Maybe that constituted the real reason that she was binned.

Fair enough, her contract is a commercial deal eligible for renewal year by year with either party able to say no thanks, not a commitment till death us do part.

If there were grounds for surprise, then it would stem from the saccharine publicity justifying her arrival -- that as an ex-winner she absolutely adores Strictly like a family and could never stay away. It is now time for her agent to say she adores XFactor the chief rival even more.

Is it just me who thinks it would be breathtakingly rude? After all the fracas and trouble her role caused, and now she swans off to the other side, after being single-handedly saved by SCD? I won't be sad to see her go, Alesha always used to be my favourite contestant ever, but she actually comes across as a rather fake personality.

You could argue this both ways. It is true Brucie went out on a limb defending her in SCD7 when she was at her lowest. So did the other 3 judges, and even some of the pro dancers while others had daggers drawn.

But the emollient, cherishing Alesha in SCD8 who disarmed critics and pleased fans by giving generous marks while withholding sharp opinions, was that the true Alesha? For years to come does she really want to count to ten then not to say what comes naturally?

On XF she could be true to herself ("you was wicked" whenever she likes ). True a vote of thanks is owed to her defenders. But that defence did not truly change the public view towards her, i.e. it did not work. The public view changed when she decided to morph herself to placate the public.

I actually agree with that.

I don't think she is a good judge and won't be sad to see her leave, but for her to join xfactor after everything that happened, and the BBC supporting her throughout the unfair backlash does seem a bit..weird.

I've also seen this about Claudia doing The Xtra Factor?

http://xfactor.tellymix.co.uk/2011/n...ra-factor.html

Think she would leave Strictly? I hope not!

Shows that the producers are not fit for purpose for recruiting Alesha in the first place. If they are that integeral to the job then why is it they make those mistakes? feels the viewers really aren't being cared for as well as we'd like to be. It's not just Alesha that the BBC made a mistake about, it's other different things like the dance troupe, getting rid of top pros (Darren, Lilia, Ian, Nicole, Karen and Hayley), keeping Anton and Erin and short results programmes. BBC are going to have to listen to us fans more. Also they seem to have no desire in even trying to beat XF in the NTA'S. Seem to think the show is in the comfort zone which it isn't at all.

It seems if BBC are not careful and if Director-General Mark Thompson has this uncaring attitude towards us fans that SCD will have the plug put on it. I do bit want that to happen for a million years and would be gutted if it was the case. All he seems to be into is the business side of SCD and the contracts. SCD needs to be edited in a far less misleading picture and I for one would love it if they could return to the way it was before. No dance troupe, judges who knew what they were talking about and proper results shows instead of filler or the silly half hour stuff.

It's not too much to ask the producers and the show used to have credibility and where has that gone dare I not ask? I'd also approve if they are doing Sunday night results shows that they do it live and not recorded. Also to have the phone numbers for a longer period of time so BBC import more money into the business. As well as that I'd approve it if Brucie if he is coming back didn't go off on silly little tangents like he does because that spoils the show as well.

Overall a fantastic show still but needs to do better; they also need to reach out to us the audience more otherwise SCD if it's not careful will be dead in the water and I dint want that to happen at all. We want success and success in bucketloads.

There reports are flying everywhere.

I would laugh if Alesha doesnt actually get th XF job. I must say I am surprised that Simon is hiring her. I thought he would have went for a bigger name or someone with a big personality like Lily Allen. I guess nobody wants that role these days as it does take a lot of your time.

I'd be very disappointed if Claudia left ITT. It must be difficult for her with all her commitments as ITT is on every day Monday to Friday and then she co-presents the Results show on a Sunday (if they use the same format), but she is so good on ITT it would be a real shame to lose her.

Not bothered about Alesha going, to be honest. I loved her in Series 5 but not sure about her judging capabilities.

Her time is up on SCD.

Agreed.

She's not to blame for the 'fracas and trouble', she accepted a job and that's all there is to it. Of course she's going to say she loves SCD, and I'm sure she does, she clearly loved competing in it. But simply loving the programme is not a reason for staying, if taking the X Factor job makes commercial sense to her, which it seems to do in more ways than one, then that's what she should do. It's not rude, it's business - the entertainment industry is cut-throat at the best of times and I don't think anyone should be demeaning her for taking the most of the opportunities she gets in a career that generally has a very limited lifespan. She's been lucky to be in the limelight for pretty much a decade, she knows she won't get many more big offers before she's deemed to have come to the end of her shelf life in the industry, so imo she'd be pretty silly not to take the offer.


The producers care about ratings, the show is still getting good ratings. What the core fanbase who care about the show enough to discuss it and actively support particular performers think about the show is irrelevant as long as it still gets decent ratings, and nothing will change that. The majority of viewers are casual viewers, and unless the show makes drastic changes that go wrong, the casual viewer will still watch, and the producers will stay on cloud 9!

Shows what sandwiches the BBC eat then lol.

She can go, and go soon.

Dislike her immensley as a judge.

I agree with you - again IMO AD is going to come out of this looking bad - Cowell was not impressed with how the BBC treated Arlene (they are mates) he (rather his team) could be setting AD up to fail - my bet is that he will want the all the Girls Aloud girl - however all these rumours circulating about AD will make a return to SCD well, shall we say uncomfortable to say the least

I believe that SCD damaged AD pop career and if she does leave (which fingers crossed she does) I hope she can revive that

If she does go (fingers crossed) I will wait to see if they mention her again - after Arlene's departure her name was never mentioned again!!!! I personally think Cowell is etting her up to fail

This story continuing makes me think that either [1] ITV is rattled by SCD's resurgence last year and wants to undermine it somehow - and, despite some opinions on here, losing Alesha to TXF would be a blow to the BBC, not least to its heavily policed 'diversity' policy; or [2] Simon Cowell is using Alesha to generate more publicity for himself, and actually has no intention of poaching her - leaving her back where she started from but having kind of praised TXF over SCD.

Either way, I'd fully expect it to be strung out for as long as possible - Cowell is a shameless self-publicist and will want to generate as much media coverage as possible ... :yawn:

And no, we SO don't want Arlene back!

In terms of the whole Arlene/Alesha-gate, it seems like such wasted energy.

As for what it will do for SCD in the long-run, we wont know until it's made clear where that leaves the juging panel. Would they just leave Len, Craig and Bruno and have 3 judges only, or would they replace her?

If, indeed, they do replace her, who could they replace her with? The fact they replaced her with Arlene shows it's a possibility they could just as easily replace her with somebody with equally as little knowledge about dance. Ex-contestants that have had "The Strictly Experience" but very little ballroom/latin dance experience on a whole, or an outsider (alas Darcy Bussell) that, hopefully, will have more experience and expertise.

Yes, I'd happily see the back of Alesha, but not if it means we're given somebody as bad or worse as a replacement.

Yes she'd obviously be well qualified to do the job and would be a new face for the majority of UK viewers.

No indeed! If she comes back I'll slit my wrists. It's bad enough having to put up with her on SYTYCD.

This.

I would miss Alesha, but if she goes and we end up with Karen Hardy I won't cope! I'd only be able to listen to Craig, and would have to mute the rest. Camilla I could cope with, Erin would be better.

Has she deffo got the job then?

What a **** up by Simon. He should have got someone better. The show will be a bore with Gary, Danni, Louis and Alesha.

^ ^ ^ Alesha can jog on and SCD can have proper people on the panel.

As I recall, Arlene has done her share of badmouthing SCD in the press over the last year, so I doubt that the producers would even consider it.