With DWS now having completed its 8th season I have been struck how poor this seasons SCD has been compared to DWS.

The two things missing from SCD have been the fun and wow factors. Frankly I have found SCD to be dull and boring.

The standard of the dancing in SCD seems to be very low this year and I don’t believe that very many of the contestants in SCD would have survived more than a couple of weeks in DWS.

I realise that DWS is more showy than following the rules of ballroom dancing but this is a dance show and is supposed to entertain us.

From this perspective, DWS succeeds where SCD fails us.

I can’t think of a single routine that stands out this season of SCD compared to many in DWS where the pro dancers seem to be far more creative and inventive than ours.

On DWS they also inject a lot of humour into the show which is lacking in SCD. For example, the comedy segments I usually find funny; compare the Adam Corrolla and Dance Center stuff to what they did last night with Julian Clary which just made me cringe.

I looked forward to DWS every week but watching SCD has become a chore and labour of love.

I suppose I am fortunate to have seen every season of both shows and have the following comparisons:

The orchestra and singers

Harold Wheeler and his singers are superb and the orchestrations fantastic. I am sure it helps though that the DWS band is twice the size of SCDs. Sometimes I cringe with the singing in SCD.

Tom vs. Bruce

Tom is a superb presenter and is a master at adlibs. Of the two I prefer Tom but would never dream of replacing Bruce until he wished to retire.

Camerawork

DWS has far superior camerawork which lets you actually see the dancing.

Pros

Perhaps it is because they are given more freedom and the rules on DWS are less strict but the choreography of the likes of Derek, Mark, Louis and Maks far exceed what we have seen on SCD. Of course this could just be that they are more theatrical which is what I prefer.

Format

There were far too many couples in this years SCD and the shows seemed to drag on interminably at two hours in length.

The DWS idea of a double elimination for two weeks worked well.

The team dances and tango/passo face-off all were very successful in DWS.

Where SCD scores

The DWS results show drags on far too long and there is much too much repetition of the same clips.

I'm finding myself more and more drawn to watching DWTS as well rather than SCD. I love the big production feel of DWTS and SCD just seems too small in comparison.

I also like the theme idea they had on DWTS this year with the different decades - it is interesting for the viewer but also challenging for the pro's to come up with a routine that isn't the norm.

DWTS still has that shock factor if someone good gets voted out - yeah it's a shame but if they didn't have the public support throughout the competition then they may not have had it in the finals. I liked the idea of having the dance off only when there was a double elimination and I also liked that they had a new routine prepared should they be in the dance off, not just dancing the routine that they did during the show.

I too find Tom brilliant, he's a great host and makes me laugh with his little one liners.

SCD need to do something quick to try and keep the show fresh - getting Alesha in to judge is not the correct way to go about things if they want to shake it up - cause it hasn't. I think they are trying with the introduction of the two new dances at the weekend, but they need to expand on this more - I'm not saying don't do the ballroom dances because it is essentially a ballroom dancing show but it needs to start catering for all generations and needs to have that bit of extra fun and sparkle which DWTS seems to have and SCD seems to fail to achieve. SCD to me seems like a dowdy little sister in comparison to DWTS.

Sadly this year I have to agree - DWTS has been fantastic whereas SCD has lacked severely. Whilst I actually prefer the strictness of Ballroom than the showiness of the american version I have to say that this year SCD is actually quite boring. Usually it's a must see for me but I'm working every saturday now and to be honest I'm quite happy to record it, FF through the boring bits (everything but the dancing) and then I find I even ff through some of the dances which has been unheard of in the past.

I miss the acidity of Arlenes alliterations and also her constructive critiques. Most of the pro dancers seem to have run out of ideas on the choreography front and the celebs are pretty dull too.

In fact I had had to watch DWS twice this season - the second showing for my cousin who can't pick it up.

I'm still 4 weeks behind with the "repeats" and find I am ejoying the shows as much a second time. (Well at least the main show not the results show so much)

I really don't think I could watch SCD more than once.

And I meant Season 9 not Season 8 as I said in my first post!

I agree GMC, I have been loving DWTS this series and finding SCD rather boring. A lot of it is to do with the fact I now absolutely can't stand Bruce and have to record the show and fast forward through his bits, whereas Tom is a delight and doesn't regard it as "his" show unlike Bruce.

I agree that the choreography is much more innovative in DWTS but I wonder how the US pros would cope on the UK show with so many restrictions on what they can and can't do technique-wise. Equally I wonder if the UK pros would shine on the US show if they could really let rip. It must be difficult trying to come up with exciting routines for the ten dances every year when they are bound by the rules of ballroom dances which they don't seem to have to worry about so much in the US. The only one who tried to be a bit innovative was Brendan and he was invariably marked down as a result. I seem to remember one of the new pros (Aliona?) tried to ignore the rules at first and was marked down accordingly. It must be very dispiriting!

Strictly is far too long this year. I'm not surprised so many of them are going down with injuries as they get more and more tired. They should go back to 12 couples and a nine or ten week show or take a leaf from DWTS and have a couple of double eliminations during the show.

Altogether Strictly is a pale shadow of its former self this year.

These are such interesting takes on the two shows compared side-by-side.

To me they are like comparing two desserts, I like both equally well but they have a different flavor.

