Poor music has been right up there for me too and reading between the lines, it sounds like the pros have been given music to dance to each week far more than before, particularly for the themed weeks. When Brendan was on Zoe's radio show the other week, he said every week each pros still dancing with a celeb meets with Nikki (director?) from the show to discuss the music and sometimes Nikki is fine with the pro's choice of music, but sometimes they will be told Moira (Ross?) wants them to use a particular piece of music and he added you don't argue with Moira Ross! I think we can guess when Moira has chosen the music.

Me too! Sounds like we're a bunch of eternal optimists!

Moira quit to do the Voice next year, so hopefully the music will improve then. There's nothing wrong with classic music; it sets a mood.

Yeah, but there are two clear, objective problems with this year, which are not the usual "Oooh, it's the Day Strictly Died" rubbish.

Firstly, the music choices have been particularly .... interesting ... this year. For example, "I'm still standing" - a track used to great effect for Jive previously - for salsa? In fact, the only dance that has so far escaped Music Madness this year is the Argentine Tango.

Secondly, the celebs aren't very good - or, there are no real "stars" amongst them - in comparison to previous series.

Last year, we had Matt Baker, Scott Maslen and Kara Tointon. All of whom were better than any of the top tier in this year. In 2009, we had Ricky Whittle for ability and Chris Hollins for performance. And so on.

I mean, we can whinge about other factors, but those two are clearly inferior to previous years, based on fairly objective criteria.

Absolutely spot on. Your comments, that is. Right in every respect. A very shoddy celeb. crowd this year allied with shoddy, gawdy and noisy production techniques. Very off-putting.

Ah, but this year we have Pasha!

Clinching argument!

Oh yes they do!

I was going to write something, but I would have just written the same, so I'll quote
A couple of friends agreed with my idea of bringing back "Come Dancing" as we'd probably watch now. SCD is turning into itv programming.

I think it's become a victim of its own success. Expectations are so high that it will deliver 'bigger and better' each year, but that is hugely dependent on the quality of the celebs, both in terms of their dance ability and likeability.

Maybe I've just been watching for too long and have become jaded, but there have been no 'wow' dances for me during this series or last. There have been a couple of 'nearlies' - "that could have been great if only..." but nothing that has made me rush to Youtube and watch again.

I do think this series has suffered from a lack of structure. I much preferred the one-Latin-one-ballroom format, with newer dances like the Argentine Tango and Charleston being saved for quarter/semi final stage.

There must be a fair few runners-up from previous series wishing they were dancing this year instead - on past form they'd walk it!

Hopefully now the Ross woman is leaving we can have a decent show back, although I'm not holding my breath . I suspected the management were interfering with the pro's choices of music, they have made a pig's ear of everything this year. The whole series is scrappy, hardly any ballroom dancing, just week after week of poor show dancing, and the choice of Wembley was in Craig's immortal words " a disaaaaaster darling"

Its gone for the x-factor audience - major glitz, crappy VTs, fake arguments between the judges, screaming audiences, booing the judges etc.
Bleurgh - ruined a good program.
Tabloid TV!!!!

I very much agree with your comments Pet Monkey.

I agree that this series isn't as great for me as previous series - but I think that has a lot to do with things outside the celeb dancers and pro dancers control. For example, I hate the supposed (!) comedy VTs and I hate the judges having arguments and being rude to the contestants. I noticed on Saturday night (correct me if I'm wrong) but it seemed like Len was really rude to Harry, saying he had a nasty look or sometimes. Now I'm sorry but Harry is the opposite of a rude/sullen contestant so I don't know what Len was going on about. And that is just one example where Len has gone too far - that 'sod' moment with Craig was awful. So in actual fact, it is really just Len that I have disliked on the judging panel. On a positive note, I think Alesha has improved greatly (in terms of comments not over marking!) and Craig really does make some interesting observations about the technical side.

So.. excuse my rambling, but yes i think it's not so much the contestants fault. I think there are some really interesting characters this year and a mixture of dance talent that is always interesting. i don't think we have any dancer that is the full package like a Kara or an Alesha but you cant have that every year. I think chelsee had the potential to be that but lacks self confidence and training time. How she has got this far doing waterloo road too I have no idea.

As a final point (sorry to go on!) I think Chelsee and Pasha are a good example of how bloody terrible these comedy vts are. On saturday night they had a cringe worthy vt that did not in any way demonstrate the great rapport they have. Whereas if you had watched their interview on ITT during the week, they were hilarious and natural and it showed what a great partnership they have. This would usually come across in their training vt on a saturday night, so without the training vt I don't think we are getting a clear perception of the couples' relationships which I think is a fatal flaw for this season of the show.

I also watch very little TV and look forward to Strictly every year. I am still watching although every week seems to be more disappointing than the last.

