In all fairness I did read an interview with Karen at the end of last year where she stated that she did not know if she would be in this years competition - she was thinking of giving it up herself. So I don't really believe she was pushed.

However it highlights to me how ridiculous it is putting Alesha on the juding panel when 2 excellent pro-dancers were retiring from the actual dance part of the competition. They certainly knew Camilla had quit (and had expressed an interest in being a judge) and had their suspicions that Karen wouldn't be competing again - so why oh why give the job to Alesha when these 2 experts are available?

Bewildering.

This is what I was told at her Summer Soiree last weekend

Quite agree!

As for trying to appeal to a younger audience, SCD has always appealed to young people - and old people, and those in between, and children. There's no need to try to grab x-factor viewers, x-factor is repeated so many times most people watch it later anyway.

The Beeb are being daft.

They are, most young people I know watch both.

Or go out on a Saturday night

I'm far from young (44) but I manage to watch both! We tend to watch them both on a Sunday night because we can quite often be at work on Saturday nights. I love it, we watch one show, then the other.

If I had to choose I would always choose Strictly though but we have teenagers in the house and they like XF. Even my 73 year old Mum likes watching both, but prefers Strictly

I must say though, it will be different this year - no Arlene, Camilla or Karen But we'll just have to wait and see, their replacements might be just as good

Don't recognise a couple - anyone under 30 apart from Natalie? If they want younger viewers they need younger celebs....not younger judges or pros.

Into how many pieces????

It all sounds terribly medieval, doesn't it.

JJ

I read this today about Karen and then saw another headline that she will not be axed so I do not know what to believe. What I find irritating is that in Arlene's case, SHE herself has said NOTHING, only friends and co-workers have said how disgusted they are by the treatment she has received by the BBC. It seems Arlene is more concerned about keeping her job on The One Show than voicing her opinion on what has happened to her. No doubt Karen will smile and say nothing thinking of her future prospects with the BBC, rather than made a stand and admit that what the BBC are doing is wrong. Why can't Arlene and Karen talk to the media about what is happening or are they just concerned about the future moneymaking opportunities. At least Selina Scott had backbone and confronted the media about their decisions regarding older newscasters& TV presenters. I am bored to death with Grandads and girls of around 12 presenting shows and reading the news!!!!! UGH Apparently only MEN can age gracefully, we women are supposed to disappear after 40.

As mentioned by a poster, the competitors should be younger if they want to attract a younger audience but the BBC seem to forget there are millions of viewers who are 40plus who enjoy the show and you cannot have each and every programme on the BBC desperate to get young viewers. The great thing about SCD was it's attraction as a family show where everyone in the family could watch and everyone discuss it later in the evening. Personally I did enjoy John Sargeant and disliked the awful comments from the judges both on SCD and on other programmes. I felt the judges thought SCD was a show about THEM and they really irritated me this year and if they had changed the whole panel of judges and introduced an experienced dancer like Karen or Camilla I would have been more supportive. Now I read there are problems with two competitors over money and they have quite the show! The whole thing sounds like a total disaster from beginning to end this year. Why did they have to tinker with a successful show?

Terry Sherringham?? Sally Gunnell? FGS I won't even bother to watch this year. I have no idea who Easther Bennett is and as for ANOTHER Spice Girl, God Help Us. All the judges will fall over themselves to be complimentary to Gerri, the same way they were to Baby Spice! It was sickening to watch. Have the Spice Girls nothing else to do but appear on reality shows?????? The whole lot of celebs appear to be Z listers no wonder Richard and Sharon left the show!!!

If it was Karen's own decision not to compete again - why is everyone up in arms about it???

If she was invited and declined - why have a pop at Ms Hunt and flog this "ageist" thing again?

I agree that her rightful involvement in the show should now be on the panel though

PLEASE let her take over from Craig on the midweek review of training on ITT - at least she will be able to do it without someone else having to write her scripts for her.... last year we saw from when Brian F and the other eliminated pros did it with Craig that Craig really doesn't know that much about ballroom dancing!

If anyone was going to replace Arlene,it should have been Karen or Camilla. No offence to Alesha (who I like), but as others have mentioned it's the cynical targeting of a 'younger' audience that is tee-ing me off. I think it's offensive to the large proportion of older SCD viewers, and patronising to younger ones. Total madness.

Daily Express reports today that Karen does have a guest slot on ITT.

(And that the launch with celebs etc is likely to be in 2-3 weeks time)

Last year the celebs' ages averaged 46, with not a woman under 30 unless you believed Christine.

In SCD4 Luisa was 17, in SCD5 Matt di Angelo was 20. However Luisa was reported by Vincent as crying for weeks after eviction, and Matt D the 20yo was rescued by phone voters after meltdowns, triggering a huge split and bad feeling among the public.

I surmise it was for those reasons that the Beeb kept well clear of young celebs in SCD6. However a large number of viewers then showed themselves unhappy about watching an OAP however hard he tried (and there was endless ageist fixation over 56yo Cherie). So now the Beeb will likely lurch away from senior citizens? It is impossible to please everybody.

Maybe Karen's new involvement with SCD could be telling Alesha what to say about the dances through an ear piece.

Jay Hunt has been an utterly ineffective programme controller and I cannot understand why senior BBC executives are blinkered to this. She seems fixated on crude personalities such as Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross and ruining Saturday night television with low rating show after another.
I sadly think that Strictly Come Dancing will come to an end after this stupid farce unless she and the production team are pulled into line and they listen to what the viewers want. I strongly urge everyone who reads this forum to complain en masse via the BBC complaint system on its website. The BBC must start listening to those who pay their salaries.

pmsl

Good good, I'm getting impatient!

Funniest thing I've read on this board in months!

Slightly off SCD topic ,but Jay Hunt messed about with the scheduling of Dr Who last year leading to an upset with , producer, Russell Davies and indeed some wide disparities in ratings.
Previous channel controllers had left Dr who at piece in the 7pm slot, however Jay Hunt used it as a lead in programme to support her own inferior products.
Indeed she did the same with SCD last year which accounted for the show being started at ludicrously early times and not achieving its full ratings potential ie not beating XF which I believe it could most weeks.

I'm a teenager and I'd much rather watch Strictly than the X-factor.

Mind you, my favourite singers are Perry Como and Judy Garland, so that could just be me!

I prefer the dancers with more experience to be honest. My favourites are Lilia, Nicole, Karen and Erin. If they're bringing in younger dancers who'll spend all their time wit bare midriffs (cougholacough), I'll still watch it, but I doubt I'll enjoy it as much.

who will dance with matt now as karen has been sacked?

someone already there ( who is available, flavia has vincent kristina has brian, ola has james, erin should have anton, lila has darren, and ian will need a new partner too) or someone new?

Ian will dance with Natalie- Brendan with Katya- yep they have given themselves a real problem here