Me too .. I feel sorry for any partner he gets next year because they are doomed and this policy to shove him at us whenever possible is doing little to change that. When Lilia was in the semi's/final's .. we didn't get Darren shoved at us every five mins.

His policy to get us to 'vote for the dancing' took a serious U-turn this year ... but if Ola had been partnering Ricky Whittle he would've been singing a different tune, we all know he would've been banging on about the dancing again.

He will have to experience his Strictly win vicariously through Ola .. because he will never in a thousand years win the competetion (unless he is the only entrant). If he ever got within a sniff of it .. his competetive side would come to the fore .. and that's when we see what he's really made of.

James is not a teenager .. he is 30 plus, so to say that he is still developing and learning how to behave is ridiculous ... a much more simple explanation for his 'improved' behaviour is that he knows he won't win unless he stops being arrogant and rude .. it still comes out all the time though. He was only in a clip of SYTYCD for five mins and he managed to be both arrogant and rude in that short space of time.

He's not rehabilitated .. he's just re-packaged ... it's the same old James underneath .. and you either like that or you don't.

He didn't need any 'rehabilitation'...but it seems like a familiar story to me i.e. he was over-'hated' previously and he's over-rated now.

Some of the pros just bring out the fickleness and questionable judgement of the audience...and the Jordans are prime examples.

I didn't mind Gaby actually - I thought she came over as very straight forward and hard working but I can see she wasn't a lady that many other women would warm too. She wasn't one of the girls so to speak - it's a fallacy that women don't vote for other women but they I think tend to vote for the type of people especially other women they can see these going for a night on the town with. In politics they talk about the BBQ test that you are more likely to vote for a bloke you'd invite around to your BBQ - in reality tv I'd say that the nightclub test exists - people vote for people to win they'd like to go clubbing with.

I don't know how valuable a "clubbing test" would be for a show where the average audience age is well into the 50's. Although maybe that's just me being ZOMGBBCAGEIST!

More and more with Strictly I look at the few women who are popular with the general public and it appears you have to be both outgoing and confident AND vulnerable and sympathetic at the same time. If you're only the former (Gabby, Jade (possibly until she smacked headfirst into the bottom 2 and showed a softer side)) or only the latter (Zoe, Cherie) then you're screwed. All of the women who have been popular, especially in recent years (Natalie, Christine, Letitia, Alesha, arguably Jodie and Laila) have somewhat combined both. It's a tricky tightrope to walk, especially as with men it often appears you just need to turn up and be 50% competent.

Again it is a question of interpretation or perception. There was no need for JS to walk away from the show or apologise for being popular (I'm not sure he was btw, as I think there were other reasons why people voted for him). Anyone who felt sorry for JS had the wool pulled over their eyes by a real smooth operator. Personally I found it hard to watch JS on ITT because I was furious at him.


LOL! I think I'd fail the 'clubbing test' too!

I think the other quality that a female celeb needs to display is humility. You can be really good, but you must be humble about it - the trick though is to make sure it is genuine, because we can spot a faker from a mile away!

But I think there is a third category of women - those who apparently don't care what women like because they only focus on men (Kelly and Lisa). They will never stand a chance on SCD.

James has completely turned me round since he did his "backstage" slot for ITT. He came over as completely charming and was so supportive of his wife without hogging the limelight himself and giving her moment in the spotlight.

I do hope the BBC don't over-expose him. |I was so pleased to see him on SYTYCD - good luck to him - he deserves it.

I know this isn't a JS thread and that it's old news but that echoes my sentiments perfectly. JS may have inadvertently unleashed a monster with his 'The public will save us' remark but he skillfully milked it for all it was worth only to find that he couldn't stop it as easily as he'd started it. He pulled out for entirely selfish reasons (a prior engagement), didn't care what it meant for either his partner or the show and had the nerve to portray himself as a martyr, falling on his sword.

I've waited a year to get that off my chest - does it show?

For what it's worth, I rather warmed to Mr Jordan this year - in inverse proportion to my cooling affection for his wife.

LOL at you John! You hid that well - I never guessed!

I am surprised though that you are cooling towards Ola!

I didn't see the series with Georgina partnering James, so perhaps that's why I've always liked him. To me, he's been nothing but great with his partners and I also think that he's one of the best pro dancers, in fact he's my favourite pro.

I really can't understand all the hate towards him, especially because most of it seems to be based on events that happened years ago. I'm sure that we've all done stupid things that we regret and have learned from them, but a lot of people won't give james another chance and I'm not sure why that would be!

I agree. I did see the series with Georgina - James' first series, and because she was lazy, yes, lazy, and he was keen and a hard task master (like miss whiplash) he got a bad name and people didn't like him. And i think he has lost votes and good ladies have gone out early because of it. But, the bottom line is, Georgina was bl**dy lazy - Anton once mentioned that she turned up to the group dance rehersals late and hung over!!! How rude is that?

I think SCD has moved on a bit since those days and everyone works exceedingly hard.

Agree totally with all of this.
I was so angry with JS for the way he dismissed Kristina's feelings in that interview - it was all 'ME, ME, ME' that night - it was after all her first series of SCD and that was the outcome for her.
I will admit though that when I saw her tears this year too I thought she must be a perpetual 'bubbler'


I definitely would

I'm not sure about the humility (my fave women this year were Natalie and Jade) but the number one trait is being genuine - that, rightly or wrongly, put me off Laila because I began to see her as a 'player' rather than genuine.

p.s. Has Laila turned up anywhere yet?


