News articles this morning are reporting that this year's Christmas special won't have returning celebs, but will instead be a one-off mini-tournament for celebs who are too busy to commit to the long run of the show itself.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s104/...s-special.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/...5875-22574308/


I don't think this is a bad idea actually, a lot of the favourites from previous series have already done a Christmas special or two, and it would be interesting to see how much people can actually learn in 2 weeks!

All the pros who make it far this year will be automatically excluded though - there's no way anyone rehearsing 2 dances for the quarter-final and beyond (or even training their celeb for the week before QF) would have time to train another celeb for a Christmas special, especially as training time is only 2 weeks. So the pro line-up will have to be taken from those who are knocked out early this year, and possibly from the dance troupe as it doesn't say otherwise. Would be nice to see the pros who don't get a long run this year given another chance to compete, rather than piling a lot more work on those still in the competition near the end!

I like this idea too. Obviously the standard of dancing may not be too great if they only have two weeks training but it will take the pressure off the dancers still in the competition and give the professionals who are eliminated early or those in the dance troupe or maybe even past professionals a chance to train another celeb. Who would people like to see in this year's Christmas special?

I will watch the Christmas Special, but I've got mixed feelings about this idea.

Apart from in 2005, the couples who dance in the Christmas Special have usually finished in the top 4 of a series and can produce a decent performance (Kelly is the exception having finished 6th with a reason). I'm not sure I'd prefer to see performances based on less than 2 weeks training - no matter who the celeb is. We could end up watching 'all froth and no substance', instead of seeing the better couples from a more than one series going head to head.

On the fence.

This bit hardly inspires me to want to watch:


Sorry, can't abide Sharon O, and the less that the BBC has to do with Peter Andre (and Katie P) the better.

Another questionable change.

I think it sounds awful. How many of the celebs are that watchable after only two weeks' practice? Hardly any. If they don't want current or past celebs, they should either not have a special, or just have a special of pro dances only.

I do have an inkling that could be involved in this. Just based on something I heard third hand, but I think there's an outside chance.
Oi!

How many of those celebs from the top 4 have we not already been in a Christmas Special though? It's only Chris Parker, Julian Clary and Laila Rouass who have finished in the top 4 in a series and never competed in a Christmas Special, and not many people would say they really should be in this year's!

So I can see why they're trying something different, otherwise the Christmas Specials would become too repetitive, if they haven't become so already (Jill & Darren and Darren & Lilia have both won 2 already). We've already seen all the better couples go head to head, the only way to do so again in a different way would be to pit all 7 champions against each other.

They're doing 2 weeks focused' rehearsals on one dance, which is more than the celebs get in a normal series (with the exception of preparing for week 1) - by QF time they're doing 2 new dances in a week, in which there are still a lot of technical points which differ from any other dance, especially SF week, for instance. So I don't think it would necessarily be all froth and no substance, at least it would be a show that the celebs concerned were focusing on, rather than an afterthought, which is what the current Christmas special is as the celebs are rightly concentrating on the show itself, or are so tired after it. That's why current series' celebs rarely win the Christmas Special....

Don't get me wrong, I like the Christmas Specials, but they're usually a foregone conclusion once the line-up is known, and a different format might be a good thing for once! What I'd really love to see is a champion of champions event though

With only 2 weeks training, I can't see this will be any different than week 1 of any normal series.... boring!

With only two weeks training I think it will be a total nightmare.
I love seeing the ex celebs competing against the current celebs.

I would like to see a real Christmas special - one in which the top 3 from scd dance against the top 3 from dwts (not the "also-rans" as they did once before)!!! With a British audience voting, the Strictly lot would almost undoubtedly win, but the dancing could be interesting.

I don't like this. The celebs we'll have been watching and supporting - for weeks - who did have the time, and did have the energy - will no longer have the chance to appear in our homes in a special programme on Christmas Day It's always been something I've looked forward to.
I want the ones who are toiling away right now to get the special christmas dances, not some zzeleb I couldn't care less about who can manage a few days from their hectic schedule. It won't mean anything to me.

I don't think it's a questionable change but I complete agree with you about the potential lineup!

I agree with this.

