All the signs are there.

The constant bigging her up on the secondary show (BBLB / ITT) from guest after guest as if they'd all been given a faffing script.

The favourable edits.

Plus the ones BB doesn't have such as over-marking and excessive praise from the judges.

Even when they criticised her this week, she had one absurdly high mark, and the criticism she gets is only just enough to give ammunition to those who want to argue that the judges don't favour her, without doing her any damage.

I take it you're not keen on her then Veri?

Natalie does get a lot of positive remarks from the guests on ITT, but perhaps they genuinely have warmed to her, as so many of the public have?

What would you like the guests to do when asked their favourite? Lie?

Or do you expect the ITT team to only select guests that haven't taken to Natalie?

As for the over-marking issue, ALL the celebs have benefited from that at some point (including my favs).

Thank goodness it isn't Big Brother, then - those silly "chosen one" threads bore the pants off me. Mind you, at some point or other at least a quarter of the housemates get called this, so it's pretty meaningless, anyway.

But it isn't, so we wont!

JJ

Of course the people on the show like her - she's a huge fan. This means she knows what's expected of her, she can give the sort of soundbites they want, she knows her place in the show and the show's history, will probably be easy to work with, show lots of emotion (which is what the producers want more than anything at the end of the day), get incredibly over-invested, will come back for ITT for about 7 series in the future, will do the tour and the Xmas Special without making unreasonable contract demands, and she'll probably be friendly and enthusiastic to people backstage. She won't have to be told 7 times what the dances are, she won't go off-message in the media, she won't decide to do 5 hours of training a week because she cant be arsed/has other commitments. And so on and so on. Much better than the people who turn up solely for their career who barely even know what the show is called.

Do I think the show could do a better job of hiding the fact that they really enjoy working with her? Probably. But I can't really blame them.

(Incidentally from what I've heard Lisa Snowdon was very much the same, which might explain why she seemed to be slightly....favoured)

I hear that Vinthent is so depressed about his failure to choreograph the Samba, he's engaged Brendan to do that job for their showdance if they reach the final.

I expect them to select guests who have a range of different opinions, not be like Big Brother's Little Brother and have guest after guest after guest who may as well have been taking instructions about what to say.

I also expect Claudia not to act like there's only one opinion among viewers.


Natalie benefits more than the others, imo.

Even this week when it would have been too glaringly wrong to give her high marks, she still got an 8.

That might explain the outrageous favouritism from the producers , but not why so many guests gush about her.

She doesn't actually show lots of emotion - or enthusiasm - or personality - imo. It's just that we're told again and again and again that she does and that in the first few weeks she over-acted a "personality", giving an impression that with many seems to be lasting.


Could be, I suppped, though Lisa never seemed especially favoured to me.

This evening they chose 3 guests who happened to have the same opinion, and tomorrow they have 3 more guests who may well have another opinion.



She also got a 5, which balanced it out. She ended up with a fair score for her dance overall, and in the correct place on the leader board in my opinion.

They might, theoretically. But chances are they'll some more who gush about Natalie C.

There seems to be some gushing about Natalie C in virtually every ITT.


The overall placings don't let individual judges who awarded absurd marks off the hook.

Besides, Natalie's dance was so poor this week that it had to be given some low marks or the (over-high) marks at other times would lose all appearance of credibility.

I think I've got the general idea from your posts here and elsewhere that you dislike Natalie intensely, and to be honest I'm a bit fed up of seeing the same sort of comments repeated endlessly by you, so I'll leave the "debate" now.

Have a nice evening.

Does Veri dislike Natalie?

I would never have guessed

Well, I must admit there does seem to be a bit of bias towards her occasionally on ITT. My husband - who isnt as obsessed as I am - even commented that Claudia seems to love her more than the other contestants and asked if it was because she was a BBC/EE employee.
*shrugs* Its a shame but it happens every year. Last year, it seemed Lisa was the 'chosen one' and then the year before, in my poor recollection, Matt Di A seemed to be a chosen one (Ive just watched his FT and Samba disarrster).

