The beeb have given him a lot of time to show his personality, what do you all think? I have always thought he was hot, but am starting to actually like him now. But I feel he's being overexposed - they could've had Matt on SYTYCD surely?

I hope it works for him and he actually manages to do well in SCD next year for a change. Matt's a lovely guy but I get the impression he's actually pretty quiet and not a lover of the limelight although his fans don't like me saying that because they think it's means I'm over-looking his sense of humour. He was ok on Diet on the Dancefloor but he didn't seem that natural in front of the cameras to me.

James came over well this year. Insightful on the midweek reviews, etc.



JJ

I absolutely love it. I always liked JJ. And it's great to see that more people finally see what I saw already a few years ago.

Very clever editing by the Beeb has ensured that we see the nicer side of James (and Ola for that matter). Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but, I don't think he's rehabilitated at all. We caught a glimpse of the competitive James when he was teaching the class in SYTYCD, which again isn't bad. However, if we are shown another "rant" like the one against JS then his new found popularity would dip again.

Personally I agreed with every word he said about JS.

Have always liked James.....he just needed to learn to keep some of his thoughts to himself.....Series 7 as done Mr and Mrs Jordon no harm at all which is great....they are great dancers, good looking and got bags of personality.

But to be fair, it was the Beeb's editing that contributed significantly to him being unpopular in the first place. The business with Georgina was presented in a very one sided way - no, he shouldn't have had such a short fuse but it sounds like her behaviour would have provoked even the most patient of pro. Maybe the BBC are just trying to redress the balance, albeit rather late in the day.

What I don't understand is how people (not Laura - I mean elsewhere on the forum) refuse to consider that maybe the guy has just matured since his first series - any apparent change of behaviour is branded 'hypocrisy'. It seems to cause some people a headache to acknowledge that people do change and develop. Let's face it, if he came on ITT and said 'Yes, I was mean to Georgina but I've calmed down since then and I'm sorry' they would only accuse him of being contrived and insincere.

Personally I've liked him since he was with Gabby. All his partners since then have sung his praises, he seems to get on well with the other pros, and has even helped out the male celebs (not just Chris). Forum members who've met him also say he's lovely. To me he comes across as someone who's passionate about dancing and won't tolerate people who are messing about in class (which is what I think came across in SYTYCD, more than competitiveness), but who outside of that is good humoured and generous. I'm glad he's had a chance to show off the positive sides on ITT this year, but I hope he doesn't get over-exposed as that never does anyone any good.

James got some bad press and also had a 'too professional' attitude, where he considered it to be too much about the dancing.

He isn't the most eloquent of speakers, and part of why his opinions on JS were taken incorrectly by many was (I think) due to that.

As said before, apart from Georgina, he has got on very well with his partners and has done a very good job with them. He choreographs to their strengths and doesn't try to out-dance them.
I thought he was actually too soft on Cherie, who was so used to learning scripts that she wanted to write everything that he was teaching her down on paper and learn it by reading it. He does seem to read people well though, so maybe she was too fragile for some straight talking.

He has said that he has changed some opinions, and certainly he's more savvy about the non-dancing side now, but he's as competitive as ever, which is good in my book.

I'm not sure he will be a good enough speaker to take on a big presenting role, but he has the personality for it, so we shall see.

Me too and respected him for speaking out. He has never needed any rehabilitation as far as I'm concerned.

I think you're right and there seemed to a realisation this year that the way he was percieved was hurting both his chances with SCD and his partners most of whom he seems to have be fond of - especially Zoe - may he realised that a PR offensive was needed as it was too late for Zoe this year but it might help him and his next celeb partner next year.

Me too! I agree with you both.

I started to like him more this series, but I felt he got a bit too much airtime, and I'd have liked to have seen more of some of the other eliminated pros on ITT instead, rather than the James Jordan show which it almost became.

That may be the case but, for me (and I'm sure many others) it was watching JS having to sit on the couch and be interviewed after James's rant which was hard to watch. With hindsight it would have been better not to have interviewed JS but, what's done is done and I really wouldn't want to see someone being upset like that on the programme again.

