I don't think it's lost its magic. I'm watching in real time for the first time since Series 5 because by then I really couldn't take any more BF and if I hadn't had the option to FF him I'd have given up on Strictly all together.

Looking back on all the series I find I've tended to know more of the celebs in the later series than the earlier ones, and the person who becomes my favourite is often somebody I didn't know beforehand (Natalie, Matt di, Kara, Chelsee) The year when I knew the fewest celebs was Series 4. I don't like the theme weeks, but they've been around for a few years now so are hardly something new, and at least we don't get the dire Wembley week any more, which was the absolute PITS.

I'm still loving it

Strictly is doing fine. Sure, there are some problems with this year's show but there have been problems with each year's show and people tend to forget that.

I've been fast forwarding thru the last few shows

hope it picks up soon

It has definitely lost its magic for me. I actually turned over last week, first time ever since the series started. I hate the use of props, the music for the dances is diabolical, The costumes are awful (a man dancing the tango in a vest and another a foxtrot in a barrow boy outfit Grrr). The VT's used to show the dancers in training, now there just rubbish. It has all got too glitzy like DWTS. It has lost it elegance, mores the pity. I also wish they had replaced Brucie with a man. As charming as Claudia & Tess are, it doesn't work for me.

I don't think it's lost it's magic. It's still the same glitzy Saturday night show it's always been. After all the years, our palette has probably become jaded. But try to imagine it was an entirely new show that you were seeing for the first time, it would still be great Saturday evening entertainment.
I don't think the selection of celebrities was as good this year, bigger names prepared to put the work in are probably getting harder to find. Looking back, series 9 (for example) had far more household names, but it's debatable whether that makes the whole series more exciting for viewers.

I was going to post but you've said it all. It's missing big time that old style glamour and elegance it used to have. As we've all said the costumes are diabolical, I think the one nice dress I have seen was on Natalie for her waltz with Tim. The pro dances were demonstrations of the dances that the celebs were expected to learn and mean, learn, the next week. Proper music, steps and costumes for the most part. Now it's all salsachambo showdance mushes, and really repetitive and very boring. And of course the pros did have personalities....

The effing props I can just tolerate, provided they don't take up the floor but I am fed up with seeing no training VTs and not getting a handle on how the couples are really doing, instead they all forced into fake jokey personas and playing a given part. It's like a kid's panto and there seems very little honesty. I shall always remember Mark Ramps and Karen's big row which was on camera but showed the stresses of the process and how people dealt with them. Now, it seems there cannot be any meat shown. It's all banal, and no longer a show for grown ups. I can't get emotionally involved or interested in any of the 'journeys' sorry, because it's like a big veil has to be thrown over any of the training process. It's far too scripted.

I still enjoy the show but would have liked a male/female presenting duo.

Judges 'dance on' is slightly cringey!

Tess ... stop saying (as bruce always did!) 'and look, they're on their feet for you, look here ... and over there ... and up there, you've got a standing ovation.' THEY HAVE EYES TESS ... THEY CAN SEE THE STANDING OVATION. YOU DO NOT NEED TO HIGHLIGHT EVERY BLO*DY STANDING OVATION!!!!

love claudia ... lust after darcy

they should change 'len's lens' to 'bruno's binoculars' for a series or two, just a thought!

as has been said in other topics stop the birly twirly camera all the time!

However as craig sometimes says after reeling off x negative comments ... i still think it's fab-u-lous

Too true.

It's as if they're trying to turn every It Takes Two interview into a Russell/Lisa/Alison-style interview. It only works with certain personalities. Try and apply it to everyone and things start to feel ridiculously contrived. All that forced joviality and rounds of applause for inane VTS becomes cringey and exhausting to watch. It's one of the reasons I like Jake so much; he refuses to be cajoled into Zoe's hyper ott-ness. The other week she ended up conceding he was just too laid back - I thought to myself, GOOD!

Its lacking a story. Ironically for a good reason. The stories used to often be whether the obviously best 2 or 3 would make the final, who would win , and who be derailed - by the person who wasn't as good but had the journey story, the joke candidate, the hunk vote, or the silly negative reason of the year for not voting for them. The people who supported the better canddiates then had someone to root for, and the people who liked journeys, hunks, jokes, and side stories with no logic were all happy too.

This year they have put 3 top females and someone not that far behind them, in, plus a clear male leading contender. They have spares for if the voting goes wrong. As 4 people could win, and 3 are similar, there's little to choose a winner on, and most people will end up backing someone who doesn't win - even if they vote on the dancing. The series doesn't have an improvement story, or journey, or a hunk becoming something more story, or even a Tom Chambers. There's lots of good dancing, but nothing thats not been seen before, and instead of a head to head race , we have a strong field of top runners racing side by side. .

There's also a lack of much else going on. There's no comic candidate this year - in a year thats missing comedy anyway with no Bruce. Alison isn't a Sergeant or Grant,or Hollins. Presentingwise, Claudia could be taken out with little lost. The interviews gain nothing, and are often bizarre, and the puns seem to come from Brucie's B team of joke writers. Brucie's dithering has gone, but so have his off the cuff remarks, and better jokes. Tess is filling most of the gaps well , and keeping it running smoothly , but a comic Brucie replacement alongside her, would have provided more. The judges have responded to their previous problems - provoking votes for the terrible performers, by realistic marking and more panto - by reducing the negativity and marking higher. Even Craig is now offering positives, where possible, , as well as better constructed negatives comments . Its lost its teeth though - so those who liked panto, or seeing innocents bitten, are deprived too.

Its probably also suffering from losing its old, liked , pros and any drama some like james used to create. They have found 2 or 3 strong new personalities, but its lacking its Vincents, and Ians,and Robins. Anton has become his own caricature, and Brendan has been tamed. Change isn't always good. it often just produces something worse.

