http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/s...t-fair-6670571

James (rent-a-gob) Jordan is at it again. SCD isn't fair with trained dancers in it - he says.

Strictly has always had trained dancers. It has to have them. The charm of the Jeremy's and Anne's and Judy's wears off after a while and it would be boring to watch them week in, week out. They should be the light relief, not the main act.

Also, he claims that he has always said that Jay would win. I thought Peter was his shoo-in for the glitter ball?

He seems desperate to stay 'relevant' by saying anything to get in the media.

Funny how James didn't mention him getting six contenders in a row (including trained dancers) in that article.

He did say Jay would win.

Presumably after Ola was back from training and told him about Jays dance experience and how good he was.

Tbh it's absolutely ridiculous for him to make comments about how unfair it is when he had his fair share of trained dancers himself.

ETA also people generally actually quite like his usual fair and unbiased Twitter comments, even with Ola's partners, but his agenda is definitely showing this year. Every dance Jay does comes with the caveat "what do you expect from a trained dancer"

The 'trained' dancers make it bearable but I think the scoring should take into account a celeb's starting point. Craig's sneering at Jeremy doesn't take into account his starting point ditto his fawning over Jay the other week.

On the other hand being fair might not make good television.

James is like most folk, in that his opinion is coloured by what's happening to him(possibly also slash what whoever is paying him at the at the time wants to hear). Ola gets the beginner and gets evicted = bad. James gets the dance trained contender and gets evicted = also bad.

Unfortunately for James, what he says tends to hang around - and there are some of us who remember his complete whinge fest spanning a good week of ITT episodes when Cherie was eliminated over John Sargent (vote for the dancing, people) and his volte face barely a year later when Ola won with Chris who feel the urge to snigger just a little.

Aliona also seems to be one of the people James doesn't get on with.

James did say Jay at the beginning. He's been part of the 'Jay's been dancing since he was three, unlike anyone who's ever been on the show ever before and Peter's just a learner' media machine that's going on since before the series started.

I think James is entitled to his opinion and he's entitled to put it on twitter, same as the rest of us. And this article might be pasted together quotes rather than a new interview, because god forbid the Mirror go a day without an article on Jay.

But I thought that James putting a smiley face on his tweet saying Jay made mistakes was spiteful.

I'm not sure how that would work in practice, though. When it comes down to it, it's the leaderboard ranking that are the important thing - not each individual mark or even the comments (although I do think the comments tend to stick with people and affect the public note more than the scores do, anyway).

At this stage, it's basically a competition of 2 halves anyway. The top/middle of the leaderboard are safe and it's the lower/middle and bottom the ones in danger - which is where the one to leave would come from anyway. By the time the middle/top become vulnerable then they've all had three or so months of intensive training so even a beginner, provided they had the apptitude is going to have caught up significantly to the original front runners.

oh shut up James - you werent complaining about trained dancers when you were paired up with Denise Van Outen!

Only when she coped the flak for being trained

Oh dear, someone wasn't feeling very relevant this week, were they?

I liked James when he was in the show. I like his Twitter commentary on the dances (barring the occassional bitchy aside), but outside of that he really is one bitter mess of a man. I guess Twitter-pimping his wife's T&A in lieu of working for a living leaves him plenty of time to fester.

James also said P'Duh had the 'best intensity he had ever seen' on Strictly' Oh and that he had the best dance of the night last Saturday For me, even with mistakes, Jays was a far superior dance.

He wants P'Duh to win, but thinks Jay will.

That's just what I was going to say.

I think with dancing you either have 'got it' or you haven't. No amount of training could teach someone without rhythm. As for the celebs new to dancing just look at Anita she is fantastic and will hopefully be in the final.

Threads like this make me even more pleased I don't bother with things like Twitter.

James IS spiteful and he's also a massive hypocrite.
I wish they had never ever given him the opportunity to dance on the show. Every time he opens his mouth he reinforces my first opinion of him (as a nasty, attention seeking, arrogant twonk.)
The list of his complaints about the show are endless and yet who would know or care about anything he had to say if it wasn't for his appearances on Strictly?

All the other ex-pros have managed to move on graciously. You don't see Lilia or Matthew Cutler rambling on and on like the bitter drunk who doesn't know when it's time to call a cab.

