Hi all,
I'm thinking of doing an online petition calling for the banning of the comedy vts. I realised on Saturday that we are seeing virtually no training room footage and that this is harming my enjoyment of the show as I can't get as invested in the partnerships between the pros and celebrities, don't know how hard the contestants are working etc. So my queetions are:

1) would you guys sign a petition like that if I did one
2) has one been done before do you know and if yes what response did it get if any?
3) any recommendations on what site to put the petition? Is change. Org viable or is there a more appropriate site?

Thanks guys

Don't waste your time.

I agree with your sentiments though. Treat this thread as an online petition. It will be totally ignored by Louise Rainbow the totally crass producer of the show.

You are wasting your time! It has been decreed by our Lords and masters at the BBC we WILL be subjected to unfunny Vt's because THEY think they are amusing.

They are also a useful way of using up the excess budget, along of course with paying that idiot with the steadycam

Think a petition would be a waste of time but totally agree with the points about the hated vt,s

I don't sign online petitions because they spam your e-mail with all kinds of unrelated stuff.

However, I join you in wishing they'd ditch the comedy VTs. They might as well go the whole hog and have people do the ENTIRE show in the character from whatever show or film they've been in (Oh God, now I'm giving them ideas!) I want to see the PEOPLE who are competing, not some scripted, cringeworthy rubbish.

Please bring back genuine snippits of two human beings interacting with each other.

I don't watch X-Factor any more because it's all one big fix and the producers push the audience too hard to vote a certain way. I stopped watching Big Brother (before the move from Channel 4) for the same reason. I stopped watching I'm a Celebrity because pretty much everything seems to now involve eating nasty stuff, and I don't want to watch that, even though their producers are convinced that I ought to. Please, BBC, don't take Strictly away from me too.

Castaway was one of the best reality TV shows ever in my opinion - and probably had the least amount of producer interference. People will make great TV all ON THEIR OWN if you stop prodding them with sticks and watch out for the natural bonding/enmities that form. *sigh*

Entirely agree that so-called vts are unfunny and irritating. Also completely unconvincing, and a waste of the contestants' training time. But as for a petition , I fear that would be a waste of time too.

I like the idea of some kind of campaign (bombard them with emails, perhaps?). I don't suppose they'd take any notice, but why not be a thorn in their side?

Sadly it's a waste of time Op.

To show how much of a waste of time it would be.

The BBC would play "the numbers game."
If you managed to get 100,000 names, they'd say that out of nine million viewers, it represents only 1.1% of those who watched the show, "most viewers like them."

The first part would be mathematically correct, the second part would be evidence of their usual "we're right, the viewers wrong," attitude.

The nonsense VTs will be staying.

Emails don't come up on a google search. This thread does.

Just google for

I don't suppose they'd take any notice

and your post comes up second.

The comedy, for lack of a better word, VTs are the worst part of the show for me. I'm sure there would be much funnier, more natural moments of the couples just rehearsing.

Completely agree. I make sure I have something to read and my iPad by my side so that I don't have to watch that crap. I actually find that I watch less and less of the program. The answer would be to record it and fast forward, but my OH insists on watching it when it airs.

The 'comedy' VT's are probably the most crass rubbish that the BBC puts out, and that is saying something.

They are pointless, amateurishly filmed and presented and, with the exception of an all too few brief seconds are nothing but puerile nonsense that any average prepubescent armed with a video camera could produce.

Having said that, of course nothing will be done because the producer(s) actually never watch the program as an ordinary, (licence paying!), viewer would. They sit in air-conditioned comfort in the control room telling each other how incredibly brilliant and creative they are.

You could almost imagine the scenario.

"Hey guys, wasn't that spooky Halloween VT stuff great?"

A chorus of "Yeah man, absolutely brill."

A lone voice from a (very) junior member of the team "I wonder what the viewers thought about it though."

A few seconds of stunned silence.

"Viewers? Viewers? What the hell have those simpletons got to do with it? We're creating quality TV here you moron. What the hell would viewers know about that! Bloody peasants!"

Applause all round and then.

"By the way, you're fired."



It grieves me to say it, but there are times when watching Fforsyth instead of the inane videos would be an improvement.

Sure, but why would Louise Rainbow be looking for it?

If enough people feel strongly about the VTs, maybe they will change back to the old format where we saw the couples training. I don't think anyone likes the new scripted "comedy" VTs.

To be fair to the producers, it's difficult to make a claim that no-one likes what they're doing when they're winning in the audience ratings every week by a long way against a show with a much bigger budget...

The comedy vts are one of the very few things I dislike about the show, the training vts were so much better, I would sign a petition.

The porcine aviators will be along any minute now

(1) The VTs are they to help them change sets and props and get the dancers into position and set the cameras up for thst dance, you are not going to get back to back dances.

(2) Why when the show is the best LE programme on TV, and getting ten million viewers should they change it.

(3) I enjoy them! If you have a petition can you give an option for people who like them.

(4) Training room footage is shown on ITT

Far to many people here are on self destruct on this excellent show, chipping away, I do not like bruce, I do not like Tess, I do not like Claudia, I do not like VTs.

As said its the best LE show on TV if it ant broke don't fix it, ( like XF which is fixed)

Have you considered what it's up against in contextualising the viewing figures? Just wondered like

I record strictly now so I can fast forward the VTs cause they're so pointless

I disagree very strongly especially with the BIB. A fraction of the viewers watch ITT. Also, comparatively little of ITT shows the couples training and progress or lack of. We basically see Ian on Wednesday commenting for a few minutes and some more footage shown on Thursday, but it is a very very few minutes over five days.

Yes you need VTs. That's is what the training VTs were for, (with 10 million viewers) to fill the time, and indeed, they would include footage all the way up to the Friday and Saturday dress runs if something was worth commenting on, like mishaps. They could have shown the same for Steve and Ola. Seeing the couples as they really are, going through an at times stressful process, made you much more invested in the couples and involved in their journey. I know next to nothing about them now. I don't know if they find dances difficult or not. I don't know if they really get on. I don't know what the celeb thinks about a dance. I don't know anything. This is why I have barely voted since the comedy VTs came on the scene.

It is now a stupid, idiotic, scripted and inane panto, insulting adult viewers intelligence. I would like to see a row occasionally like Ramps and Karen's. That and two people working together shows it's not all sweetness and light but can produce results worth working for and shows how hard work can achieve things.

you forgot the bit about being clever enough to get a whirly camera boom and stabilised mancam, just because they could that way blow £40k more of licence payer's money than making the couples dance on an equally idiotic but cheaper fairground roundabout.

Really interesting reading your comments - thanks everyone. I understand that a petition might not result in anything but I feel as a fan I need to stand up about it as it's ruining my ilenjoment of the show. Id be satisfied in part with a reply from the bbc explaining why they do them. Well semi satisfied. For example if there was evidence that a wide proportion of the audience like them, then id have to accept I was in the minority. I don't think a show being popular is a reason for not expressing your opinion, the show should be responsive to it's fan reaction positive and negative (I recognise this isn't always the way).

Terrific post, particularly what you say in the last para.