why cant alesha not replace craig how did arlene get the axe and not him

Alesha shouldn't be replacing anyone - she has neither the experience nor the qualifications to be a judge.

I don't hate alesha

At the end of the day, it wasn't alesha's decision for them to get rid of Arlene for her

I find it interesting that a lot of the people crying out about ageism are also saying they wouldn't mind if Arlene was replaced by Karen Hardy. Currently, Arlene is being replaced with a completely different type of judge who's there for a completely different purpose - to judge things from more of an entertainment/effort point of view. Alesha just also happens to be young and female. Replacing Arlene with Karen would literally be replacing Arlene with a younger model - doing all the exact same things, only with a younger face for the camera.

I really cannot understand this thread title.

The general consensus is that Alesha is not qualified to judge dance; equally a number of us think replacing Arlene with Alesha is an ageist decision.

Now how does that translate as hatred for Alesha

The majority think she is a lovely young woman, with an attractive personality (albeit an horrific laugh) and she did show a natural talent for dance - well certainly ballroom dancing - when she won her series: but a pretty face and an intensive dance course (which is what SCD is), is insufficient for judging others.

And please - let's not hear the 'she knows what they're going through' old chestnut again, unless the voting system has changed and they're being awarded with marks for effort.

it seems that Ageism or sexism is the easy option on which to hang the blame, nobody here really wants to admit that Arlene was replaced because she was a miserable old trout, who constantly perved over the males and was quite frankly a bit like an embarrassing drunk auntie at a family wedding. The fact that she is a " world renowned" choreographer , even without any ballroom or latin experience, seems to be enough reason to keep her.
If people would actually look at what the BBC have said regarding the appointment of Alesha they would see that the plan is to change the dynamics of the panel. Alesha, and i have said this before, will bring a new dimension to the panel.

I dont really think it would have made any difference who they brought in, the Haters would have still moaned, even the ones who wanted rid of Arlene last series.

You have as much right to that opinion as others who disagree with you.

But does hatred come into this?

I know you didn't start the thread but I really am bemused by this accusation.

I've noticed on a number of forums (not just SCD), that anyone who makes less than laudatory comments about a person, country etc. is immediately labelled 'anti.'

Things are not so black and white as this - there is a more moderate view in between.

You see there you go again - the haters!

Why assume that those who disagree with you hate Alesha.

Do I think Alesha is suitable as a judge? No.
Do I hate her? No.
Do I think she is a personable young woman? Yes
Do I think she could do a good job in another role e.g. ITT? Yes.

Now where is the hatred in that?

I agree with Ignazio. If they wanted her involved in the show, I don't get why they didn't have her replace Tess to be honest. If you want someone who will show empathy with the contestants then having her do the backstage interviews would have been a good choice and we would have had someone that could actually dance properly with Bruce in the intro! sorted. I like Alesha - I just don't want her as a judge.

Not entirely- because Karen is more qualified to judge ballroom and latin than Arlene is, or even Len. Not only was she once one of the top latin professionals in the world, she also judges professionally.

To replace Arlene with someone who knows less than her to "freshen up" the panel is what makes it potentially ageist. It implies that being young is more important than having Arlene's degree of experience.

My feeling has always been that Arlene should go. I've never liked her as a judge. But to replace her with someone who has only a fraction of her knowledge is ridiculous, and to do it in the name of "freshening up" the panel is patronising to the viewers.

Yelsel, If you're going to use phrases like 'miserable old trout' and 'embarassing drunk auntie' to describe Arlene, hasn't it occured to you that you have no moral right to complain if a real 'hater' comes along and chooses to express themselves in similar terms regarding Alesha?

I don't hate Alesha but I THINK I am beginning to dislike yelsel.

Alesha will however ruin my favourite program.

You might not hate Alesha, but since the announcement was made you have not had one good thing to say about her and have posted nothing but extremely negative comments about her that are not restricted to 'Alesha is too inexperienced for the job' type remarks! You are easily one of Alesha's biggest detractors on here at the moment.

If you think the criticism of Alesha is bad now it'll be nothing to when SCD starts, which is a great shame to have our favourite programme and forum ruined by the ageist suits now running the BBC. Why did they have to mess up one of the most successful shows on the BBC, and strict judging was part of that successful formula, with judges who live and breathe dance every day since they were young.
Why try and mess with something which isn't broken.

I'm not sure if your post was in response to mine or the OP's, but as this subject has been done to death I'll just say I disagree and imho it 'broke' during the last series.

Whats up, do you have a problem with the fact i dont accept your comments, and have the audacity to disagree with you.
Arlene, in my opinion, ruined my favourite programme.
But i suffered her for a few series and gave her the benefit of the doubt, something which you seem unprepared to do with Alesha.

I was going to boycott it but I will just Sky Plus it and FF here - as I did with her dancing.

Can't do with her at all.

It will be a shorter programme - I already FF anything that Karen Hardy is involved in.

But isn't that what the public vote is for??

I've always assumed, rightly or wrongly, that that was where the 'balance' came in. Most of us are not experts, but we do know whether or not we were entertained by a performance. The judges are there for the technical side - and if I were a celebrity who was working hard to improve every week, I'd want to know how I was doing, and get some constructive criticism on ways to improve next time.

But that doesn't mean I hate Alesha btw!

At least Alesha has a performance background, which helps.

My two p'nnorth for what its worth is that they really need five judges (though probably too costly for the BBC, but I think the show is more popular than DOI, which has five judges). So, they could have brought Alesha on board (fresh younger woman) to give a different perspective, and kept Arlene. That way, there wouldn't be all the favouritism stuff going on about the way Len gets the deciding vote.

To be honest, if they didn't offer Arlene what she wanted, she could have turned it down. Perhaps that's what's happened and people have made assumptions.

I don't think this is the case, peely. From various reports/interviews, she does seem to be quite hurt by what has happened.

Neither has it been suggested anywhere except in someones imagination that Arlene was unpopular backstage. A fair few celebs have come forward to say how supportive she was...I can't think of any former celeb or anyone else connected with the show who has been quoted as saying she was a pain in the ass.

Carol Vorderman hated her. I think she specifically blamed Arlene for ruining her experience on the show and told celebrities in general not to do the show at all because it wasn't worth it. Matt Dawson had a few choice words to say about her as well, and I doubt John Sergeant would have much nice to say either.

At this point in time, the papers are pro-Arlene, because it suits their agenda against the show, just like they were anti-Arlene when she was a judge still associated with the show (remember the (made-up) Arlene called John a dancing pig articles? Or the "Arlene is favouring Rachel - VOTE FOR TOM!" ones (when she was harsher on Rachel than anyone else). They're not going to get quotes from people who are against her. Incidentally I didn't like the attitudes of any of those people at the time - I'm not supporting them, just saying not everyone who's passed through the show loves Arlene.

:yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn: You've done this topic to death, dear! :sleep::sleep::sleep:

I didn't know this - what did Dawes have to say? That said I doubt that Jan Ravens would have many nice things to say about Craig and my sympathizes go to him and not her.

As far as I know (and I was a pretty big fan of his) he was never openly critical of her. But he made it clear he wasn't a fan- in one ITT he started referring to her as Marlene, in another he made it clear he respected all the critiques he had except for what Arlene had said.

In fairness- apart from the sex appeal of a gnat comment, he had also had critiques like "Mark and Matt were the best, but Mark had the edge because he was hot" etc. from Arlene- in a group dance where Mark actually dropped Karen! so he had good reason to be a bit irritated!