Cards on the table. I can't stand Alesha and think she has been a terrible mistake on SCD. However, this is a strange career move. SCD has had a v.successful season whereas Simon Cowell's shows are failing. The BBC nailed its colours to the mast when they took Alesha on and they stuck with her despite a storm of protest and evidence that although some viewers began to tolerate her, most still disliked her and didn't believe she had the credentials to be a judge. It is unlikely the BBC would have pulicly sacked her after going out on a limb the way they did, and there are also the dual issues of ageism and racism to consider, both of which they have had problems with.

They have also given her other vehicles and my guess is that they have been coaching her because her diction has improved and the hyena laugh has been kept under wraps. So, a really stable employer who would look bad if they sacked her - so why would she leave? And to go to an employer who eats starlets for breakfast and then feeds them to the birds.

My guess is they told her at the beginning of this season that she wouldn't be doing a fourth year. She was more gung-ho than ever this series and there was a certain end-of-termishness about her that I wondered about. Cowell will see it as a nice bit of publicity, but she will have to walk the gangplank that is his close friend Sinitta, whom she is a younger version of, and SC wouldn't mind the publicity generated by her not being able to cut it on one of his shows.

One wonders where she thinks she is going now. Okay, she has Weightwatchers and maybe five minutes fame with BGT, but the BBC might have built shows for her which ITV are unlikely to do. Talk of a revived singing career is surely nonsense. She was never particularly good and she is too old by today's standards to go down that route again.

Any thoughts?

i agree with every comment you made

Two questions:

1. How much do you think she was paid to do Strictly?

2. And how much do you think she has negotiated as BGT judge?

We'll never know the answer to either question without access to her bank statement, but I think the difference between 1 and 2 may answer your question.

I disagree. I personally think she was offered to role by Cowell, who is trying to get one over on SCD by pinching her, as he knows SCD did better than the Xfactor last year and wants to draw media attention from it.

I think Alesha probably thinks BGT will help her music career etc...but i really can't see how a show that isn't taken seriously anymore is one that Alesha will leave an improving SCD for. Who manages her?

Good luck to her anyway but i won't be surprised if it ends in tears for her sadly.

If you go on what you read she earned 100k on SCD.

I think BGT pay their judges 250k or more.

You can't surely mean that Simon Cowell has concluded that the success of this season's SCD is down to Alesha?

1 - not less than £100k as the Beeb admitted a 'six-figure' salary.

Allegedly £250k for Walliams. I would think his going rate is a lot higher than Alesha's. But it's still a good short-term move for her if she's OK about burning her bridge's with the Beeb.

She will have been somewhat enticed by the sort of money that a Simon Cowell programme can throw at potential judges. Add to that the lure of a programme that even now gets 10million or more (wasn't it 14 million for the final) and she might see it as a good move exposure-wise.

But we all know what happened to many other BBC defectors, especially those lured away by cash and those who chose to burn their bridges.

This might not be seen as a good move in years to come. And Cowell is not necessarily the most supportive of people, especially when things are not going his way.

Fair point because the Weightwatchers deal indicates that money is a big thing for her (and who can blame her) because I can't see failed pop singer reviving their career on the back of a diet programme! However, I still hold with my original theory that she was politely told by the BBC that it was going to end and they wanted her to go quietly with her head held high. Her agent would have talked to Cowell who would probably have been able to get her at a bargain basement rate. The BBC would prefer it to appear that she had been poached, rather than admit that they were abandoning her.

Yeah so she will probs be earning double her SCD salary.

She probs will get a record deal from him as well. I can't see Alesha presenting Children in Need anymore etc.. when she has joined him on ITV 1

I don't think this is a good move for her. Look at how Cowell has treated all the other judges he hired.

I think she has found her level......

But that's what i don't get.

SCD get's similar ratings and is more highly respected than BGT, so maybe if appealing to a younger audience is what she wants.

More and more this is so obviously not a good move for her. Which means she must have been...?

I think that maybe a number of BGT shows get much higher ratings, especially so considering that they don't always run on a Saturday. Being stripped over a number of nights might also fit in better if she expects to revitalise her singing career, especially with respect to any touring.

Not necessarily, as she was poached from a rival show, possibly with destablilising its judging panel in mind. This is the Simon Cowell who dangled £2 million at Cheryl Cole to try to get her to rejoin the UK X Factor panel. Even if she will be paid £250,000 it's still a lot more than she'd earn on Strictly.

I think she's been badly advised but hey ho. Good luck to her.


It's been said time and time again - no contracts are discussed this early for Strictly. And why would Simon Cowell want a sacked judge? Why didn't he take on Arlene when she was sacked?

Simon has always liked Alesha - the only time I've heard him say something positive about Strictly was when she was a contestant; he wanted her to win. He is trying to rebuild his TV empire amidst the bad press about their ratings. Both shows (BGT and X Factor) actually had very good ratings - they just looked poor beside previous years' ratings which were ridiculously high. Poaching a judge from a rival show is the sort of thing you'd expect him to do in the circumstances.

She got a better paid job and has jumped ship - it's nothing more complicated than that.

..... influenced by the lure of more money (especially when the defection of a judge from SCD can be trumpeted as a major coup for ITV)? ....... drawn by the high-profile programme when it does run over a couple of weeks? ...... influenced by any promises of "new & exciting vehicles" for her once BGT is over?

Nah not pushed.

What? Because she is a black singer?

Alesha was paid £100k to be a judge on SCD, the other 3 judges got £90k, because she was considered to be more of a "name"

I'd be surprised if she was "pushed"

SCD has had it's most successful audience figures this year.

However, Moira Ross has presumably now left the show, and the new producer will want to put their "own" stamp on the programme.

I think he's right, to be fair.
It's his company, he's the boss and he's very, very succesful in a very fickle and cut throat business. He seems pretty astute to me.

Mind you, that said, Louis Walsh must have some pretty spectacular goods on him, because it beats me how he's held onto any sort of a job, never mind one wth Mr C, for all these years.
Though, now as I've said that; he sacked him once, didn't he?
Hmmmmm.

I like Alesha and will miss her
I hope they don't get Jennifer Gray to replace her!!

Sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what your comment refers to. Can you enlighten me please.

>but she will have to walk the gangplank that is his close friend Sinitta, whom she is a younger version of

She's no Sinitta, she's far more interesting, entertaining, eloquent and popular.

I suspect she was given a ticking off after her appearance on Allan Carr, and did not take kindly to that

And now Syco have someone on board who will know all about how his biggest rivals operate

Most definitely not pushed ...

The BBC has a diversity policy that is rigorously enforced - and finding non-white faces in primetime entertainment is pretty rare. So Alesha was gold-dust for them - hence her being given plenty of opportunitites, despite her having put her foot in it by suggesting that The X Factor is somehow more creative than SCD.

This is all about ITV trying to poach talent from the BBC. Chiles and Bleakley, Jonathan Ross ... we've seen it a thousand times before. ITV doesn't have an original idea any more - and it's also desperate to appeal to a younger demographic. SCD stole the limelight from TXF in 2011 - so what better way for ITV to get its own back than by poaching one of the show's judges? (And yes, I know Alesha isn't liked by some hardcore fans - but the view of a tiny vocal minority won't bother Simon Cowell or ITV's bosses).

What it's about is lack of imagination. On both ITV and Alesha's parts ...