I wouldn't like to see that type of female get far I have to say - Lisa made me squirm for all females

I agree with JfW too (except for the bit about Ola


I think you have a point there.
If James had made the comment in any other series re 'voting for the dancing' it would not have caused any hooha - the only problem with it was his timing.
I really admire his work ethic though - amongst other things

*shrugs*

If he's a smooth operator, well sobeit! However, I'm do know I'm not alone in feeling sympathy for someone who entered a dance competition for fun which ended up with his wife receiving threatening phone calls. I was more furious when I heard that, than I ever could be for him leaving the competition. But, hey ho if it keeps the masses entertained let's all start making nasty phone calls to competitors we think aren't worthy to dance on our screens.

Hi Buddy

I wouldn't say people who felt sympathy for John were gullible in the same way I wouldn't claim those who took James' side in the matter were.

It just depends on how you interpreted the events as they unfolded.

I didn't like the campaign the judges started against JS. It was relentless and unprofessional. That's mainly why I felt sorry for the guy.

Equally, I didn't like being told by James that I should vote for the better dancer one year only to see him back the weaker dancer in the final the next (just because he was his wife's partner).

I wish John hadn't pulled out the competition. I think he let his fans down when he did that. And I'm sure James has learnt from the whole debacle.

I reckon there were faults on both sides though. Neither man behaved impeccably.

I agree that both men were at fault to some degree or perhaps more accurately they percieved things differently. I think we forget sometimes we're not dealing with heroes and villians but real people with good points and bad points.

I think JS entered the competition for a bit of fun and then quit when it ceased to be so for him and perhaps more importantly his wife whom was being harassed. However I think he's far from the bullied poor guy that some of his supporters believe him to be - we're talking about a political commentator who was probably brighter than most of the people on the show but as he said you pick your battles and if your wife's being harassed over a light entertainment show and it's no fun anymore then it's not worth carrying on with.

I didn't agree with a lot of what James said but Anton forfilled the cliche of saying the truth in jest - it's a career to the pros. Someone on Monkseal's blog said that the pros always look happier to win than the celebs and the reason isn't rocket science - dancing is the pros life and ultimately apart from possibly Anton whom I think is in it for the limelight at least partially these days the pros are there to win. It must have really grated on James that him and a lady whom at least on the ballroom side had a lot of talent had got kicked out the competition because the public were voting for a far inferior dance for the second year in a row. I don't think James is the sour bully his detrators think he is but he does have a temper and he lost it over the JS - not the smartest thing he ever did but he's learnt from it.

To be honest having really enjoyed this last series - even with all its ups and downs - I'd rather not look back any more at what was for me the worst series of SCD so far. I'm just so glad that series 6 didn't spoil what is one of my favourite TV shows.

I can't believe we have to wait another 9 months for the next series. Hey, ho!

I don't agree with this, never really had a problem with any of the celebrities/pros. I've always liked James Jordan & Ola for that matter so it didn't bother me that he got more air time on itt this year. James may have made mistakes in the past but that doesn't really bother me, he's still an excellent dancer and everyone deserves a second chance.

My opinion of James has definitely changed over the last couple of series. He seemed to take it all 'too seriously' at the start and didn't seem able to cope with the fact thathis celeb partners weren't always able to keep up with the choreography.

Gabby was the turning point for sure, but it was the way he was with Cherie, who obviously found it much harder that started to really turn public opinion back in his favour.

At that point, he was very much still the 'bad boy' but with this softer side showing through, which definitely won me over, as well as the fact that I started to be quite taken with looking at him too! I also thought he came across well on the Live tour early in the year.

This series, he really seems to have come into his own- his dancing in the group/ pro dances seems much more expressive and more Brendan-esque than I'd ever noticed before and I love the fact that we've got to see more of his personality through the ITT slots he was given. The only thing that upsets me is his lack of grammar at times, but that's just the teacher in me coming out! lol

I'm definitely a fan!

I've just noticed that James & Ola are two of the judges on Brian's Wheelchair dancing programme that's on BBC 3 later on this year.

But it wasn't a question of James being rude to JS .. though obviously he was .. James was rude to the voting public .. it is nothing to do with him who the public vote for .. if they are not voting for him it's because they don't like him, however good he dances.

He seems to have got that message now and is trying his hand at not being rude .. it slips out all the time though.

Not quite as rude as telling someone they need to lose weight!!

He actually got booed after his VT's ... I've never seen that happen before or since.

I'm not someone who believes the judges always know best and lord knows the dancers can be biased - cough Brendan Cole cough - but sometimes the public do make idiotic decisions (I still don't have a clue what possessed people to vote for Jan Ravens or Joe Calzage) and actually it kinda is his business because he gets voted out because of it. You should always be prepared to defend any voting decision you make and I'm sorry but if you're not prepared to be critised for it then you shouldn't do it. I voted for Mavia on meltdown week so I know what it is like to be called an idiot and I understand those who do it and can see the logic in what they say I just don't agree with it.

This.

Although, Brian did say that the Jordan's welcomed him into their home and 'looked after him' a bit so I guess they can't be all that bad I don't dislike James particularly but I don't like him as much as the others I'm afraid. Ola I'm pretty neutral on.

I have always liked James. But he did surprise me this year by seeming to be a complete natural in front of the camera. He made the midweek 'behind the scenes' item interesting and amusing every week. I hope he continues to do more presenting.

Me too

I never would have imagined James as Cinderella's fairy godmother either but that stint with the feather duster......