Perhaps if Laila hadn't been injured as well and so wasn't going into the next week at a disadvantage already they'd have done the roll-over score thing?

As it stands, there doesn't really seem to be any chance of a roll-over occurring at any stage now what with Ali's injury now putting her at a disadvantage...........

In a way it's almost a shame Jade didn't get injured and have to withdraw earlier so a roll-over could have been used in a week where everyone was a full strength.

Yes Jade to blame again

What can I say? Selfish mare. She only got injured because she knew she was my favourite contestant and looked forward to watching her every week.

What a cow.

Dont need to call her that

Apologies.

What a selfish competitor. Playing with my emotions like that.

I accept

Jade's "pussyfooting" had nothing to do with having a two person final.

Are you implying that if she had decided on the sunday that she would not dance again, that there would automatically be a three person final?
Doesn't make sense.

But nothing new there....You really haven't got over this have you?

Wonder what you would have posted if you had money on Jade.

Different b*****ks.
But still b*****ks.

Bhoy1888 has annoyed me this year by kicking up a disproportionate amount of fuss about a highly unfortunate set of circumstances which nobody would have wanted to happen.

Back to the show... I'm an avid Strictly fan
(to the extent that it inspired me to take up dancing which I'm still doing two years on). But... this year has felt flat. I don't think it's because it's the first year that I hardly knew any of the contestants, as I've warmed to many I didn't know over the weeks (and been put off by some that I did *cough* Craig Kelly *cough*).

There has definitely been an absence of 'wow' moments. Think of the dances that have happened by this point in the competition in other years - Mark's Salsa, Austin's jive, Rachel and Cherie's Rumba, Alesha's Cha Cha, Matt's Salsa - the stuff of Strictly legend. Apart from Ricky W's Quickstep, little has gone down as classic. The only thing that has redeemed it for me as things have crumbled is Chris and Ola's delightful partnership which has provided much entertainment over the weeks.

My suggestions to salvage something from the wreckage:
- have a year off/do a champion of champions mini season
- if they do have a new season in 2010, make it shorter - 12-14 couples are sufficient
- have better contingency plans for when stuff goes wrong. Perhaps state them from the outset so that people don't get a hernia when an unfortunate twist fails to benefit their favourite.
- have a better scoring system where the judges points for each dancer are converted into a proportion of the total points awarded; this would make for a better reflection of talent vs popularity when it comes to who stays in.

Whatever happens it definitely needs a rethink. Although preferably not by the producers as decisions have become of increasingly dubious merit.

You mean the scandal in your mind? You're the only one who seems bothered by Jade having a bye.


Ah yes, like series 4 where Jimmy Tarbuck had heart problems after the first week, pulled out and they had a three-couple...oh, wait. Or series 5 where Kelly Brook pulled out without a bye week, and they had a three-couple...oh, hang on.

I know you've posted some nonsense over the past couple of weeks, Bhoy, but this argument really tops the pile. The bye week DID NOT AFFECT the number of couples in the final. Anyone can see that.

Ditto this!

My two dances this year so far have been Ali's VW and Ricky's QS, but even then, they're good for this series but I don't count them as classics I can replay in my head. It's just felt really flat for me this year. A non-event.

These were my suggestions from the other thread that seems more appropriate to this one:

1. Try everything possible to film in Blackpool every week with an audience all in evening dress. Real, old school glamour not to mention a proper ballroom space. Make Strictly an event again, get journalists out there on the night commenting on audience outfits (a la Ascot) and auction off tickets for charity so it's a real treat to be there.

2. Brucie needs to retire. He's a legend, but he makes the whole thing seems more Songs of Praise than a contemporary Saturday night entertainment show. When he was away and Ronnie Corbett turned up, it felt like a pastiche of the show rather than the show itself. It was just embarrassing.

3. Don't go up against The X Factor - the BBC is not a commercial channel and shouldn't even be trying to complete with that phenomenon. Either put Strictly on in the Spring or make sure it doesn't clash.

4. Get. Karen. Hardy. As. A. Judge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5. Make the dance off fairer - go to public vote if tied at the Judges vote. WTF is Len doing getting the decider - he's the one who has never scored below a 7!

and I agree there's too many couples, so I'd:

6. Have no elimination the first few weeks - get to know the couples, have lots of group dances and maybe even a medley of all dances in different styles so they get a taster of each dance before it starts getting competitive. The show could be the same length as now which I do enjoy, but with 12 couples or whatever.

Agree with you but would also include in the wow moments Gethin and Camilla's salsa, waltz, jive etc .............

Oh I could have gone on and on with the wow moments- more than happy to include some of Gethin's. Tom's quickstep, Rachel's Tango...there are so many I've left out! But that's what makes this series seem even flatter - how could we have had this many good dancers and good choreographers and produce so little that has really made the jaw drop? Maybe the stuff has been there but I haven't noticed it because of all of the controversy and chaos?

zankoku87 – I feel exactly the same. I was certain that Jade would come through and win the thing, I just did not warm to anyone else. You are right, it's no-one's fault, but we are left with only the usual suspects. Four minor soap actors and a newsreader. I don't care now. Yawn.

I don't think its been there and the question is it by accident, miscalculation (choregraphy) incompetence (dull or inappropriate music) or design (certain people get good music and a saleable act to go with it)

Some of it is bad luck. Some is casting. Ricky W was too good at the start. The other males don't compete with him. 4 females were more competitive than Nathalie but two have gone already, one is limping and one has Anton and knows she can't win with him. There's not many people left to provide wow dances now.

