I don't think she was impressed when they asked Alesha why Robbie and Ola got voted off first. Alesha said something about not being able to see all the couples

I'm never that keen on bringing more aspects of DWTS to Strictly, but their way of scoring extra points definitely works much, much better than the swingathon idea - there's too much happening to score correctly and fairly.

I like Jason but he was out of time from the beginning apart from the first and second places which I would have reversed I thought the order was about right. Alex and James did more than just fling Alex about and I thought she did quite well. I judge the dances be they individual on how enjoyable they are as well as how they are executed and whilst Harry executes them perfectly I just dont enjoy watching him as much as Chelsea

I thought the swingathon was a lot better than last year and I agreed with the order they were voted off in. At home I was able to say the name of the next couple to go before they were called out. Not because it was predictable based on the judges engineering the leaderboard (which I'm pretty sure happened last year) but from what I could see of the dancing.
Robbie was weak from the start - off time and not very sharp on the kicks and flicks. Anita lasted a little longer but went off time and her technique wasn't great. Holly tired very quickly and lost the energy of the dance. Jason then tired and also went off time. Alex really wasn't doing a bad job, she was in time and keeping up with James. She would have gone before Jason if he hadn't tired out and lost time. It was a close run thing between Chelsee and Harry - both remained on time and did challenging routines, but Chelsee was starting to look a bit more tired and heavy footed just before she went. Overall Harry was a worthy winner and is clearly very fit and full of stamina to dance that after doing that quickstep.

To me it was messy - if they want a group dance then why not have them do a group dance with a solo bit and be judged on that.

Finally we had some appropriate music!!! And what a relief it was, I was loving it.

I don't think it achieved that though. The only difference it made was to push Chelsee above Jason on the final leaderboard. I can live with that

I like that idea.

I don't ever feel I can judge the swing-a-thon properly, because it's impossible to watch them all at once. It was bad enough last year with 5 couples, so 7 couples were definately too much.

From what little I could see, I though Harry and Chelsee were the best, so probably the correct top 2, but other than that, I just smile throughout it and pretend I'm taking it all in.

I thought they were supposed to swap partners?

I loathe the -swingathon too, but why are so many posters so singularly anti-Alex?

If you're going to criticise the dance or the dance idea, then do so, but it's cheap to use it to swipe against one particular dancer.

No way could Artem do any swing lifts with Holly because of his back, so they had to do the cool jive floor moves. But that's not to criticise when they went out - they were still looking pretty good.

I think the exit order was about right, but would have to rewatch several times more - that is where it really is better to be in the studio - but even the studio audience wouldn't have seen everything.

It would be much better to have a waltz with all couples firmly on the floor.

Not before the watershed

I'm not her biggest fan and thought she would have left early and possibly deservedly so but having watched it I thought she held herself really really well in that and fully deserved the 5 points she got.

Yes, she climbed a place (was second from bottom and ended up third from bottom after the Swingathon).

Judges saw it as an opportunity to give Alex a boost.

Agree! All I could see on my TV was Jason & Kristina until they were dispatched. No chance at all to even see what Robbie or Anita were doing.

Agree.

It was just another stunt like Broadway week, Halloween & Wembley. Next Saturday it's movies week. It seems we need something extra to just dancing and judging.

Now the dancing has to be jazzed up, the dances don't resemble what they're meant to, the judges & pros have become more stroppy and the judges have to have an individual 'role'.

The original SCD was never needed stunts like this. It was all about the dancing then.

I think it was amazing how good Harry and Aliona were seeing they had only just finished their solo dance.

Yes, That's what we were meant to think. And they won. Amazing!!

Was I the only one who noticed that the only times that the camera were on Alex were when she was up in the air being swung around by James? I watched the video again and you can see her while camera is focused on other couples and she looks quite weak (same bad technique as her jive). I wouldn't have put Jason ahead of her (he was out of time at some points) but from what I saw Holly was doing better than her.

I really wish we could've seen a wider view of the swingathon instead of this selective focus on couples.

It reinforced the running leaderboard over the past 9 weeks

You might already know this, but this is actually how real dance competitions work. And there are normally a lot more than 7 couples on the dance floor... around 20 depending on the size of the floor and how long the competition can take. And it gets a lot messier than this, becuase here the couples have already rehearsed dancing on the same floor before the show. But in a real competition (specially in the earlier rounds) you're boud to run into another couple during your routine.

That was definitely a case of 'foot in mouth', I thought

But Alesha was quite correct. That is how judges judge dance competitions where there are more than one couple on the dance floor. They can't look at each couple's full routine. In fact they can't look at each couple for more than 10 seconds. So usually in the early rounds the couples that stand out more (for a good reason) go through.

Unfortunately what she said is going to sound like she's clueless. But that is precisely how these competitions get judges.

I thought Alex had grown wings - she was up in the air all the time. James didn't want to her dance, that's for sure! And it worked They should have been out sooner.