It would mean a Christmas Special without any finesse or fine tuning.
Think of week 2 in a series and that is the standard of dancing we'll be shown on Christmas Day!

I'd rather the couples we've gotten to know - even if it's a dance we've already seen - in a more relaxed and fun-filled program.

I agree. If the BBC want to change it that much, they might as well just cancel the Christmas Show. I would prefer to see currrent semi-finalists and previous favourites.

Yeah, forgot to add that, I don't like the sound of that line-up! As an idea I don't mind it, but if it's going to be that line-up, then keep the format as it was!

And in a way celebs getting 2 weeks to train with a pro is nothing new - several have competed with different pros on the Christmas special than they did in their respective series.

As much as I don't like the sound of these changes I don't think the standard shown in Xmas specials previously has been very good at all or ever has been as the recording has been squeezed in while the finalists still try to rehearse for the real final.

One example that springs to mind is when Alesha and Matt did their Cha Cha on the Xmas special in 2007 - it was essentially the same as her Beyonce Cha Cha, just a bit more laboured and under rehearsed, but of course the judges love it BECAUSE ITS CHRISTMAS! It really annoys me. The only Xmas special I've enjoyed has been 2005 when it was a live show. Maybe the new changes could be a good thing to freshen things up.

x x x x x

Why can't they bring back older contestants? Mark & Karen, Darren & Lilia, Tom & Camilla, Zoe & Ian and Jill & Darren would all be perfect since none of the pros are competing anymore

From the article.

"A one-off Christmas tournament gives celebs the chance to taste a bit of Strictly glamour without committing to the full run," a source said. "We're hopeful that big names who don't have the time or the energy to work on a series might have two weeks. Their families can see them strutting their stuff on Christmas Day."


Give the celebs the chance to taste Strictly glamour?
Give the celebs' families the chance to see them perform?

I'm starting to wonder who the show is intended for, them or us.

I've always fancied the idea of a 'Champion of Runners up' special- Chris Parker, Denise Lewis, Colin Jackson, Matt Dawson, Matt di Angelo, Rachel Stevens and Ricky Whittle. It would actually be really decent quality, with a bit of comedy from Chris.

Dancing on Ice did a Xmas special a couple of years ago, which was quite different. They had 6 competing couples, which they divided into two teams of three. Each couple was given individual marks which went to the team score and it was a winning team rather than an individual winner. That could be quite good: team winners against team runners-up or team series X against team series Y or something like that.

I don't really care what series the celebs come from or whether or not they dance with their original pro partner, as long as they are decent enough dancers. Darren & Lilia were not even in last year's special and I doubt if Lilia will be this year.

The first Christmas special was called Champions of Champions and had couples from series 1 & 2 - predictably Darren & Lilia won. I would love to see a real Champions of Champions show where past winners competed for the title, but then we hit the problem of the pros who have left the show.

I also think that each couple should be allowed to choose their dance, rather than being told what they are dancing. Who cares if that means more Latin than Ballroom, or if we see more than one couple dancing the same dance? When you've just got one dance to do, then a couple should at least be allowed to choose a dance they are strong at.

I'm not keen on watching performances based on less than two weeks training, because then the dance a couple is allocated will have as much to do with who wins as anything else.

Both of these ideas are better than what is being proposed. I don't know how many viewers the Christmas Special gets, but I wouldn't like anyone watching the show as a one off to think they are watching the kind of standard we see on the regular show.

I'm off the fence - I don't like the idea!

Yay Buddy, sitting on fences can get quite uncomfortable

Like the idea of the runners up Christmas show, send it to the powers that be at the BEEB

I'm with the 'don't like it' camp too. I don't want to see Show 1 level dancing on the Christmas Special.

Maybe they should just do away with it altogether and allow the use of Christmas tunes in the main show once we are into December.

I am always a bit underwhelmed watching the Christmas Special, the routines from the current celebs are always the same as they did in the main competition but to different music.

It is almost always celebs from a few series back that I prefer, such as Zoe and Ian's rumba a couple of years ago, and Jill and Darren's AS. Also I loved Aled's 'Walking in the Air' samba, another example of Lilia's choreographing magic

Ooops..... sorry.

Of course, for clarification, I was referring to Katie Price,

for me that was one of the most beautifully choreographed routines of any series