Eh? I'm trying to work out what the positive point of her would be. If you read my comments, I've consistently suggested that she might improve. What she did last week clearly didn't work.

Clearly didn't work for whom?

A portion of the audience - and we can't definitively quantify that portion?

Or for the tabloids, who leapt on the grumblings in a few internet forums and decided that there had been a major backlash against Alesha?

(I'm not going to comment on the people who allegedly phoned the BBC - they could quite easily have come from the Daily Heil's newsdesk, just as there have been instances of tabloid journalists posting comments on the internet then using their own quotes in print to justify a specious argument).

The brief Alesha was given, whether you like it or not, was reasonably clear initally. (BTW, it's the same brief Ellen DeGeneres will have on American Idol). But the tabloids have done everything they can to bury it.

I wonder why. Perhaps because it might get in the way of the rubbish they keep peddling?

Where it comes to the BBC, there very often is smoke without fire. The Daily Heil alone has proved that conclusively. If people want to give credence to what they write, fine. But all they are doing ultimately is helping them hammer the nails in Strictly's coffin.

Who really wants that?

I disagree. I liked her on Saturday.

Can't argue with the first point, it was really getting on my nerves last year.

OK so she has a different perspective but what criteria is she supposed to be judging against? Point for a pink shirt doesn't give much confidence that she has actually worked out what she is judging. Would love to know if she arrives at the score.

Who is relishing it? Not me, I feel very embarrassed for the poor woman.

I'm not sure how Alesha can turn things round to be honest. I can hear the sort of comments she is making by listening to my family while the programme is on ... I'd quite like a bit more informed criticism from a professional on the panel.

She may however perform a bit better if she is separated from Bruno - the combination of screeching and arsing around at that end of the desk is going to pall very very quickly.

I would imagine the same criteria Bruno or Craig uses

So did I!

The "he wore pink" remark is an in joke with the men on series five!

Austin remarked last year that "he was used to pink" - having 4 daughters!

SOME male slebs do have a barrier to cross there.

JJ

I`m sure I heard one of the male celebs this year mention they wouldn`t wear pink too.

So one point for wearing pink me thinks

I was sorry when Arlene was replaced but I was pleasantly surprised by Alesha.
She offered both encouragement and criticism - good.
She didn't indulge in the ridiculous mock battling that the others do - also good (Len used to be my hero, He's the one making a prat of himself now).

Trial by media is gross.

Actually Alesha is said to be watching the dress rehearsals in the studio something the other judges don't watch, they all watch training footage which is diffrent, that is what they mention the training footage not the dress rehearsal

How much time does she need? She's had months to prepare for this role and she should have done that!

All she has to do is give a 20 second critique of the performances.

If anything, the first week (from a judges perspective) should be the easiest because the variety in standard among the contestents is greatest at this stage and we are seeing the contestants for the first time. There should be plenty to comment on!

I've highlighted the words "is said to be" because this has come from the tabloid reports which are full of mistruths and distortions. "Is said to be" isn't good enough. Particularly as Alesha herself has said this story isn't true. Or is that not good enough?

That story was rubbish. End of. If some people want to believe it, fine - but please don't expect the rest of us to do so.

And just how massively "different" is the training footage going to be from the dress rehearsal? Arlene used to offer a critique of the training footage on ITT - so I hardly think the dress is going to be radically different ...

Alesha's stint as a judge can only really be objectively viewed at the end of its run.

Unless of course some people are really baying for her blood ...

PR offensive isn't going to help in this, a knowledge that would make her feel comfortable would be better. She should watch those dress rehearsals with some expert that would point out what's good what's bad, what to look for. Maybe even somebody talking to her ear during dances. But then why not to sit that someone in her seat instead.

What 'knowledge'? She isn't supposed to have the same background as Arlene and bring the same knowledge to the table. She's supposed to offer a different perspective.

Again, this has been totally (and probably deliberately) lost in this whole storm in a teacup.

Yes, if Alesha's performance does not improve, it wouldn't surprise me if they ask Arlene or Karen Hardy to feed her suggestions via an earpiece after each dance. The BBC don't want to appear to lose face, so that might be one way around the problem for them.

I absolutely agree with everything you say, Servalan.

Unfortunately, it seems that the media 'trial by fire' (which was always going to happen given the depth of coverage by the BBC-hating tabloids in the few weeks prior to the commencement of the series, giving Alesha - or, indeed, any replacement judge little chance to redeem themselves! And don't anyone fool yourselves that there wouldn't equally have been similar vitriol - for different reasons - about anyone replacing the now canonised Arlene, whom many on these boards called to be sacked or worse last year!) is not going to die down soon. And people are going to take their opinions from (or have their opinions coloured by) those same tabloids who have one agenda, and that is to destroy the BBC's reputation by any means possible.

It's disgusting. It's vile. And you would think that they had something better to do (like report factually on important events - again something they don't do).

But let's not let actual facts get in the way of a good 'headline', eh?

After all, it does sell newspapers! And pushes their agenda(s) at the same time.

