As yet, the official line up has not been confirmed, so let’s ignore the last series’ judges as it’s irrelevant to this discussion and assume a clean sweep. What qualities do you think a SCD judge should have? Considering we all pay our TV license and pay to vote for our dancers, we have a right to question the qualities brought by the judging panel who try to influence our choices. What do you look for in a SCD judge? Would you alter the sex mix, say two female/two male – what impact if any would that have?

My own prerequisites: Technical dance knowledge (yes, it’s an entertainment show but, stating the obvious, built around teaching dance)/eloquent vocabulary (not just one word responses)/personable (not arrogant)/empathy and respect for their audience/history in the dance world (some mileage in the field they are judging)/charisma (they have to have some spark to justify being on a prime time tv show, especially if we are going down the red carpet vibe celeb route)/respect (for the technicality of the dance, the experience of the pro dancers, their celeb dancers and their audience – don’t belittle or treat them like idiots).

Ideal judging panel: My choice would be Len/Craig/Shirley Ballas/Karen Hardy.

Someone who knows what they're talking about! And I would only have Len if he stopped flying to the USA every week and therefore gets more and more bad tempered as the series goes on.

^^^

The above describes Karen Hardy to a T.

I don't think it matters much any more tbh. If the last few series are anything to go by the public tend to completely go against what the judges say/think anyway.

Having said that, given a choice, I'd love Karen Hardy to be on the panel for the reasons that the OP has already mentioned.

In my world, for the first week, I'd have Len, Craig, Bruno and Arlene would be re-instated.

Then each week after that, the eliminated pro-dancer should be on the judging panel.

Unfortunately, what WE want has no influence whatsoever on who they choose.

If they were starting out now, they probably wouldn't choose Len. After all, he would be unknown to anyone outside the dance world.

Deciding you would want XXXX (or NOT want YYYY) is a sure route to disappointment - so why bother?

JJ the eternally cynical

Going against your services 80's Queen - that's not a bad idea!

Judges: Articulate, fun, knowledgeable and impartial!

The OP is spot on I think.

My ideal judging panel would be Craig, Len, Karen and Lilia.




Having the eliminated pro dancer on the panel isn't a bad idea either though - instead of Arlene though, could we have Claudia first week, just for the comedy seeing as a lot of people dance badly week 1 anyway!

I want to see Sid on the panel

And I wouldn't be happy until I was made head judge.

Well poor Claudia can't see can she?! Mind you she'd still be in a better position to judge than Alesha.

oooh thanks heyjude - I may contemplate changing my services now

I've changed my mind, I now vote for this!!!!!

However Sid you would have to be impartial - even with Vincent!!

Would you reconsider if I promised to make you my second in command Jude?

She'll be able to see perfectly after her operation. I wonder how it went?

Judges need to be knowledgeable but also need to be entertaining and have a sense of humour and fun, which unfortunately rules out a whole lot of professional dancers!

But I'd definitely keep Len because he really does know what he's talking about.... dancewise, he has been there; done it and taught it.

I'd also keep Craig because he knows more about bb & Latin than given credit for, and because you never really know what he is going to say next!

I would definitely get rid of Bruno who knew absolutely nothing about ballroom dancing when he started on the panel, and knows even less now; and his stupid antics drive me nuts.

I would replace Bruno with a guy called Nicky Miles - dancers will know who I mean. He's got a great personality, and like Len really knowledgeable.

Karen Hardy as judge? No, not for me. Keeping it in the danceworld, I'd like to see Denise Weavers who was good 10-dancer.

I think i would like to see the judging panel go like this:

Craig, Len, and then Karen Hardy OR Shirley Ballas.

I think three judges would be fine. I actually don't mind Bruno but if i had to get rid of somebody (and i do cos we have to have a female on board ) then it would be him. Craig is my favourite and Len annoys me but i think this would be my perfect set up.

For Saturday night entertainment I think they have quite a good mix as they are. If they wanted ballroom and latin judges in the first place, they could have got them instead of the likes of Bruno and Craig who are there for the way they put their point across in an entertaining way. Come Dancing went off the screen years ago because it lost viewers and the last thing the BBC want is to repeat that, so I can't see it overloading the judges bench with proffessional dancers and judges.

Honest answer? I don't care in the slightest who judges the show. At all. There are people I'd *rather* were on the panel than others, but as long as it's a light entertainment/reality show then they can have four random people off the street as far as I care.

I couldn't be second in command Sid, I know next to nothing, happy in the audience

Which is why you need to keep on trying to get judges the voters will follow. The problem is that the voting public acts like a whole series of groups and at times the SCD result looks as if its voted for by the BNP or a group of 5 year old anarchists or even at times robots who follow any comment that fits their biases regardless of how out of date or wrongheaded it was. There's no point in having any judge if they are not listened to and its difficult to predict who will be. Alesha was only partly successful in getting rid of some of the deadwood in the last series and the result was still what we saw. Emma Bunton did better geting rid of the DOI deadwood with a nicely concealed barb or two and that show managed o get more or less its best people to the end. Ruthie Henshall was vastly more qualified than either and had little impact.

Well clearly Sid would have to be head judge. Then get the original 4 judges back. The ones who actually know about dancing!!!

I don't actually mind the current set up (but i could happily lose Bruno in faavour of another professional judge) Len is the technical judge, Craig is the performance judge, Alesha is the ex-competitor judge.... We could do with another technical judge rather than a performance one...

What I would like all of them to do however is have an objectivity reminder.....

1. There is no need to resort to insults or personal remarks to get your point across - animal allegories are fine but don't choose ugly or nasty ones, all insults etc do is get up the viewrs noses and they will vote against you to support the insulted dancer.

2. Constructive criticism is fine - just keep it constructive, and give the pro dancers PROPER direction on what they need to work on with their celeb - again DESTRUCTIVE criticism gets up the viewers noses....... soundbites are not deemed to be constructive comments.

3. Judge fairly and objectively - don't ignore mistakes made by favoured couples then pick up the SAME mistake being made by a less favoured one. Let's face it if the viewers at home can clearly see one celeb being repeatedly pulled up for "gurning" (Chris Hollins), whilst another's gurning is ignored (Ricky Whittle), that will get up noses as well...

4. Don't artificially put favoured couples up the leaderboard by overmarking them in relation to others. Marks should be awarded fairly and the same penalties applied to ALL competitors - if they make a mistake - mark them down, if they don't mark them up!

5 Use the full range of marks from 1-10 (but only 1-8 in the early weeks - no one is that brilliant in week 1 that they deserve 9s) - in the early stages celeb's dancing only merits low marks - too high too soon leaves them nowhere to go, and shows the public who your favourites are too early on.

Thats the best post I have read on here for ages!!!!!!!!!

I wonder if someone can hand a copy of these points to all the judges before the show starts.

That gurning/ignoring mistakes thing really got to me last year too.

If the judges were more impartial, the voting public wouldn't be so antagonistic in its voting, and the best dancers would always get to the latter stages. The way that things are currently basically means its a battle for supremacy between the judges on one side and the voting GP on the other.

Words of wisdom!!

BBC Management Team AND Judges - read and inwardly digest.

JJ

I know there's a show to announce the compeititors and partners but I'd like to know why the BBC are dragging their feet over announcing who the judges are going to be. Why don't they just get on with it?!!!