I'm guessing you'd like three new judges to sit alongside Len then as none of the others have any background in ballroom/latin dancing or judging

I watched Come Dancing and it got boring. There isn't a great deal of excitement watching the same thing week after week when there was no element of surprise involved in the dance routines.

In a revamp of Come Dancing, yes I would

Great dancing is never boring for me. The skill required is phenomenally more interesting that seeing people as graceful as baboons on acid being flung around the dancefloor. That's the difference between those of us who abhor the X Factor and people who just want something to laugh at on a Saturday night. It's the two warring sides to SCD's fanbase and I doubt it will die until the show dies. Which if Ann wins may be this year.

Sorry, I fail to see what X-Factor has to do with it at all, unless your implication is that I must watch it?

For what it's worth. Strictly Come Dancing is the only reality TV show I have ever watched and I don't even class it in the same category as any of the other mindless tat which fills up the other channels.

And, on top of that, Come Dancing didn't always have great dancing, at times it had excruciating bad dancing, especially when they started to bring in the spot where they featured a different style of dancing each week.

Granted but at least the people involved had skill and I'm sure were it to be revived, it would be more along the lines of the pro dances nowadays as opposed to the uber-cheesy 70s and 80s.

I wasn't implying anything about you. I was comparing the two different forms of reality shows there are nowadays - those that involve learning a skill and those that are there for nothing but mindless entertainment.

SCD is the only reality TV type in which people are learning a new skill though, which was why the comment confused me and why I drew the implication that if someone didn't vote for the "best" dancer, they must like crap reality TV.

I didn't mean to imply that at all.

As someone that hates all reality television and was only drawn into Strictly because it required the contestants to learn something difficult and I love to see people learn to dance and dance well, I do get quite sad when it see it falling into the trap of entertainment over substance. That's why the Ann's and the John Sergeant's annoy me. But I accept not everyone thinks the way I do. I just can't and won't be swayed from what I think about it.

While I dislike Ann and don't feel she is giving the right commitment to it, I don't think it's fair to accuse John Sergeant of the same thing. He did put 100% into it and dance isn't just for the young and uber fit

But not all the contestants can be Kara's or Scott's.

They are all of different ages, fitness levels and starting abilities.

John Sergeant was always going to find Strictly more of a challenge. But he had a go and showed that you can be of a mature age and not especially fit and still learn to dance. That's a great message to send out to people/

I like that there's something for everyone. I wouldn't want the show to become just for the dancing elite.

Well said Sid.

Thanks

But that's where there is a difference. As someone said before, John was making an effort and Anne isn't!

There are only so many times you can watch someone being picked up and plopped into place or dragged along the floor.

Then I think we need to redefine the word "legitimately".

Never occurred to you than an awful lot of people can only watch BBC if they pay a TV licence or hefty TV cable fee?
So it's their money being lavished on a Strictly show being totalled by a well-off retired Tory politician who couldn't care a gnat's sneeze.

I would not put John Sergeant in the same bucket as the yellow object.

First of all, John did put in some decent routines, and the ONLY really dud move we remember him for (dragging his partner along the floor in a Paso) happened after he had delivered several other routines in previous weeks, a good Watlz and some other fairly passable dances, and he took the competition sufficiently seriously to refuse to allow the joke voting to continue.

BBC producers who encourage this female to play up for laughs are more worried about something stupid called ratings than they are about anything else. SCD's slide downhill is badly timed - there are better contestants than usual this year, bar the three first exits and She Who Must Not Be Named.

Next year everybody will be required to dance a Lindy Hop wearing wellies.

Not for some people...

... apparently it's absolutely hilarious every single time :sleep::yawn:

John then walked out on his contract and his phone voters. Admire his effort but not his ending.

Let's return to Come Dancing zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

NOT!

Strictly has got more people dancing than Come Dancing ever did or could. People see all sorts of people having a go. Some don't get it and never will be any good as dancers, but there are lots of people like that who are now going to dance classes. Some have danced for years and are still less than average, but they enjoy themselves. some Januarys since SCD started have brought 70, 80, 90 people to beginers classes at the dance school I go to. All the time that Strictly does that it is good in my book. I have even started a class at work in the lunch break which has had nearly a third of the staff in the office turn up. It's only basic stuff but if it gets more people dancing then that is fine by me.

Thats a good idea, and they can take Len Goodman too.
i like to see some good dancing in the show, but I also like the not so serious side too, I dont really care who wins.....as they have all entertained me, Though my personal favourites are kara and Scott.

Now that Strictly has encouraged more people to take up dancing though, I do think there would be more people interested in seeing proper ballroom and latin dance competitions on the tele, in addition to Strictly.

We already have So You Think You Can Dance, that proved very popular last year.

I never watched Come Dancing as a kid and Strictly introduced to me to a whole new world of spangle. As someone who did the whole kiddie ballet and tap thing, I've got interested in the technical side of things and so I have to trawl youtube to find competition footage and usually it's not great resolution. There's a lot of comment here about how the salsa, ATs, paso's, sambas etc are not proper ones, so it would be nice to see some 'official' versions. I know the there's some stuff on ITT, but (judging by what I've read on here) I'm not sure how seriously I can take that info. No one's advocating a return to the 80's (... recession, strikes, war, bad haircuts and batwings... oh ).

The BBC when they only had two channels was right to remove "Come Dancing" when they did, because of the poor ratings.
How much of that was due to deliberately constantly "kicking it around the schedules until aficionados got tired of looking for it" is a matter for a debate into which I don't want to get.
Maybe because it was a bit "too middle class?"
However, given the low ratings now for some of the crap they put on channels now they've got the four which they are really unable to afford to fill, there may be a case. But there would be all sorts of problems.

But, personally, I'd rather they stopped messing with SCD and took out some of the "ratings chasing elements" which constantly spoil it.

That depends on your definition of propper. From it's people out on a Saturday night having a good time dancing, socialising no matter how well or badly they dance. Competition dancing is much more like cabaret to me. I'm a social dancer and that is what I like to see. Strictly is very complete cabaret as it is unlikely that any of the men could cope with a social dance floor, and they would find a lot of elbows if they used the floor the way the do on the show.

Come Dancing was so boring to watch, and then there is the commentry about all the sequins that they sewed on themselves.

I hope Strictly continues to inspire people for a few more years.

A few people have referred to him walking out on his contract and voters.
He walked out because he realised that better dancers than him were being knocked out and with his fanbase, he could have potentially won.
That is called having a concious!

So, he had lots of people voting for him. I should think a lot of his votes were protest votes against the judges.

As for his contract. That was his concern and wouldn't effect the general public.

The main point of contention for some of his voters is that he left before they got what they wanted, which was to give a big ya boo sucks to the judges because they dared to comment on the celebrities dancing ability!

Totally agree.

In fact having some poor dancing celebs gives people the confidence to have a go and not feel a fool.

I'm a social dancer too, but while I find it very enjoyable to do I don't think it's that interesting to watch. I love it when we get competition-level caberets for our May Ball!

I would definitely be interested to see competitions televised, not necessarily a format like Come Dancing, but footage of say, the Blackpool Festival.

Sure about that?

I don't know that a single show can affect the public mood. I suspect it's more a case that more people were taking up partner dancing anyway, and that Strictly capitalised on this change.

At most, Strictly has helped this trend along, but I think the trend in the UK was there anyway, and had been building since the 1990s.