the correct people in the job, given that Strictly is both an entertainment show AND a dance show - you need to marry those two things successfully.

And there's nothing wrong with that. People aren't automatically slating someone just because they feel they don't want someone in a particular position. God forbid, they might even actually LIKE that person!

My other - and final - thought is that you shouldn't keep going back to something once you've had a magical moment with it - its never the same again - and it only sullies what you achieved before.

Whether people like it or not, Alesha's decision to take the job, however it was offered, needed much more thought than just simply accepting a contract - the wider implications (the seeming dismissal of the importance of pro's technical expertise and experience etc) of accepting this position are so much more expansive than simplifying it like that and just because you love something and want to be involved again, doesn't mean that the job will be right for you and that it is right to accept it.

I'm afraid, whilst I'm on the subject, that I don't buy into the "ageist" argument either!

(I'm in that bracket lol - 45!)

I would prefer Arlene to stay - but if she was replaced by someone much much younger but who had judging experience, I wouldn't be complaining about it.

I would prefer Arlene to stay personally, because in a dance sense, if you look under all her guff, scripted or otherwise, that she spouts on the show, she is the one judge who DOES always offer the celeb something to take away with them and work on.

So from a dance point of view I would prefer her to stay.

If I am absolutely honest, though, I can see why she has been replaced and not the others, because she was the one who upset people the most over the JS affair last year, and I think the BBC did actually try to listen to people and do something about it. But unfortunately they've misinterpreted what a lot of people wanted and in the appointment of Alesha, have succeeded in potentially reducing this wonderful show to being just like a million other entertainment shows, by taking away the very thing that gives it its unique quality and balance.

As memmh says, the backlash, if you want to call it that, has come about simply because the majority of the people who watch Strictly wish it to be a balance of an entertainment show and a dancing show - and there is a huge need to balance both those things - and by appointing Alesha, you swing further over to the entertainment side and dumb down the dancing side - the balance is all wrong and this is why so many who love both the dancing AND the entertainment are so against her appointment.

NOT because of her PERSONALLY - an awful lot of people would think she is really lovely. Just that this job is, in a lot of people's eyes, so wrong for her because of all the reasons above.

I agree with all that tangoqueen just said and would just like to add that I have nothing against Alesha and I certainly don't blame her for this mess. This is totally down to the BBC doing it's usual thing of making changes without thinking them through properly and without taking into consideration all aspects of their decision. It's the BBC's fault, not Alesha's, which is why I'm willing to give her a chance even though I think it's the wrong decision.

But that is the nature of freelance contracts, it does work both ways in that it gives the employer the freedom to use people on short terms, but it also gives the employee the freedom to move on at the end of the contract, or if they think themselves indespensible, a strong negotiating position for a renewal, perhaps Arlene over stepped the mark when it came to re negotiations and asked for too much assuming she was indespensible, and perhaps the BBC wanted to make an example as if they had given her more then Len etc could have asked for the same. Then again maybe they just wanted to change things around, i guess we will never know the real story

The queen of tango has put pin on point. So many who adore Alesha support the girl but oppose the goal.

Kelly Brook had the idea of a girlpower demo in her paso. Dressed in microskirt and fishnet stockings she seized the cape and the matador's job leaving Brendan unemployed.

Kelly was quite upfront about her plan before Saturday, and this forum knew all about it. Brendan the overridden choreographer was agin it from the start. Kelly's adoring fans in the forum were aghast, opposing the goal while supporting the girl. But Kelly went ahead, and those who did not see the point beforehand saw it afterwards.

Should Kelly's new idea have been given a tryout?

There was a cost involved. Kelly paid it, Brendan paid it, viewers paid it, and Strictly paid it.

I haven't read any posts suggesting hatred of Alesha, simply opinions that she is totally unsuitable as a judge on SCD - and the same would apply to any ex celeb.

i agree alesha doesn't deserve to be hated, but i don't think many people are actually blaming her, most people are blaming the bbc and jay hunt (is that his/her name ?).

Agree. Judges are supposed to be experts in their field not someone who just had a few months learning to dance. Alesha should have refused and said I'm not qualified to be a judge.

I don't blame Alesha but surely she must have seen how the fall out has developed

People keep assuming that Alesha is a straight replacement for Arlene when in fact the BBC have stated that they are bringing her in for a different role on the panel. For the last few years people have moaned about the judges, and now when they finally changed things around they still moan, but prefer to blame the BBC for being ageist, when in fact the BBC are probably just reacting to last years call for change. no pleasing some people i guess : )

I dont blame Alesha at all for taking the job, i'm sure she is smart enoough to know that some people will be against her, but as the saying goes " you cant please all of the people all of the time, and why should should hold back doing something because it might upset a minority of fans, looking at the bigger picture, then i think it is a very smart move profesionally, 14 weeks prime time TV has got to be good for her future chances, look how it's worked for Len, Craig and Bruno, noone had heard of them really before the show started

I absolutely adore Alesha and I won't hate her for replacing Arlene, but I do think it was a bad move. They need to have judges who know about Choreography. I can't see Brendan ever accepting constructive criticism from Alesha, and what about Matt? He taught her everything she knows!

Alesha will just be the gushing judge who is full of praise for everybody! That will be 3 judges who never give below a 7 which is just silly!

If they wanted a shake up why not get Stacey Haynes or at least someone with a choreography background in!

I don't hate Alesha, and I don't think many other people on here do either.

I just don't think she is suitable to be a judge on SCD.

Like others I don't hate Alesha, I was a huge supporter of her with Matt. It's her appointment as a judge with absolutely no qualifications to judge dance that I hate.

It's clear that very few people are blaming Alesha. The vast majority are blaming the BBC for replacing a judge with a much less qualified one.
I would have preferred Karen as a judge, to replace either Bruno, Craig or Arlene, or as a fifth judge.

Alesha will maybe fall into the 'there is no such thing as bad publicity' situation and as long as viewers are not put off watching the show, the BBC will be happy. I doubt if Alesha will say much that is controversial, because she is in a bit of an awkward situation. She is very popular, and wont want to lose that, but being nice to everyone will get boring.

Even if Arlene had not been sacked I would have been against a judge who knows too little about dance. I want rid of her.

Who exactly is hating Alesha?

I haven't seen anyone use such strong wording. Its all been rather measured (if repetitive).

God the stuff said is nothing on the things I've read about some of my favourites, most people have been falling over themselves to stress that this backlash is not against her personally.

If what's been said about Alesha is hate, I don't know if there's a word strong enough to describe what is sometimes said about Karen, Brendan, Len, Tess etc.

The worst thing I've read about Alesha as a person is that her laugh is annoying... and let's face it, it's not the most pleasant sound in the world!

Whilst this has brought some people out of the woodwork whom don't like Alesha and/or thought her dancing was over-rated. Most people like her and just think she's not qualified for the role in which she's under-taken - I'm actually worried that this will damage her relationship with the pros and Brucie whom previously respected her not to mention harm her career (most of the press have referred to her in a way which you would be forgiven for thinking that she's just a pretty face when she's not). I agree with tangoqueen she's probably mistakenly thinking that be re-visiting an environment where she was happy she can re-create that and she'll probably be disappointed - I don't understand why she's replacing Arlene and not Tess - she'd have been great in Tess's role.

As someone else with a loud laugh I quite like Alesha's.

I haven't noticed anybody saying they hate Alesha, but there are plenty people saying quite negative things about her for accepting the job. Comments along the same lines as

"Alesha must have realised when she took the job that she was putting Arlene out of one. She must be a nasty piece of work under the surface."

There are plenty of people saying she shouldn't have taken the job, but there are others taking it step further than that.