I think Simon may have made a bad decision to do Strictly this year...

He is seemingly trying to do too much, juggling his dance practice with the Big Reunion boyband arena tour. He admitted that he had hardly practiced his last routine at all so seemingly he can't/won't commit that much time to the show.

Also he has missed a couple of the concerts due to them being on Saturday nights - which I think is quite disrespectful to the fans who paid to see a show featuring Blue 6+ months ago. It seems that he hasn't got a huge amount of fans judging by his appearances in the dance-off, so potentially upsetting some of them by putting this above his prior commitments could be a bad move. Also it may be worth noting that some of his fans will have been out watching his bandmates on the last 2 Saturday nights reducing the number of his fans potentially able to vote for him!

Does anyone else think that Simon has taken too much on and may end up regretting it, because that is certainly my opinion?

I think he was declared bankrupt last year, so anything that pays a wage is welcome

What can you do after a "Boyband reunion tour?"

Another one?

This is already the third spin-off tour from the Big Reunion TV show... and the best bit is that Blue had reformed a few years before the series started and did Eurovision!!! I think they have a new album out soon as well.

To my mind, he is incredibly lucky to have the chance to participate in SCD.

What career?

Is your thigh red from all that slapping?

I have been giving half my votes to Simon and the other half to Sunetra.

He is a better dancer than three of the remnants, but I'm switching to all to Sunetra as she is now in the dangerous middle ground. Simon hasn't got the public support so a Simon vote is a wasted vote.

No but mine is...

He's lucky to have been asked to be on the show.

As are they all, and I don't recall hearing any of them say they don't appreciate it.

Well after Lee on CBB...

Never said they didn't..so not sure why you're bringing that angle into it.

Probably because I'm not sure why you've focused on Simon in saying he is lucky?

This is what I was going to say. There's no way he would make the decision that he could afford to turn down Strictly.

Do they get paid more if they stay in longer or is it a flat fee? (Sorry this has probably been asked/discussed a lot over the years.)

He is not the only one with a lot on his plate, but he seems to be getting a disproportionate amount of criticism for it IMO (I am not singling you out OP)

I always thought it was a flat fee, but the way Mark bawled when he thought he might be in the dance off made me think again. The only logical reason for such an emotional response was a re-think of the wedding expenses.

I'm pretty sure it's only the pros who get paid more the further they get! The celebs are given their pay check at the start of the series

I don't think it was 'wedding expenses' that was on Mark's mind as that will no doubt probably be paid for by OK or some other such trashy magazine. I think it's more that if he was eliminated he would have lost the high profile exposure he always seem to crave.

He also has many irons in the fire, I saw him on an Interflora ad last night!

I haven't voted for Simon, but I agree votes would be wasted on him now. Not really sure why he's not been popular, if the audience doesn't engage with him and Kristina then they are in trouble.

It is a mistake not to include clips from the training room before each performance because if you don't watch ITT, then you hardly get to know the celeb and see how the get on with their pro on a day to day basis.

I do agree with the OP that Simon has taken on too much but, then I also think the statement applies to several of this year's contestants. I find it infuriating when I have to listen to celebs constantly bleating on about their busy schedule. I find it hard to believe that they didn't weigh up the pros and cons of doing SCD before agreeing to do the show. SCD is a prime time programme which demands a lot of commitment from the celebs, in return their national profile is raised to a much higher level than it is in their chosen genre. Which is why (imho) most of them do it in the first place.

As much as I love SCD we never get real "A listers" on the programme. In my fantasy SCD I would have Idris Elba (I wouldn't care how he danced but, I would be voting for him every week and posting in his appreciation thread every hour on the hour. ) but, realistically why would he need to do it? He doesn't need the money, he has a very successful film/TV/music career. In short Simon may have been lucky to get the invitation but I would argue that most of them are.

Why? They've had far worse celebs on than him. He was in one of the biggest boy bands of the early noughties. Simon's career might have seen better days and he's not proving to be as popular as he perhaps hoped but at least he's a decent enough dancer. I don't think he's a particularly bad signing especially compared to some others celebs they've had on the show.

It used to be a flat fee, but they changed the payment system in 2010 - you now get paid according to how long you stay in the competition.

That's a sure enough way to put me off interflora!

BIB I don't agree with this at all. It must be a pretty intense world the celeb is living in right now with so much of their lives revolving around the show. We've often seen tears like Mark's and most of the time it's because their suddenly become overwhelmed. I'm pretty sure that's what happened to Pixie too.

It happens on lots of these reality shows. Off the top of my head I can think of this year's GBBO winner. She shed a tear or two during the series, saying she never cried and couldn't believe how wrapped up in the show she'd got.

Of course, if you're that way inclined anyway, you don't stand a chance.