While I agree with some of your points, I have to disagree with this.

I was dreading Chris and Ola's routine to The Darkness, but actually thought it kind of worked.

What didn't, however, and was in the same show as I recall, was Ali and Brian's cha cha cha to the Black Eyed Peas. Utterly appalling use of inappropriate music - whoever thought of that needs their head testing.

Or to see Tony Beak do the gay gordons

For me personally, Strictly needs to do five things next year...

-Seperate the dance show and the results show. The combined show is too long and too padded out. Both shows on the same night and live.

-Reduce the number of couples to 12. 16 is WAY too many.

-Ditch Alesha as a judge. Last night, she was a joke. She marked Chris too low, Ali too high, and how the hell could she judge dances (Charleston, and Rock and Roll) she herself had never performed? Get Karen, Camilla, Darcey...ANYBODY with a decent amount of experience.

-The dance off IS a good idea, but ditch it in the quarter finals. I don't like how the judges get so much influence on who goes into the final. When it gets down to six or five, let the public decide.

-Stop trying to outdo The X Factor. Going head to head with TXF hasn't worked. Bringing in Alesha to "sex it up" hasn't worked. Strictly is VERY different to XF, and it's a great show in it's own right...let it be so.

Not A-List cos if you are 'A' you don't need to do a show like Strictly, you are at the top of your game.

Most people do Strictly cos they are between jobs or have just left a show Ali has left The Bill, Craig Kelly just left Corrie etc.

The general public 'bond' with the people on the show wanting to see them do well over the weeks and I think that is the problem this series they have not 'bonded' with the people who can dance in this series.

Seconded!

The first thing they need to do is get rid of Bruce. Then they would have a bigger budget to book better celebs, among other things.

Go back to the old set up. The couples do 1 of 2 dances each week. Not like this series where they all do a different dance. I like to be able to compare the dances. It also makes the judging better as they can compare the couples more fairly.

Think about different singers. Sometimes they are awful and out of tune.

Make Blackpool a permanent fixture. It definitely adds something to the show.

I don't disagree with the dance off, but I think only the bottom half of the judges leader board should be eligible for the vote,
until they get down to the last 5 couples or so. The top couple with the judges should definitely be safe.

I don't think len should be head judge. If it's 2 all after the dance off, then the couple who got the least phone votes should go.

Get rid of Bruno and alesha. He is too over excited and she doesn't actually add anything to the panel. I would like Karen as a judge and possibly bring back arlene.

I agree there should be a break between the dances and the results, but they need to keep them on the same night. I hated it when they moved the results to a Sunday. Especially when you knew is was recorded on the Saturday anyway.

I think Karen would be an admirable judge ... and agree that an odd number of judges would be excellent as that would eliminate the farce of Len's casting vote. I'd also be happy to see Bruce go.

Having few couples (12 would be ample) would mean the money available for celebrities wouldn't be spread so thinly as well.

Just a question - I can't see Dancing With The Stars as we only have freeview. What is different/sexier about that show?

I agree, I said at the start of this series as the 15-20 minutes after the dances and lines open is very padded.

I suggested they should draw the lottery at this time.

I agree as it would actually give me time to vote (SCD starts around my daughter's bedtime so we have to watch it time delayed by enough for lines to have closed).

I think Alesha should be left to 'pursue other interests' too and should prefably be replaced with Karen Hardy but I would be ok with Arlene coming back. I'll reverse judgement on Darcey Bussell when I see her in action over the next three weeks.

I don't think it really matters how famous the celebs are to begin with - some of the famous people have annoyed people and some lesser known people have become favs amongst the public. I'd never heard of any of the people I ended up supporting before the show apart from a few in the early stages last year i.e Cherie, Heather, Jodie kinda.

I agree with the dance-off going in the semis or quarters or at least it should be done on the weakest not the strongest dance - Lisa was able to coast through the quarters last year on one good dance and that's not on IMO - people should have to be good at both ballroom and latin and she wasn't IMO.

The real thing this year has shown that the beeb need a plan that incorporates someone dropping out and still having a two-person final. This year has shown that it is possible that two people could get injured and have to pull out (it sounded pretty bad for Ali early in the week). What should happen is that the program should be a week shorter - you have a double eviction at the semi-final and NO dance-off that way if someone drops out you still have a three-person final and if two people drop out you still have a fall-back to a two-person final. It also means you don't have to introduce new dances.

Not Alesha, keep her

I'm not much of a Karen fan, but really like her on her Tuesday night stint with Claudia...............I love that we learn something technical and the producers made a big boo-boo by bringing Alesha, when Karen would have been a more obvious choice..............

"FORWARD, 2, 3: Big name celebs will be booked as dancers and performers instead of this year's no-marks."

Most big name celebs won't do the show, same is true of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here. There is a big recession, the BBC is cutting costs as is commercial tv. And is any big name WORTH paying 100 grand or more to dance? Probably not.

Do licence fee payers want to pay some person 100,000 pounds to dance for three months? I doubt it.

Forgot to mention earlier...SORT OUT THE CAMERAWORK!!!!!!!

Sorry, but the capitals were necessary. It makes me so angry and I'm driven to shouting!! They need to get some advice from people who film dancing or stage productions as they are destroying a lot of the routines by their current filming.

First of all, DO NOT make it like Dancing with the Stars!
That might suit the US audience but it's appallingly sickly sweet. I mean let's face it, a show which thinks Len Goodman is the "nasty" judge doesn't bear thinking about.

The judge I'd get rid of is Bruno, he gets more of a caricature of himself every week, I can't take a word he says seriously.