Not awarding a 3 following sarcastic comments might be a good starting point as would reflecting on what has been achieved rather than what could have been achieved if someone were at a professional standard. On the other hand Craig and his comments serve a purpose (entertainment) so to change it would change the nature of the show.

I don't think that beginners can really catch up with dancers with more training who are also putting the hours in finessing their footwork and general performance. The most difficult part of dancing or any activity is getting the basics right because everything stems from that. Some people can never manage that - Dave, Judy, Anne, Jerry, Nancy no matter how long they train and that provides entertainment value to the viewing public.

As I'm writing, I'm realising that it doesn't matter - it's just an entertainment show and along with the cheesy VTs, nans and kids, inappropriate music choices and Bruno falling off a chair it's what enables Strictly to win its slot. Fairness doesn't come into it

They probably don't catch up as in 'get better than' but they can catch up enough so that when they win against someone with a higher starting point it doesn't seem a farcical result

Some people just aren't dancers - and all the training in the world isn't going to make them so. Some people are more natural and the intensive training is going to bring them on super fast. It's the difference, if you like, between Kirsty and Anita.

I see the papers have little bits in this morning about Katie going to a dance school in Sandbach and someone saying they don't remember her with thick spectacles and braces then.

James has made the point about it being a lot less about learning to dance now before, and in that, he is right.

It starts with hiring pros who do not know the 10 dances, and therefore how to teach them or how to choreograph them well. That is one of the signs that the show has gone away from it's roots.

I'd prefer that they hired people who are beginners and who had the potential to become good dancers, but finding a source among celebrities who fit that CV is actually quite difficult. Its going to be more difficult than ever (which we have maybe seen this year with the male celebs) to get beginners to sign up if they know they can be paired with pros who cannot get them to their potential, while competing against those who had previous dance training.

But Strictly has never been a level playing field and James didn't complain when it was tilted in his favour. Also he didn't like that celebs could succeed because of their personality and chemistry with their pro - eg. John Sergeant.

In the previous 12 series, it is very arguable that the best dancer didn't win in 6 of them. That is the real point. It's not a dance competition, it's an entertainment show based on a dance learning competition.

Good point.

Do you think he realises that he will never get high profile work on television again?

Anyway, ever since CBB, I've said he is angling for a Ch5 reality show.
You read it here first folks.

Yes you're exactly right fairness doesn't come into it at all so likewise people who supported Matt, Denise Lewis, Gethin might be put out when their journey contestant is beaten by someone with experience. It's also the case that supporters of DVO, Kimberley, Colin, Rachel Stevens, Ricky Whittle, Natalie Gumede get annoyed that the journey contestants beat out the superior dancer.

It's a pretty even spread of winners that have zero dance experience, a bit of stage school, or a bit of dance experience as youngsters so Id say that dance experience is an advantage early on, but is certainly no guarantee of winning or even getting to the final.

The public will get captured by a couple, whether it's their partnership (Harry and Aliona) a Wow dance (Ola and Chris) the journey (Darren gough) the expert dancer (Jill) the romance (Kara and Artem) the swell of good feeling for a contestant prior to the show (Alesha, Louis).

There is no formula for a winner thus far so it's literally pointless to worry about any supposed advantage. Because advantages come in many different packages.

As far as I'm concerned provided they don't have ballroom or Latin training, they are a novice.

He's only saying what loads of other people have said on this forum over the years. Every year there is endless tiresome threads about contestants previous dance experience and how unfair it is but the minute James Jordan says something everyone throws their arms up in the air and say "how dare he say such a thing"!!

Having said that I do agree it's very hypocritical of him as he wasn't complaining when he was paired with DVO. In fact he went to great lengths to defend her and her previous experience.

Exactly, and he doesn't seem to have had a career plan set in place when Strictly came to an end. Others have moved on, had families, done tours, run dancing schools, done guest appearances on TV, yet James and Ola just seem to scrape by living off her earnings mainly. Well that's how it appears. Don't even own their own house. Time to get off your sofa James and do some work because I can't see Ola back on Strictly anymore either.

......and he wouldn't have been complaining had Ola been partnered with Jay this year, either!