The show has ended up with a stronger competition, that may run more cleanly . Thats good , because its less likely to end in an incredible win and undervalued brilliance. . When people don't care who wins, though, and the good started good, and its impossible to pick who actually is best, and you are unlikely to pick the winner , there's a big hole compared to many series. .

It has lost some of it's sparkle for me. I was never a great Brucie fan, but Tess and Claudia together just don't do it for me, I think it should have been a male/female combination - Tess is getting more irritating, thinks she's queen bee now.

Also they look like they are getting desperate for celebs as well. Judy Murray is a lovely lady, but being the mum of a Wimbledon tennis champion does not make you a celebrity. Mind you for that matter neither does being on The Only Way Is Essex!

Normally you can say in the first week 'Oh they are going to win', however, there is no obvious outstanding person at the moment; but maybe that's a good thing.

Love watching the dances all the same though!

The show's seriously flat this year although saw an improvement last week when they did a better job with the running order. The judges are following the same old pattern without trying to switch it up (Len was stuck in 'you came out' mode last week) and are overmarking, none of the contestants appear to be showing signs of massive improvement except maybe Thom and the audience give standing ovations to celebrities who just turn up. The props are pointless and become infuriating if they screw up a dance and some of the song choices simply drag the show down further.

All it needs, for me, is a kick up the backside. Whether they'll do it is a whole different matter.

My answer is yes, it has lost it's magic. But I'll still watch because I still enjoy it enough and there are moments of magic every year. But it is not recent, SCD lost it's magic at least a few years ago.

It's not completely damaged but BBC are certainly not helping matters.

Never have any guest judges again please or comedy panto dances for contestants with actual talent.

If it would ditch the props (apart from for Halloween/Movie week etc), go back to showing us proper training VT's, give the costume dept a proper budget (it must be that surely .. that's making everything and everyone look so cheap) and give the celebs/pros some choice in the music then it would get it's sparkle back. Claudia is a big improvement imo .. not sure Tess is though. The audience have become a bit pantomime too .. the judges can't even give constructive criticism without them booing and nearly everyone gets a standing ovation.

Yes a kick up the backside as Fudd said .. s'all that's needed.

Glamour and class have been replaced with tawdry tat.
What a shame.
But the band are still excellent, so if all fails I just shut my eyes and listen - when I can hear above the cheering because someone has actually put one foot in front of the other.

Negative.

Sensors indicate magic intact and alive.

We cant guess who is going yet

So no

I am comparatively new to this game. Was there a similar thread last year or are you saying that last year was as bad as this year. Thanks for the interest. The various points of view are illuminating.

Yes budgets.

They're often at the root of anything.

When the BBC were trying to get the ratings up to those of X-Factor, let alone beat it, they were likely to have, "thrown money at it."

Now the show has achieved that level, they will be looking for ways to cut the costs. This is similar to what happens in any business. I've no argument with that, as long as it doesn't affect the standards of the show. But I too, think it has.

Not true!

SCD has an unchanged budget of six million, no cuts, no need.

It's a great show and beating XF fair and square.

It depends what you spend the money on and despite what is publicised about the budget, it may not necessarily all be spent directly on the show. We wouldn't be able to find out. That's "sensitive commercial information."
In my business we had budgets for "everything" it didn't mean you couldn't move money around between a few cost centres, (or in the BBC's case, programmes) as long as the books balanced. Bonuses are often paid pro-rata on amount of savings against budgets.

The celebrities don't look as if they cost a lot.
New dancers are probably "cheap as chips."
Others on here, say the costumes look cheap.
They no longer have the expense of Bruce.

Have the judges had big pay rises? The BBC are trying to make Len a "star" by giving him other work, maybe his had an increase for Strictly too?
This year we've "Flying Daggers" effects and a lot more flashing lights, is that where some more money has gone?
Has the rent for the studio increased? Even if it's your own studio, it has to be "paid for" out of the budget.

We'll never know. Maybe it's just a perception, but it certainly looks a "cheaper show."

Despite some of the niggly annoyances like props, poor song choices, costume or camera work etc, I still love it, and even more so without Bruce Forsythe.

i always find the first few weeks a bit take it or leave it, i haven't got to know any of the celebs (i almost never know them from their 'day' jobs) and the show is basically far too long and too many duffers who aren't that entertaining. i could happily see only one dance or maybe two from at least a third of the particpants.

but it usually warms up after that so we will see. i have to admit to loving to hate brucie so although i haven't missed him at all, i might be missing rolling my eyes at him....

I agree - we've just come back from the US and caught an episode of DWTS and it is unadulterated cr@p, but watching it we could see where Strictly is getting a lot of it's recent influences from. Doesn't help that the current batch of dancers have little personality (remember the good old days of Brendan arguing, Vincent's little quips etc?), this year is a B-list of so-called celebs, the judges are like worn out old cassette recorders churning out the same old stuff they have for 10 years (except Darcy of course - but shes just painful to listen to) and they've expanded the insultingly childish VTs rather than show real training.

My wife is (or was) one of the ultimate Strictly fans (while I just muck around with it as a long suffering forced watcher) and would not miss an episode or an ITT, if she did she would watch the recording before going to bed, paid to go to Blackpool and talked incessantly about it. This year she has watched only the first two weeks and now watches it on recorder and ff through most of it. Even more surprising to me, and a real barometer of its reducing popularity/appeal is she has only watched about three episodes of ITT - when I asked why she's not watching it every night the answer was...'it's all a bit boring this year'

Perhaps it has just run too long, or perhaps it could still be great with some dancers with personalities, new judges, better VTs etc.

Finally, Beeb please please drop the stupid judge dances at the start!!!