As per usual, most are taking one or two comments which Alesha made (and how is 'rigor mortis' from Craig or any of his other terse comments over the years been any more constructive? And I actually like Craig and think that most of his comments are constructive, even if he does couch them in somewhat insulting terms, interspersed with the odd 'non' comment like the one I've already quoted from this year) and blowing them completely out of proportion.

Alesha isn't there as an 'expert' in the same way as Len is a ballroom, Craig a choreographer and Bruno similar. And the latters' knowledge when they started judging SCD was NOT in ballroom. In fact, they probably had less knowledge than Alesha, who at least has danced ballroom! But because they all started at the same time, they were forgiven. Had Alesha or someone like her - a ballroom winner of a previous series joined, say, in year two, would there have been this outcry? Maybe. Maybe not. Because of course Craig and Bruno have picked up ballroom points over the years. They are bound to have because through the years they have gained experience. Alesha can't have the same kind of knowledge because she doesn't have the experience - because she hasn't been doing it for the years that they have. That doesn't make her appointment wrong. In a few years (the same time as Craig and Bruno have been garnering the knowledge, even with dance backgrounds - but not BALLROOM background) maybe she would also have the same kind of knowledge they have.

But it seems that she is not to be accorded that right. It seems that she is doomed from the start because everyone is leaping on every single thing she says, putting it under the microscope and analysing it to the nth degree.

Dear god, give the poor woman a break. It's getting really tedious now. It seems that she is to be villified simply for not being Arlene or an expert in ballroom steps. Well, she isn't Len. She isn't Bruno. She isn't Craig and she isn't Arlene. She is herself. She is warm and sweet and encouraging - which is something the celebs need. After all, a 'treaspoon of sugar helps the medicine go down' - and after being lambasted by the rest of the judges it's a relief to hear someone else being nice! And THAT'S why she was hired.

I'm beginning to repeat myself on thread after thread now. Maybe I should go take a cold shower because I swear this witch hunt, perpetrated by the media and taken up by some with their own agendas (not everyone, obviously!) is making me angrier than I've ever been during a SCD series (and I keep saying it's only a light entertainment show! Maybe I should take my own advice!).

What would that other perspective be? Fierce? Pink? If you do not have the knowledge the other perspective gets old pretty quickly, because you start to repeat yourself and talk some shallow nonsense. It took me 1.5 episode to have enough. They probably wanted a bridge between judges and audience, but so far it backfired. I don't need any bridges, they are them with their opinions we may choose to ignore or loathe, I don't need any bonding.

Your final paragraph is the most resonant for me because it's exactly how I feel. I cannot believe how many people seem to lap up what the tabloids are saying as in any way rooted in truth, and cannot understand that attacking Alesha and Strictly is just a smokescreen for self-servingly attacking the BBC.

Unlike Ross and Brand, however, it's one that many millions watch and enjoy. This is, of course, why they're targeting it - but it also means they will have more of a fight on their hands.

I too cannot believe what the tabloids are doing to the show this year - way beyond any BBC mismanagement gaff - and am not prepared to see a show I really enjoy being ripped to shreds.

So, for me, the fightback goes on, however tiresome it is at times. It's actually too good a show to watch it be mauled to death by a bunch of hateful halfwits.

My dream is for Alesha to rip up a copy of the Daily Heil on live television ... but I may have a long wait before that happens!

There's always the 'off' switch ...

Well well well... another day, another helping of Daily Mail bullsh!t, and another bunch of DS posters all too willing to gobble it up into their greedy little mouths and spew it all over the internet. Pathetic.

Have read through the thread again.
One point, does it really matter whether or not Alesha is good or bad?
If she is bad and you do not think her opinion is worth considering, then just don't take it into consideration.
If you think Alesha is good, the opposite is true.
I mean, the other judges, from threads that I have read, are liked and disliked in fairly equal measures - some people say "oh, I never pay attention to ..."

Surely the same is the case with Alesha?
Am really not sure what the fuss is about, unless you are an ardent Arlene fan who thinks she should still be there. In which case you probably won't like anyone who replaces her.

Do I have a valid opinion there? Not sure, but I am sure people will let me know.

Well that's what I started to do during the last half, only the switch was 'mute'

katrinap, I don't need dm to tell me what to think thank you very much

I just wish the BBC had taken the time to coach Alesha in her new role. She was clearly toiling last week - ok, first show - but she should have had some ideas about what she would say rather than spluttering out half sentences and the odd word.

She is 30 years old, a popular past winner and comes across as a woman most other women would like to have as a friend - she needs to pull her socks up and comment coherently and concisely.

There are a number of people who will always object to the way Arlene appears to have been dropped. They will never accept anyone else on the panel. But many long time fans of the show could not understand what Alesha was supposed to be bringing to the format? Perhaps if she did not actually SCORE the dances, but just gave her former contestant viewpoint on everything from the routine, to the dresses, to the music etc, it might mollify some of the viewers who are prepared to give her a chance but, after week 1, felt they could have done better themselves.