I had assumed that the conservativism of SCD added to the charm of the show. Staying true to the basic premise keeps the quality that Strictly is known for. When I read the boards, both the BBC and DS it seems a lot of fans do not like DWTS and want no part of DWTS creeping into their elegant well done show. At the same time, keeping a show exactly the same can cause it to go stale much like a drama series that has run out of ideas.

IMO, Hollywood likes to take risks. Sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don't. The producers go back to the table and try to bring something new and fresh. This year I think they did a good job. I believe they see this show as part entertainment and part dancing ability and they don't focus on one to the exclusion of the other. I think they have influenced the judges to see it that way also and that is why they are are not as tough on the celebrities with their comments as they are on SCD (although Len gave Mya a run this year). I think they want the show to have a spirit of fun and so the celebrities who are comedic are welcome as well as the serious. A celebrity really has to think how they will be perceived by the public when they take this type of show on. In some cases it really helps with public relations better than hiring any PR firm could.

I do agree the results show in DWTS are drawn out but they did a better job this time on the finale and moved it along. Since the finale has such a jump in viewership I can assume they recap so much to bring people up to speed on a celebrity's journey if they have not been following the series and are tuning in for the finale.

Dancing With The Stars this season has been an unmitigated disaster from the network's point of view. Its final scored the lowest ratings since the first series, and ratings for the whole series dove through the floor. The audience response has been throuh the floor negative, and the network and pros have been issuing repeated promises that next year will be better, that there'll be a total relaunch etc etc.

I've enjoyed it as well and think the UK could learn a few lessons from it in terms of slickness of presentation, but as an entity, it's actually holding up far worse than Strictly is.

wonder if they know there are a lot of UK fans that love it?

I've been saying this for a while DWTS is a far better, more entertaining show. SCD is boring when compared. The production and innovate dances, the music, the hosts, the VT's everything about the show is better.

SCD needs to takes some hints from DWTS instead of being stuck in it's english ways. I think this weeks new dances and group Waltz is the right direction SCD should be going in! And blatantly stolen from DWTS

I've been watching both this season & I agree that SCD seems to be knicking ideas from DWTS but only in a half-hearted way. Perhaps SCD should be looking at more of a revamp rather than just changing small things? The competition dance in DWTS included the dancers being told to leave one by one so that the best ones were left dancing till the end ~ not so on SCD where the dreadful camera work meant that we missed loads & at the end we only had boring & very generalised critiques from Len.

Just changing one judge, making small alterations to the format but still keeping the same presenters & using celebs that most people haven't heard of, is not the answer. I suspect that if the ratings for SCD continue to fall then we'll lose it altogether. But the Beeb can always replace it with an extended version of Total Wipeout or Hole on the Wall or some other silly game show!

I'm another DWTS and SCD fan, and I have found the DWTS to be more fun this year. I find Len and Bruno are much less critical when on the US version. Don't know what the answer is as regards re-vamping Strictly though. I've personally not missed Arlene "fawning" over male celebrities one little bit. Will also be interested to see how Darcy Bussell fits into the mix from next week!

Sometimes I wonder if both of the shows are running out of celebrities. They aren't going to get the A listers or even the B listers - they don't need the gig. Even then there would be outrage about fanbase and the unfairness of it all. As I understand it Karina's dream partner is Keanu Reeves. Well if her dream came true and she got him how good would he really have to dance?

I doubt there's many A Listers who would be prepared to put themselves through it. Imagine the humiliation if they couldn't actually dance! And none of them would have the time to commit to the show if they were true A Listers as they'd be too busy with other projects.

The longer both shows go on, the more we get to know & like/dislike the pros & the more the pros seem to be the celebrities each year. I know more about some of the pros than I do the celebs on both programmes! And how many time to we hear people say they've voted for so & so because they "love" the pro?!

Bring back Come Dancing with only professional dancers & forget the so-called Z-list celebs!

I had heard from friends in US that latest season of dwts hadn't been so popular, although personally I thought it was one of the better series.

However, I understand there are quite a few other dance shows (So You Think You Can Dance being the one that immediately springs to mind) regularly on American tv, so maybe having 2 series of dwts each year is too much?

As for dwts v scd - certainly this year dwts has won hands down for me. Every series the producers manage to bring some different "tweaks" to the format which keeps it fresh and lively, whereas scd seems to have sunk into a staid old sameness. Taking out a knowledgeable judge and replacing her with an un-knowledgeable one, did nothing to light any fires!

That is a good point but the way the networks work there is always a spring season and a fall season but I could see where the network could do another show in place of a spring DWTS.

As I understand it SYTYCD is becoming even more popular than dWTS and my friends say they are loving it compared to DWTS as it is a much more exciting show.

I think part of it is the concept of SYTYCD is different in that these are people are dancers hoping to make it big like Idol or X-factor and the fact that their routines are choreographed by some creative and inventive choreographers. Many of the dances are incredible and have won Emmy awards. Dmitry was praised to the high heavens on SYTYCD but as we saw ran into problems with not sticking to ballroom on DWTS.

It does get bad when there are a glut of shows but I must admit it was exciting for when the public was introduced to Chelsie Hightower by way of SYTYCD. She just blew everyone away so there is a definitely a place for a show like that which introduces new talent.