Oh dear! Ignore away. I'll go and sit on the naughty step...!

They have done the old contestant route with Alesha, doing it again is not original and so I do not think will be used.

My best guess and personal opinion will be that they reduce the panel to 3 and replace one of the existing men with a woman. This allows for a longer point of view to be made and also means that there is not so much repition of the same complaints/praise. I would get rid of Len and replace him with ex pro such a Karen or Nicole (whose blog did seem to go along the lines on Len's views).

As many suggested Kara Tointon is not interested in taking over from Alesha as a judge

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...n-actress.html

Has to be a woman, for balance. Let's have someone from the dance world.

Karen Hardy
Camilla Dallerup
Erin Boag
Shirley Ballas
Sue Menhenick (ex Pan's People/Legs & Co)

According to this Karen Bruce is being considered

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...ing-panel.html

I haven't heard of Karen Bruce, but it does sound like she has a dance background and lots of knowledge which would be good.

Karen Bruce has choreographed the group dance at the start of the series the last two years..

and she has directed several dance shows including main Director of Midnight Tango (Vincent and Flavia's show).

Of the names mentioned, she might actually be a reasonable prospect actually.

Of any of the names mentioned, Karen Bruce is the one I'd like to see on the show She also directed the Professionals tour a couple of years back....

http://www.midnighttango.co.uk/creative/karen-bruce/

Aren't we ever going to see a real former ballroom champion on the panel? The show is so heavily biassed towards stage dancing I wonder they didn't call it Strictly Stage Dancing. The ballroom pros are treated like the hired help, and probably have to come into the building through the tradesmen's entrance.

I would like to see Karen Hardy or Shirley Ballas on the panel. I could live with Jill Halfpenny, as she has earned her ballroom badge, as it were.

In case anyone is not familiar with Shirley Ballas, here she is in 1994. Actually she was on the panel briefly some years ago. She has been in the game long before Karen, and with her former husband Sammy Stopford was winning national championships in the 80s.

Corky and Shirley Ballas 1994
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR92hJZCc7E

UK Championships 1994 Pro Latin final Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD-ZUy-SxzM

"We did Alan Carr's Chatty Man together. Bruno [Tonioli], Alesha and I did it. She got absolutely hammered on the show and was drinking out of the bottle," said Horwood.

"I was like, 'This is not very BBC One, darling!' And I was right - it was more ITV behaviour! Setting it all up. Getting lower to the gutter."


Craig, darling, don't sit on the fence, tell us what you really think

I understand a certain James Murdoch has suddenly become available!!!

If they don't have a former ballroom champion, then Jennifer Ellison would be a real possibility. She has an awesome CV as can be seen in her Wikipedia article, including being a highly trained ballet dancer and having done one judging job already. She is presently doing well on Dancing on Ice.

Like this? http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/celebri...xon-a-chance/1

Perhaps it is worth pointing out that the link was from September 2009, when Alesha was first taken on.

Nothing to add to the replacement debate but I did happen to notice that Alesha is going to be on Loose Women later this week (not sure which day). Might be interested to hear what she says....

TV guide on Freeview says it's Thursday, Sara.

To get someone with the status of Katarina Witt in the skating, we would need a former world champion like Karen Hilton or Carmen Vincelj.

For me there's only one person I'd like to see on the Judging panel and that is KAREN HARDY!! I loved watching her 'Choreography Corner' section on ITT every week as she's very good with her critique and doesn't get personal, all she talks about is the dancing!! And she won the show as well so she'll know how hard the Pro dancers work with their celebrities every week, so for me she's the perfect choice!! (if not Karen then I'd like to see Arlene reinstated back on the panel!!)

One of the Karens for me, Hardy or Bruce

Apparently Barry Humphries has announced that Dame Edna Everage is retiring from touring etc.

So she is now available to replace Alesha - certainly glamorous enough

Or, if not, can she please be Brendan's next partner?

Oh brilliant - I would love to see Dame Edna competing, and Brendan would be tall enough. Superb idea!!!

According to tomorrow's Sun newspaper, its Darcy Bussell, retired English ballerina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darcey_Bussell

She is the only real-life ballroom competition champion and international ballroom judge ever to appear on this show - she and Bryan Watson were runners-up to Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather in the World Professional Latin Championship for several years. (Well, actually Shirley Ballas made one appearance many years ago). For this reason alone I would like to see her on the panel. The last thing we need is yet another conceited stage dancer completely ignorant of ballroom, pretending that they are a ballroom "expert". They all gamble on the public being unaware of the huge difference between the two styles of dancing.