As long as it's not Barrowman *shakes fist* I can handle it.

People cussing out Claudia... Cast your mind back to Bruce's weeks off when the show was zippy, tight, professional. Claudia would be hopeless in the front of shop role, too messy. But she's much more capable of having normal, non-embarrassing interactions with the kupples up on the Tessanine/Claud 9 than Tess. I don't have strong feelings on Nick Knowles either way. He's competent and won't make the show all about him like Bruce did.

OTOH, I do wish Zoe would kindly bugger off a bit. ITT has lost so much ground.

I think Steven Mulhearn would be great, good presenter and also very good live.

Isn't he on an ITV contract though?

And me!

Hullo there Steven *waves*

But then again I think the "Tess - Claudia" combo could become tiresome quite quickly and I doubt the calibre of celebrity dancers alone would keep a lot of people watching without some form of entertainer out front to engage them.

And yet in every other country that is part of the franchise, they have presenters hosting the show rather than entertainers and the shows engage the audience perfectly well. Try watching some clips of Dancing with the Stars US online and pay particular note to the host, Tom Bergeron. He's a presenter, not an entertainer, and he's very, very good.

I liked how Tess didn't in any way attempt to hog the limelight. It enabled me to hear what the 'experts' had to say and observe how the contestants dealt with what was being said.

If the BBC is serious about resurrecting the Generation Game then maybe there's only so much ham we can take before we all start to choke

Ha Ha Trevy, yes I know its my first post (its taken years) but I'm female and not Steven! I do think he would be very good (if he switched to beeb). I don't know if anybody remembers but he used to present the Dancing on Ice live aftershow, very good live presenter. Could always do a trick if anything went wrong, and has a nice balance of serious/humour.

What about Michael Ball as the new host of Strictly? a family friendly stage performer who knows how to interact with people and crowds, I think he would be an ideal candidate for the job.

There's not a ,large choice of presenters with a lot of live TV experience. There's a reason why Schofield and O Leary, and Ant and Dec present almost everything major thats live on ITV, and why there's only 5 or 6 female presenters people now use successfully on big shows. Its difficult taling and listening to an earpiece at the same time, looking right, being a safe pair of hands, and running a major show to time.

if the presenter has no entertainment or dancing knowledge, and can't tell a joke, there's absolutely no reason to have two presenters at all. The less they say the better - as any comments on performance will lack credibility, and someone like Claudia will be dangerous if they try and add humour. .If they just need someone competent on live tv to introduce people, hold hands, cover up any incidents, and stand by the contestants and ask an innane question or two at the end, Tess could do all of that.

SCD hasn't run like that. The humour has been central, and Bruce has been credible enough deploying his own experience, to counter the sillier judges marking and offer a different persepective. Thats been necessary as the marking standards have been poor in some recent years, and the tone of the show tends to the mean without a moderating effect. The banter between judges, and between the judges and presenter, has been central. You could take that all away, but you would effectively be dumbing down the show, and would either end up with less of a show, or worse, have the judges trying to fill the space with even more panto marking.

As has been said many times, DWTS doesn't have a Fforsyth figure at its head and is highly successful.

The show needs two people - one to link between the celebs and judges and another to control the what's popularly called the "Tesspit".

I see the Radio Times did a poll, with Anton coming out first and Claudia second. They also added that many had written in saying the didn't want John Barrowman!

I think the aforementioned Mr Bergeron on DWTS fulfils that role in a different manner; he brings an appropriate level of irreverence to the proceedings without "telling jokes" as such. One example | recall that still amuses me is his ribbing of Steve Guttenberg's slightly Donavan-esque outlook on appearing on the show "Steve is changing the world one lousy score at a time"

I agree. A very experienced performer as well as radio presenter, with a good personality. Mentally sharp too, quick on his feet. I think he would do a very professional job and I think he would be fun too.

Do you not think he is a bit of a big girl's blouse?

(I appreciate that the answer to this might well be "no", or, quite equally "yes, and so what?")

If you think he'd be "fun" then what you want is a comedy variety show.

This ain't. We just need someone to introduce the dancers, less rabbit would mean more dance. That's what the show's s'pposed to be about isn't it. Not a vehicle to promote another "look at me's" career.

Wave "Bye, bye" to family audiences who might not want to watch a boring dance show.

I've said it before, if it turns into a pure dance show then whack it on BBC3 at 10pm rather than in the Saturday evening variety slot.

Erm, it's called 'Strictly Come Dancing' not 'Strictly come Comedy' or 'Strictly Come Bruce Forsyth/other presenter'.

I you think the dancing is boring, then you must be bored for a lot of it. But then you're like those of us who were bored through the Fforsyth bits if we didn't mute or FF them.

I see that Graham Norton has said he doesn't want the job, but Vernon Kay has said he'd jump at the chance. Bruno Tonioli is another of those backing Claudia.

It's not called "Come dancing" either.

I enjoy the comedy banter between Bruce, the contestants and the judges. Yes, there are some right groaners of gags, but that appeals to my sense of humour.

I hang around this forum on Saturday nights to find out the result so that I don't have to sit and fast forward through the results show just to find out who is eliminated.

I grew up with the comparing style of Bruce Forsyth, Bob Monkhouse, Michael Barrymore, Jim Bowen etc (Yes, I watch the re-runs on Challenge) so a pure non-interactive style of comparing would be a complete turn off for me.

I don't tend to like "entertainment" shows where there is no element of audience participation, even if it's just the odd groaner of a joke.

If people think it's the hosts job to just introduce the couples then shut up, why not have Alan Dedicoat do it?

Yes, I do remember, he was absolutely useless on Defrosted! And after a couple of series, ITV2 ditched the show. Stephen Mulhearn has got to be the thickest presenter on TV. His range of knowledge and vocabulary is so limited, that's why Defrosted failed, and who wants to hear a presenter start every sentence with "D'ya know what?" ??? That's all he ever says! Fine if you're larking about on BGMoreT, taking the piss out of the contestants or Ant & Dec, but frankly, hosting a primetime BBC show is way out of his depth and league, so no, definitely NOT Stephen Mulhearn. Can you imagine him mangling "Artem Chigvintsev"? His face would go bright red, and it'd be more embarrassing than Bruce on a bad day. I'm constantly amazed how Stephen Mulhearn ever got on TV in the first place!

I mentioned it on another "Who should replace Bruce?" thread but, impossible as it might be, I'd like to see Michael Crawford take this on.

He has plenty of live audience experience.
He is musical.
He can successfully be either straight and comedic as required.
...
It's too long since we've seen him on our screens.

However, he's probably far too busy to even consider such a role, and the BBC probably couldn't afford him now.

Michael Crawford is way too old at 72. Age limit should be about 60, and I wish we could have an age limit on the contestants too ! I have seen that Brian Conley is touring in Barnum this Autumn so I guess that rules him out of the running.

Age discrimination is not allowed any more. Fforsyth was 76 when the series started. A person can be rejected for any reason other than age or gender. You'll have to find another reason for Michael Crawford not being suitable.

Crikey, I didn't realise he was that age.

I guess in my mind I still see him as he was in "Some mothers .." and "Phantom ..".

It would still be nice to see him on the telly again.