Im glad Natalie has her fans and Im glad she's got to dance on her favourite show, everyone on here would probably love to be in her shoes. However, I wish fair attention was paid to all the contestants equally, because it must be discouraging for the other couples when everyone seems to rooting for Natalie on ITT.

Well said SR ! For the most mean spirited, vindictive posts about Natalie Cassidy, Veri would take 1st. prize !

Well tonight ITT had her on and three guest celebs on all wanting her to win and raised the option of the Ali v Ricky dance off taking one of them out so she could. The argument for her winning was that she was enthusiastic and trying hard - which applied to almost everyone and as a scale would make Jo Wood the winner. We also had Len pointing out the samba was the most difficult Latin and who has been left with the low scoring samba for the crucial last stages...........No one else has much of a winning story so you can see producers salivating at the propect of Ladette to Lady as one to spin. Smoke billows, raising suspicion of a fire there.

There's also the BBC's future and past relationship with Nat - a return to Eastenders in the near future and their strange habit of using her for all sorts of little documentaries. They have no interest in either Ali or Ricky for BBC programmes and Laila is in a prime time saturday competitor. It would also seem important for the winner to actually be doing the tour which counts some people out straight away. Its beginning to look suspicious even if it isn't.

Lucky you started this thread, Veri, no one would ever know your feelings about Natalie otherwise.

I would have thought that regardless of whether people do or don't like Natalie its blatantly obvious now just how much plugging is going on of her on ITT. They don't even attempt to be unbiased.

It might as well have been called the Natalie Cassidy show tonight!

I am glad I am not the only one to have thought that.
It seems just because she had a bad week they had to big her up again. It is just looking so obvious now who is the pet this year. Whether people like her or not I feel it is very unfair that the other Celebs do not get the same treatment and there is no gushing over them at all.

Maybe it`s because you were supporting her and she didn`t annoy you like Natalie obviously has done since the begining ?

I was out this evening and have just watched ITT on iplayer. I think, Veri, the OP, made valid points rather than hating Natalie. She really is being pushed down our throats now. I happen to hold the opinion that she has been overmarked and the judges (apart from Alesha) had to score her credibly on a very poor samba. The reason Vincent used basic steps was not because he had an off day but because Natalie returned to EE last week and that was as much as she could master. There does seem to be a campaign to promote her.

Gethin and Matt Dawson are both BBC employees and the networkbabe is absolutely right about the BEEB having no interest in Ricky or Ali. Chris Hollins is also an employee but he won't be going on the tour. I can't see this bias doing her any good.

Are we talking about vetting the guests now because free speech is no longer acceptable?

For heaven's sake, Claudia gushes over every celeb she has on and the idea that Natalie is been talked about because she works for the BBC is ludicrous. The three guys on the panel also talked about Chris and Craig tonight - Craig at some length.

Some people seem to have a fixation about Natalie now and the poor girl hasn't done anything except be herself.

Natalie is popular and isn't a bad dancer - get over it.

Now, what came first - the chicken or the egg?

Do all these guests genuinely like Natalie and truly believe she can/will win because she's a great girl and her enthusiasm is infectious (and less irritating ) in the flesh?

Or are they tiipped the wink to sell Natalie at every opportunity and only allowed on if they've signed on the dotted line that she's the greatest?

Could be either in my view or, more likely, a bit of both.

By the way though Veri, if it is the first option, what do you expect the Beeb to do? Ring round potential guests, ask them who their favourite is and only bring on guests who represent a true cross section of the celebs?

Edit: Sorry Buddy, should have read your post before making mine - you cover some of the same ground.

You have totally missed the point. Natalie cannot be seen in a bad light unlike the other celebs who have all been criticised for one reason or another. Even when she does a bad dance it can't be seen to be her fault. Nobody has a fixation on Natalie. We're just fed up with having her so in our faces.

Well here's something to think about. A thread on the BBC boards called 'Natalie the judges' favourite' has been closed.