I think the key is how it is managed. Caroline had had a lot of previous training, including some ballroom and Latin but managed not to look too polished and appear diffident and nervous about her ability rather than defensive about her past. Jay, in my opinion, is presenting himself in exactly the same way.

There might well be many contestants who have had some degree of dance training but what is wrong that information being declared before the competition starts rather than it being the result of some sort of 'detective' work? If Jay's training was out there why did we almost immediately have a specific thread on Helen declaring her a 'ringer' but nothing about Jay?

With Jay it isn't just about the training. He is young, male and in a band. That is a pretty good starting point for any contestant even with no training. Add in Tess holding his hand and going out of her way to emphasise how nervous and shy he was (was he really the only one) and you pretty much have a load of pluses even before the judges start bigging him up and effectively hand him the trophy after three weeks.

And to put the 1.2M views in context, SCD put the highest scoring dance as a post at the end of the show. The last two weeks were Peter (even though Jay scored higher last week, Peter was top of leaderboard)

Peters two videos from the first two weeks have 180k and 120k respectively and have been available for viewing/sharing for 1-2 weeks.

Clearly the dance is creating a buzz and people were excited by it. Having scrolled through some of the thousands of comments I can't find anything begative

On the other hand he is 'peaking' very, very early. Early favourites don't generally win, particularly in recent years.

It does concern me a bit to be honest as its very true, except for Abbey Clancy who many argue that she peak in week 1.

It all depends if there is more to come from him or if he can at least maintain a large portion of his voting fans till the very end.

Lol Fuschia! Naughty naughty!

I would be amazed if Jay had not danced some ballroom and latin at the schools he went to. I'm even more suspicious since that jive was so good!

I don't mind him being in the show, and he is obviously very talented irrespective of previous experience, but as someone said earlier (Bendymixer?), he is the ringiest of ringahs!

Exactly. I seriously doubt many would tune in to watch a show with absolute complete dance novices.

X Factor has very few novices too these days. Many have been in the industry for years or have had record contracts People want to see acts that can sing well.
I have no problem with acts that have had some dance training. I want to see great dances and I loved watching Jay and Aliona last night.

Totally agree, has to one of the best ( if not the best) jives I have seen on this show.

Iwan could have trained until the end of days, and even in his dreams he wouldn't have been able to pull off a dance like that. Ever.

This is what the early weeks are about - sorting out the wheat from the chaff and giving the less experienced time to get their skills in place, the leaderboard naturally protects the top/top middle at this stage of the show so for some there is a definite learning breathing space. After a couple of months of top one-on-one tuition the newer starters with ability have caught up and the gap is much smaller. It actually looks like being a goo contest this year.

The standard Jay achieved at the end of his jive was so high that it would take a lot of training to achieve it and more than is on offer to celebs coming into the show with minimal or no previous training. The producers clearly want a male winner this year and Jay will produce some great dancers along the way.

Between those gooing themselves over Jay, those gooing themselves over Peter, and those gooing themselves over Gleb most likely.

Totally agree Bendy, but I am really enjoying his dancing, would be a boring show without these "ringahs". I really don;t have a problem with previous dance training, so long as its not ballroom and latin.

Not to mention the gooing over Alijaz. Not much goo for Pasha this year though.

Shame Natalie Gumbede was given such a hard time.

Give me a minute...

Spot on, I wouldn't tune in to watch the likes of Ainsley/Jeremy/Kirsty. I always sky+ so I can cut out the needless prattle ...I just enjoy the dancing, I have watched Jay/Helen/Kellie/Anita's dances three time up to now, imo it was a great night for the best dancers.....

they breed so fast, these Jays, don't they? It's his partner's womb I feel sorry for.

I'm no goo-er for Pash, but I did love his choreography last night. It was a lovely dance, notwithstanding Carol wasn't really capable of doing it justice.

And not even a 9 month series!

the telly has never seen this much goo since Ola won Strictly Come Dancing.
(She was dancing with a partner, eh? Who knew?)

Whilst I'm not against celebrities who have previous dance training taking part, I think they and the BBC should be upfront about it. It has been widely reported that Helen has had ballet training (and it's mentioned at every opportunity), why haven't the other celebs who have previous dance training; of whatever type; been open about it? When it does come out, as is inevitable, it just looks bad - after all if they had training in hip hop or tap it probably doesn't help their ballroom or latin, but it is relevant.

Natalie was by far the best dancer in her series, but I guess not just being called a "ringah" by having previous dance experience, she was actually a trained professional dancer . Nethertheless I mostly loved her dances with Artem each week.

There might be quite a few gooing over Daniel (well maybe not ) - but they might be voting a lot.

I am finding Daniel surprisingly OK.