I think they need to get back to basics teaching the celebs technique the first few weeks (stick to two dances a week) rather than the razzmatazz of themes so early on. No one improves when their technique is not being developed. Do the launch show 6 weeks earlier to give them time to learn the basics.

The judges need to stick to the rules from the off, not make them up as they go along.

And lastly the music has been particularly awful this year.
I really believe you need the right music to feel a dance and that is why there have been so few good dances.

I hope the new producer takes a step back to what made Strictly so popular in the first place.

No, it's very definitely got worse, there may have been criticisms of some individuals - Chris Parker in series one for example, but overall the series' themselves weren't criticised.

Precisely. Yet anothe TV programme made to appeal to the Lowest Common Denominator. Everything is being dumbed down nowadays, including our education system (but that's another thread).

Sorry, but who said there was something wrong with classical music?

I don't want Come Dancing back, just the producers to stop stage managing so much more than they used to, for example -

1. The pros start choosing their own music again
2. A return to only two dances every week in the first half of the series
3. Alternate Latin and Ballroom dances each week
4. Make sure at some point each couple goes first/second and second last/last, etc.
5. Make sure the judges apply the rules e.g. amount of relevant content, illegal lifts, time spent in hold, etc.

Then judges wouldn't argue so much and the celebs don't really matter if the rest is right because the ones we don't know, we get to know as time goes on.

Moira Ross did some good things, but now the show is being strangled by the producers trying to control every little thing.

I agree but unfortunately with the ratings up, I don't see much changing!

DWTS is sooo much better. Better amatuer dancers (Go Rickie!), sets, music, camera work.
Everything. Even the audiance is more glamorous, although somewhat noisy.

I have always wondered about that with America shows because with other US chats shows the audience (in large part) all look very... what's the word?... madeup...(that's probably not the word at all). E.g. on Ellen Degneres it's like every single audience member has had a makeover and is groomed within an inch of their life before they are seen fit to be apart of a studio audience. I don't watch DWTS so don't know if they are glam or not but it certainly seems to be common on US tv in general that the audience look...?.. more than just presentable. Wonder if this is just a US tv code or something because here in the UK we don't seem to care how our public look on tv lol I think US TV in general is glam anyway because it's very important for everyone and everything on tv there to look good and slick. That's their image to the world and has been a succesful selling point for them for many years.

As for Strictly, it has PLENTY of flaws (this and last year particulalry) but not so many (and un-fixable) enough for me to never watch it again. I think dreadful is a slightly harh comment, esp as that is a term I'd give to a show like Jeremy Kyle where there is nothing of note to watch on that programme.

But that's yet another American programme and, if possible, I steer well clear of them, apart, that is, from the occasional cinema film.

Normally I would just say they are two different shows, but personally I think from a dancing point of view, DWTS is better than SCD this year and I never thought I would say that.

The standard of dancing on SCD this year is so poor, that even taking into account the more relaxed rules on DWTS, loads of performances on DWTS would get higher marks on SCD than some of those we've seen on SCD (hope that makes sense).

DWTS always has a number of celebs who turn out to be good dancers, but I think the order of dances on SCD and the judges not being strict enough with the pros' choreography this year, are partly to blame for the low standard of dancing. Just my thoughts.

But if they do that, i.e. dumbing down to try and get a bigger audience, they will lose their core audience, it will cease to be a flagship programme and will become any old programme, catering for the masses. We shall all pay more for shoddy, so to speak !!
I think almost everyone on this excellent thread is saying much the same thing i.e. let's get back to the Strictly we loved, with proper ballroom and Latin dancing to proper music, that doesn't have to fit in with that week's 'theme'. No more stupid VTs but more proper 'let's see them in training' instead. All of which means, let's get back to how it used to be ! As I said in an earlier post, if it aint broke, don't fix it.

Unfortunately I can go back to the very earliest dancing programmes on TV but believe me, I am not asking that we should encompass that as most people wouldn't tolerate it (I would, but that's another matter).
No, I want to go back say two or three years before, in fact, they changed the studio set and I want proper dance music relevant to the chosen dance as it makes such a difference. I remember Zoe Ball's tango, if my memory serves me right. Some contestant's dances have been quite memorable and I can't say this about the present lot.

I think the standard of the dances this year has been very low in comparison to the last few years....We haven't even had a stand out dance yet have we this series??

The only dances I can actually remember anything about are Russell's for whatever reasons, and I'm hoping to start seeing some knock out performances on Saturday from these 'better dances' who everyone wanted shot of him for. At least with him and Flav we were guaranteed a talking point whether it be good or bad!

I can barely be bothered to think of anything so say about most of the others left.

I'll be pretty miffed if come Saturday we don't get a WOW dance that I will want to watch time and again, as I would rather watch Russell in that case!