The whole ethos of SCD was to take an untrained person take them on a journey and turn them into a half decent dancer.

The joy of the programme used to be in watching the dancers transform . Taking someone like Ben Or Ramps with no performance or dance skills and making them into dancers.

The last few series have been flooded with people with stage school training all of whom have had some previous dance experience. They may be good dancers but the spirit of Strictly is dead.

I'm very disappointed with the judges this year and the whole show has lost its appeal for me

Maybe the pool is getting a little dry

When and where was this supposed ethos stated?

Claire Sweeney was in Fosse. Jill Halfpenny went to a dance academy. Louisa Lytton did a jive in week 2 on half a day's training that she clearly couldn't have done without prior training. It was ever thus.

11 million viewers disagree.

As the show progresses year on year to keep the quality of celebrities up, they will have to take celebrities with some dance experience, interesting there are a lot of celebrities with no dance on their CV and will not be brave to do it.

I would love to see Kelly Brook return to Brendan.

We get the same threads every year, yet the show is going from strength to strength.

There have ALWAYS been celebrities with dance experience. Be a boring show if everyone started from nothing.

A lot actors and actresses are going have been to stage school and many others will have slight experience of dance so it would be difficult to avoid completely. Perhaps there should be an honest statement of their previous experience at the start of the series.

Strictly had more viewers last night than the 50th Anniversary Dr Who!

No....

I still enjoy it and just ignore the bits I disagree with now as otherwise it gets stressful and I want to be entertained not stressed lol

I totally agree

The melodrama of it all.

Having watched all 11 years, I think what the OP is trying to say is that the programme has morphed from what it was 11 years ago to something else, which is a function of both time and programme evolution. I personally wonder how many years the franchise has left to continue, given the blatant manipulation of the Producers on so many elements this year. They need to take a look at their demographics and customer satisfaction, and tailor the offering accordingly. Ratings is only one element....

Ratings is an important element.

If ten million are regularly watching then it does not matter if a handful of purists complain that it has changed from the original series.

Overdramatisation certainly isn't dead as we know it.

As long as there's not a situation like on DWTS where the zleb is teaching the pro on non-ten-dance styles - yes that actually happened on several occasions! - I'm fine with it.
Let de public decide if they want to support a ringah or not.

Apart from anything else the training time has significantly increased from the first series 10 years ago. Then it was at most 2 hours a day.

If you want blatant manipulation, try Series 6, which has it in spades.

Has Strictly evolved? Sure. I'd've been surprised if it hadn't've.

The reality is that the show can't afford to cut itself off from anyone who has trained as an actor. That's too big a pool of possible contestants to deny.

I do think, however, the problem of previous experience is more acute this year than it's ever been previously. Training as an actor involves a short period where some dance basics are learned. That, though, is a massive difference from someone who trained specifically and exclusively in dance - which is what we are being given with Natalie. Even DVO didn't have that.

This means that, whether you like her or not, we know that she will score highly from the judges (usually topping the leader board) and we know that she will make the final whatever happens. And there's no drama or tension within that - wherein lies the problem. It's reading a book where you know one thing that is guaranteed to happen before the end.

What kind of response she will get when she's not protected by the judges remains to be seen.

I think the judges have become parodies of themselves - they're almost irrelevant now in that we know exactly what they're going to say, who they like and dislike. They play to the crowd (Bruno particularly), and the marking system has become ridiculous.

So let them have their say but take away their paddles and don't have their marks up there. Turn that over to the GBP and only let the judges back in for a three-way dance off. Saving two.

That would all shake things up a bit!

The only thing that's keeping me watching this series is the whodunnit (who'll-win-it) element.

I've progressed from FF-ing thru Bruce and the VTs to FF-ing thru the judges' comments and on to the paddle-production, and I drift off during some of the dances - it's a far cry from sending my phone bill thru the roof a couple of seasons ago.

Others have commented on the bad choices in music, costumes and camera-work, and I agree with them.

It's verging on a chore to watch it now, and I used to look forward to it so much

Its becoming dead to me - and I'll explain why.

Its supposed to be about celebs learning to dance.
To do that, you have to have something specific for them to achieve.
It started off with the 10 ballroom/latin dances as the target.

They had quite a few pros who had competed in all 10 dances and if they had teaching ability, were the ideal pros for the teaching side of the show.
For example, this clip about Artem picking up every slight mistake Natalie makes is an example of how good the pros can be. Johnny said the same about Aliona - that she took in everything he was doing and could identify every error.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01lz3jp

Now they hire pros with seemingly almost no experience of the 10 dances and expect them to teach them.
I'd pick out Vincent and Rachel as an example of just how far a pro with 10 dance experience who is a good teacher can progress a dancer with a little dance experience but a lot of potential.

They also had more of a lead in to the first week years ago, which gave the pro more time to teach fundamentals to the novices so that they would benefit from that in the weeks to come.

I also prefer the pros to have more control over the song choices and the choreography.

Its an entertainment show, so there is still a place for celebs like Mark, who has dance talent for a showdance style 'Salsa' which was one of the dances of this series. Mark wouldn't do well under the 'dance it properly' rule so there needs to be the freedom to use the talents the celeb has - even if they struggle to learn technique..

BIB - completely agree. There has been an increasing number of instances where the staging has obviously been dreamt up in a producers' meeting and looks awkward and forced.