I thought that Len was very diplomatic when asked by Bruce - "what do you think of the standard this year" (or words to that effect). His answer - "there are peaks and troughs" was very non commital and almost nonsensical.
Surely the overall standard should be higher, lower or about the same?

I think, despite a couple of stand outs - Ricky and Ali, the standard is pretty dire this year and the improvement all round has been poor compared with recent years. We also have an unusual situation of the top dancers (who are clearly streets ahead of the others) both suffering from a lack of convincing and engaging personalities to some extent. Ali and Ricky both seem pleasent enough but neither have the most enigmatic personalities to guarantee huge support. Its huge shame Jade left, she wasn't my favourite by a long shot (sorry am firmly in camp Cola) but felt she bridged the gap of talent and personality and Ian of course was a huge asset.

I still love the series, despite the problems this year and hope next year they can pick a celeb that ticks all the boxes. Much as I love COLA, it will be a victory for personality and not dance if he wins.

In terms of standards I think overall this series has to rank as one of the worst.

Ricky and Ali would be good but bland in other series and would be eliminated around this point. The standard is so so poor.

Len has also just returned from seeing some fabulous dances in the Dancing with the Stars semi finals this week.
Returning to SCD tonight must have been from the sublime to the ridiculous.

It's hardly been helped by some of Len's decisions.

Voting off Hingis week 1. Then Tufnell goes over Ricky Groves.

Crap series. Hope Ali wins, but can you imagine her winning any other year?

Yeah I agree - if you compare with previous years when anyone could have been in the final! I couldn't believe it tonight when, in the moment of truth, I realised there were only six dancers left! By the time there are six dancers left, all of them should be getting a score above 30.

You think in previous series the calibre of dancing that Ricky & Ali are producing would have been eliminated

I think Ali is such a drip! I just can't warm to her, Ricky also bores me.

Is it the first time Len's ever said something like that? The mantra from my memory is usually for the judges to say 'I think this is the best standard we've ever seen on Strictly' every year, whether they believe it or not. Kinda a refreshing change not to hear them claim it.

Christine Bleakley would be welcome this year, even though she was considered one of the poorest out of the final lot last year. Same with Letitia Dean, to an extent. Austin Healy, if he was on it this year, would run away with the whole thing.

Yes, I can.

I'd say that other than Jade I haven't seen that much improvement at all. What they all did tonight is what I could have seen them all doing in week 1.

Chris for example. His Rhumba was for me his best dance and he hasn't touched it since. In all these weeks he's maybe had 2 or 3 good dances. Its really not good enough.

I love Ali and her personality. I don't see why its a bad thing to be a bit more reserved and not 'bubbly' like Natalie (which i personally find fake)

I agree that they are all pretty bad this year especially in the latin, if I go out of the room and miss a dance I don't feel as if I've missed anything really, the celebs who are left don't seem to have any personality at all

While I agree with your whole post, given that the general standard of dancing this series has been so poor, would it be a disaster if Chris and Ola won purely because of their personalities and endearing nature?

I could argue that Darren Gough beat Colin Jackson in the final years ago for exactly that reason.

You don't need to go back years. Tom was clearly the worst of the finalists just last year, and he won.

Hell, Tom was probably worse than Austin, for that matter.

I reckon, half the time, the best dancer wins SCD. Other times, we're simply lucky to get someone in the top 3.

It has been very poor this year compared to the others.

I blame Craig Kelly for turning the whole series in to a farce from about week 3 onwards.

I think there are so many former non-winners that could have ran away with it compared to this bunch.

Definitely can imagine that - if we're going on dance ability, she's surely one of the best

I think that Ali is as good, if not better, at ballroom than any contestant past or present. I agree that her Latin just doesn't have the oomph required.

Ricky is good at both but his feet are terrible (I presume there isn't a lot he can do about that).

The rest aren't in the same league dance-wise but I really like Chris & Ola (her reaction tonight when they got through was great)

I think this year the drop in standard is in the middle of the road dancers rather than the more talented ones. None of those left seem capable of becoming really good. It's just the luck of the draw unfortunately.

I'm a bit irritated by Lens comments. Why are he & Brucie saying that Jade could have been a contender after she's left the series?

They NEVER gave her such praise when she was dancing. They spent most of their time cooing over the likes of Natalie Cassidy & Zoe.

As of tonight (week 10), the 5 remaining couples averages are:

(Alphabetical Order)

Compared with week 10 last year:

All of which seems to bear out the poorer standard - last year 4/5 had over 30, this year only 2/5.

(Although we have to remember it's the Judges who gave these marks out)

How Sonia from Eastenders can be averaging 28.4 is beyond me.

Who was it who - inexplicably - saved that Craig chump early on in the series? Oh, yes, that chump Len, it was. Baffling though it was at the time, the reason emerged later: he just had to get to Blackpool, didn't he? That was part of the producers' narrative, wasn't it? And the Head Judge carries out the producers' wishes.

This. And as for Chris and Ola having the lowest average... I don't get it!

Not really. Darren Gough was rubbish to begin with but improved each week, whereas Chris hasn't improved at all -- his best dances were in the first week!

If you took out Ali and Ricky W as well as Jade, a Louisa might be romping this.

If you put them in a Gethin or an Austin would compete closely on ability and win with voter appeal.

Unfortunately the third case though also applies and Ali and Ricky W may just have the same problems as Colin, Zoe, Emma, Rachel and Lisa - they just don't appeal to voters enough .

This series is unique because there is no fallback position from rejection of the best dancers thats got much to do with dancing - the nearest white male isn't close in ability, the people behind are not great performers and they have no convincing journey stories. You can't have a Darren or even a Tom because they just don't exist.

Add Martina - better in week one than 6 people ever were.