Karen would be fantastic, she's a professional judge AND has competed on strictly so she can bring understanding of both sides of the fence and she's not scared to say what she thinks.

Totally agree with everyone who's said they should get better guests, this year there have been far too many "has beens".

I also think they should resist temptation to go for more Kelly Brook types....we need more characters like Natalie Cassidy rather than clothes horse types.

I don't think the pro dancers being more famous than the celebrities is a problem at all.....they're the ones I watch for!
Don't mess with them!!

I'd include the Charleston every year and drop the Argentine tango, I hate that dance!

I agree with most of the suggestions already but I would say have Claudia where Tess normally is and Tess comparing the show. When they did that the other week, I thought it was tons better than with Brucie doing it.

/which is haemmoraging viewers at a terrifying rate.

On the positive:
First of all the presenter Tom Bergeron is great as host of the show. He's a master of ad-libbing. No scripted pre-WOII jokes. Plus he is not overbearing.

The house band is much better. More musicians and great singers.

The camerawork is also much, much better. No steadicam jockey running around. It's still not up to Fred Astaire's standards, but you get to see more of the dancers and the dance.

More and different dances performed by the couples. Sometimes the couples have to do three dances on a night.

Far more entertaining, sometimes even hilarious, introduction clips.

Better and a tiny bit more neutral judging by Len, Bruna and the lovely Carrie Ann Inaba.

On the downside:

Dances last only just over a minute.
All dances are Amercian Style even the Latin. You wouldn't know they were dancing the VW if it wasn't mentioned before the dance. It's all American Smooth style.

It's tailored for an American audience, so it's all a bit saccharin.

The commercial breaks are tedious.

Endless repetiton of clips, especially in the results show.

Bruno is even more exuberant.
Len playing Mr Grumpy Judge!

I won't comment on the quality (status) of the celebs. Though I must say this year Kelly Osbourne was a revelation. And Mya... So beautiful, graceful and such an excellent dancer.

- Higher profile Celebs. Too many non-entities with zero charisma this year.

- Bring Arlene back to the judging panel

- Return to the 2-show format

- Improve the camera work

- Reduce the number of contestants down from 16 to 14

- Have a wildcard dance routine week like with the Charleston and Rock&Roll dances this week.

- Better interval act guests

- Have the quarter final and semi final from the Blackpool Tower Ballroom

- Have the final from the Royal Albert Hall

- DO NOT try to compete with X Factor. Most of the country is just going through an obsession with being on the Simon Cowell bandwagon. It's just like when everybody was obsessed with those home/garden makeover shows in the 90's. The Simon Cowell bubble will burst eventually.

LMAO!!! This made me laugh out loud

Some definite improvements for next year (in no particular order):

Get rid of Bruce. He's absolutely awful. I Sky+ SCD now so I can whizz through the his terrible "jokes" and links. Alternative presenters? Anton Du Beke? Terry Wogan? Anyone but Bruce really.

Sort out the nauseating camera-work so we can actually watch the dance without clinging onto the settee for dear life.

Music to suit the dancing. Don't try to make it appeal to the "yoof". Has the BBC every studied the demographics for SCD? I'll hazard a bet most of us are over 30...

12 celebs, not 16.

3 judges, not 4. Get rid of Alesha and Bruno and bring in Karen Hardy.

No dance-off. The numbers of viewer votes should decide.

Judges get to choose fave dance to see again (they do this on Dancing with the Stars)

No "token oldie" dancers that in no way are going to win the series (e.g. Jimmy Tarbuck, John Seargent, Gloria Hunniford, etc.) If they're not judged fit enough to do a jive before the show begins, they're never going to be fit enough.

Get JohnFromWales to appear on ITT every Monday as the official show reporter!

However, the BIGGEST improvement, I feel, would be to stop the audience from clapping along with every song (and the theme tune - aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh!!!) I understand the floor manager bullies them into it, so in that case, sack the floor manager! He/she has clearly never sat at home watching it through gritted teeth thinking "oh yeah, this tango's far more dramatic now they've started clapping along".

It. Drives. Me. Bonkers.

Thanks for letting me vent. All we need now is for the BBC care about what the viewers actually want

How about ALL female pros and celebs* must dance starkers, apart from their shoes.
Now THAT would pull in the viewers, and wipe the floor with X-Factor




* Over 50's to wear supportive underwear

Thanks Breppo - that was really helpful. Sounds as if there are some good things in there which could work here.

I watch it in dribs and drabs but for what it's worth...

The BBC have a successful formula on their hands but they saw fit to be greedy if you like and try and make it even more popular. More dancers and to be quite frank I wouldn't know a lot of the celeb dancers if they bumped into me in the street. And changing judges have de-railed the show.

Changing judges can work if it's done properly. The XF did it without too much problem. But the way it was done and the people involved was all wrong on SCD. The reasons behind it were not thought through properly.

Reduce the number of dancers and make it a tighter programme. Back to basics if you like. Have people that are actually well known would help too.

Less is definitely more.

I have no problem with Arlene being replaced by someone like Karen Hardy who knows what she's talking about, however, Arlene was not the only judge who was in the wrong last year. I found the judges to be all equally as bad as each other, each in their own way. Arlene was merely the scapegoat.

Arlene is also the only judge who gives practical advice along the lines of "go to a ballet class and work on X" or "go to a drama coach and work on Y' and I find that's been sadly lacking this year. In the past, when contestants have followed her advice, they've always improved. I could just imagine her this year screaming at the screen at home "Go to a ballet class and learn to point your toes!" every time Natalie C danced or "Get some drama coaching" when Chris hams it up.