Ali's first injury I think threw a potential wow dance. Thats bad luck. Either her choregraphy or more basically the music choice has not helped other dances. Even with a good foot her music choice this week isn't an obvious crowd pleaser or something that clearly fits the theme- Chris has been given that. Ricky it seems to me has suffered from lack of training time due to doing two jobs at once - which they ought to be able to avoid. He's also not had any challenges to do that much with any emotional content - again is that music or choregraphy?

There's a tension in the show about what to do with the entertainers who can't dance well - dealing with the anti-judge vote by changing the response/judges has blurred the purpose of the show. They have talked them up to stop them getting a vote, been blunt to try and get rid of them and now seem to be backing them because they may win as no one else crawls over the finish line. The dancing will get lost if you are focusing on the comics, praising the poor dancers and then pointing out they need to go and running VTs on the stories invented that week . You can't run two different shows at once and expect the voters to get that and vote for both shows to work. When the judges have panto disagreements its even less likely. Their answer is to pretend that people are entertaining when they are not, have journeys when they went nowhere and whoever wins for whatever reason can dance well. I expect Nat or Chris to get lots of praise explaining how they won - ITT started that tonight. If the show isn't about achievement and wow dances its less likely we will se them, or the people capable of them will stay long enough to do them.

That confusion is carried the other way into this week. They seem to have thrown in a DWTS idea to get wow factor but there's no sign so far that they are providing most people with the outfits or music or make up or staging to make it memorable. Their pros don't seem to know what they are doing either which underlines the confusion. Its copy the US but do it in a sedate amateur way.

Bottom line is that the good dancers needed better music and choregraphy. If they can only compete for votes if they entertain they have to change the production values so they look like stage acts too when they perform. I doubt if Ricky G or Nat is a better actor than Ali or Ricky W so lets even the playing field. If they can send Gethin to acting coaches to learn to project more they should send anyone else who needs a bit of development there too - including the TV actors.

I agree - and the only way they can make SCD seem like a big, glitzy, extravaganza of gorgeousness is to get out of the cramped TVC and go to Blackpool - the HOME of ballroom dancing and a totally magic place. The one time I've loved the show this year was the Blackpool week, the atmosphere literally was electric and came through the TV screen. You can't judge a dance properly when they can only go a few steps in any direction, they need space to run and create pace and speed. They need that purpose built sprung floor to give bounce and energy.

The music too needs to be drastically reconsidered with a music director whose job it is to decide if a song is right or not. The choices this year have been just dreadful and have taken the edge off quite a few dances I thought had potential. As we all know from Jill's Jive, the music is SO important in creating that wow factor!

I just think it needs a creative director, now just an exec producer who clearly doesn't know what she's doing. Someone like a David Ian (theatre producer who was on 'How do you solve a problem like Maria?), someone with theatrical experience and an eye for making an event - costume, music, staging etc. etc.

start with choosing some interesting personable clebs that would be a good start.

You go one way or the other - glitzy ballroom where the theme is that the dancing matters and the best dancers get a chance to really show off or go towards DWTS properly and lets dress everyone this week up as keystone cops for the Charleston and give them appropriate music. They now have Ali on one leg doing a 20s dancing demo to modern music and Chris hamming up Bugsy Malone.

The music is dire - and its not now as if they don't know what offers potential as they have must have a list of what music worked over all the previous series. You could say when there are 6 left, here's one of the top scoring three Rumba tunes ever - make what marks and impact you can from that? The obvious problem is that the audience want new music but it may be there is no decent new music left and how well known or appropriate the music is may decide randomly who does well.

David Ian does cheat a bit though - he not only puts something on with music written already for it he comes with legions of choregraphers and backstage people.....Having said that the Westend is full of people who know how to make a production look good and X factor usually looks good even if the singing is poor. Money matters?

I agree with you. Alesha has been consistent with her marks, and I thought quite fair. She'll give sixes/fives if needed even if she's said nice things about entertainment value, energy, and trying hard.

I prefer the idea of a guest judge every week

Oh give it a rest, please! It's not her fault, she had to pull out and it's not her fault that the BBC again haven't made any provisions for it. If your favourite Craig had to pull out due to injury you would not go on about it either. I'm sorry Bhoy1888 I'm really not argumentative, but sometimes you go on about the same things like a child on a trantrum.

Well I accept your opinion.Just a shame you cant accept mine without resorting to name calling

Bhoy1888, I did not call you any names. I normally accept other people's opinion and I normally suggest to agree to disagree (look back at my posts). However, you don't seem to give it a rest once you got your teeth into something, even if you are provided with good and reasonable explanations why certain things are the way they are. You have a thing about Jade, so everything is her fault. You did like Craig so he could do no wrong, and now you like Chris and they can't do any wrong either (they are actually my favourites as well).

To be fair though, I certainly did not mean to offend you, and I apologise if my post sounded too severe.

That was a nice reply and I thank you for it.We move on now.I accept

Nothing.

I have enjoyed every minute of it, all of the drama, the anxieties about injuries and the marvellous dancing.

The celebrities have all got what they wanted when they chose to apply - massive publicity. So they are happy.

The professional dancers have been excellent.

Alesha has been a point of interest.

All in all a very good series.

Fine with me. Anyway, I think what annoys me most, is that I haven't had one outstanding dance yet (I mean really outstanding). In previous series there was always something even if the couple producing it wasn't your favourite couple. This year, Ricky's quickstep comes close I think, but still not as good as other dances in previous years.