I'm glad they've shown James's nicer side but, I will never forget seeing JS on the couch having to apologise for being popular.

I like him more than I did but still like him least out of all the pros.

Honesty isn't always the best policy. Sometimes it's best to keep your opinions to yourself and show a bit of grace and decorum. I'm sure he's learnt his lesson after his unsporting behaviour last year over the JS affair.

James' personality aside, I've never really got into his dancing/choreography. The only routine he's performed that has stood out for me is his Rumba with Cherie. Everything else has been forgettable.

I didn't agree with some of what James said about JS and I can understand why a lot of people dislike him for it (hubbie called him a very rude word in response to his comments on ITT) but having seen a talented partner eliminated for the second time in favour of someone who was a much worse dancer must have grated a lot. He'd have done better to have held it in but there are signs he's learnt that this year (or maybe he liked Craig and/or Flavia better than JS and/or Kristina or maybe it was that team Cola were one of the weaker couples the week James/Zoe went out or maybe since they'd already been in the DO it wasn't the huge shock that the departures of Gaby and Cherie had been). I can see that having to come on the show having listened to the rant wasn't great for JS but some people forget that we are talking about a political journalist here - he has probably heard worse about much more important things.

I thought that actually the jive he cheorographed for Gaby was really good (and the one he did for Zoe was probably the best devised routine of a fairly bad bunch this year) that their QS had some nice touches like the bit where she kicked inbetween his legs and that the AS's done for Cherie and Zoe where quite good. Yes the AS's for both ladies contained a similar lift but there were a lot of similarities between the cheorography of the AS's that Brendan put together for Kelly and Lisa so James isn't unique in being a bit samey on occasions - I think there are worse cheorographers on the show (cough Anton cough).

Well I don't want him to get ANOTHER good partner.

Gabby, Cherie and Zoe were all wasted for nothing..

James basically said that people should be voting based on the dancing and that John Sergeant shouldn't have quit the show. He could have expressed it better.

JS was a hard nosed journalist, who could handle all the flak easily, but I can understand him being upset if his wife was recieving abuse, but that's not James's fault.

Gaby was good, but was also unpopular for being competitive.
Cherie was good at some things, but very poor at some latin and at remembering some routines. She was difficult to teach as I pointed out before.
Zoe looked good because James got her to look good by tailoring the routines to do that ie. simple and stylish. She was a slow learner.

Yeah.. in case you forgot..

Hee hee!

The interviews he did on ITT this series were shockingly bad, and he was trying so hard to show a jokey side it was cringeworthy.

Still hate him - there is nothing he can do to make me like him, I just can't stand him.

One minute I really like James the next minute I'm not too fussed. I thought he was doing a really good job on ITT, then they had him on nearly everyday and it put me off again lol.


Same again here, I'm 50/50 part of me believes he deserves another good partner as they have gone out early. The other half thinks he's had 3 out of 4 good partners so he can't complain.

I'm happy for him to be involved in other shows in a dance capacity, but he was overused as a presenter, and actually not very good. I think Claudia's job is safe.

Yes but they weren't wasted by James. He gave Gabby challenging choreography, and tried to work to Zoe and Cherie's strengths.

They were wasted by people being petty and not voting for a good dancer because they didn't like the pro. People talked about doing the same thing for Ricky W this year because they didn't like Natalie. I think that's really harsh on the celeb who is working hard and didn't choose their partner (and actually on the pro as well who is working hard regardless of whether they are 'likeable')

If people genuinely don't enjoy a partnership then fair enough, but when people say 'I think Ricky's great but I'm not going to vote for him because Natalie's arrogant [or whatever]' that's daft.

That and Gabby came across very unlikable, Zoe was always in the back of shot looking like she was sucking on ten lemons and Cherie was constantly praised by the judges and overmarked beyond anyone else, even when she messed up half the choerogrpahy - who can forget that dire Salsa that got nearly 30pts - if it had been Christine or Jodie they would've been lucky to scrap 20.