Oh, I'm not saying they are at all (my friend has watched since series one and still can only pick Anton out of the pro line up) but Helen's ballet has been a drum well and truly banged even on just the Saturday show.

I think the issue with what James said about celebs who are trained/Jay is the hypocrisy of his comments. He didn't complain when he was given celebs with experience, and he bent over backwards to defend DVO when people were moaning about her experience!

and I am sure he will win, he has everything going for him, he is a young, fit, handsome guy who plays in a boyband and he can dance. He's got it made.

Strictly isn't 'fair' in lots of ways.

You have experienced dancers vs complete beginners

You have people who are young vs people who are in their dotage

You have people who have massive celebrity status and popularity vs people that nobody has ever heard of

You have people who are incredibly fit after a lifetime of sporting achievement vs people whose idea of exercise is lifting a pint

You have people who are in between jobs an have nothing else to do vs people who have to turn up at a TV studio at all hours every day to do their day job and somehow fit the dance training around it.

You could make a case for pretty much all of them having an 'unfair' advantage or disadvantage in one way or another.

Very nice post

I agree

Agree too - explained it very neatly!

Considering it's actually a popularity contest, the only way to make it a fair dance contest is to:

1: ensure nobody has ever danced a step of dance before
2: no tweeting at all during strictly lest you may be more affable and funny than another
3 all celebs must dance with the same pro to ensure the public aren't swayed by the pro or the partnership
4: no TV/paper interviews at all so as not to sway opinion
5: everyone must be the same age weight and height
6 all dances must be danced to the same song to ensure no bias
7: everybody must dance the same choreography for each dance to ensure that bad choreo doesn't sway people.
8: no vt or training footage to ensure the witty celebs don't gain an advantage.
9: no working during strictly, everyone dances exactly the same training hours
10: all dances must be performed at the same time in the same slot so nobody gets the "pimp" slot.

Or we could just accept as I said earlier that advantages come in many forms.

For example 3M Twitter followers
Being on TV every morning talking about your experience
Having dance training
Having a funny likeable pro
Having a personality
Having performance experience
Being physically fit and active.

I also agree 😀

Extremely well put 😀😄😆

Totally agree 😄😀😆

I had no problems with Natalie Gumede being a trained dancer. I had problems with Artem that year, though, which I suppose might have impacted upon my support for Natalie. When Artem first joined Strictly, his choreography was fresh and innovative. By the time he was paired with Natalie, it felt very tired, especially as quite a bit of it was just a rehash of his choreography for Kara. I didn't blame Natalie for Artem's choreography, but I think I would have been more enthusiastic about her if she had been paired with a pro who wasn't just phoning in his choreography. As it was, I don't think I was particularly enthusiastic about anyone that year.

As for some of the other trained dancers that got to the final:
- The problem with Denise van Outen was that she and James seemed to bring out the worst in each other, making them quite unlikable as a pairing. If Denise had been paired with a different pro, it might have made a difference.
- Jill Halfpenny was very sweet, and every week stated how happy she was to be doing Strictly and to have survived in the competition for another week. In contrast, Denise Lewis in the same series, was a top athlete and (understandably since it's part of what made her a top athlete) came across as very competitive in her first VT. I liked both Jill and Denise, but I can understand that there would have been viewers who preferred Jill's sweetness to Denise's competitiveness.

There have been a number of contestants over the years for whom their previous dancing experience has been forgiven, while other contestants get a lot of flak for it. Sometimes it's personality and partnership which determine how well a trained dancer is received, and not the fact of their training or their openness about it. It isn't fair, but I doubt things will change significantly with regard to this issue.


James is certainly entitled to his opinion but on this matter, he doesn't actually have an opinion as it changes according to who he and/or Ola is paired with and how well they're doing in the competition.

Great posts from natalian and BMLisa, agree with what you're writing.

Then she's gone up even more in my estimation!

I agree too but would like to add that in one of the weekday progs they analysed the backgrounds of all previous winners. Seems the largest proportion of winners have been actors. It looks as though celebs with an acting background have the greatest advantage.

Excellent post..I have to admit that I have favoured some dancers over non-dancers and vice versa merely because I liked their personality!!

It's currently 3 actors (Jill, Tom, Kara), 3 sports personalities (Darren, Mark, Louis), 3 presenters (Natasha, Chris, Caroline), 2 musicians/singers (Alesha, Harry) and a model (Abbey), but the segment was poor stats imo because it neglected to factor in that there have been, say, far more actors who've done the show than there have been models in the first place. I think if you break it down by profession, it's actually musicians and singers who have done the best on average.

Its always been the same and to make it fair they shouldnt allow singers, actors, as they have an advantage.

I dont see the problem with somebody who has had dance training because most have it in a complete different area to ballroom and latin. It wouldnt bother me if the person had it that though either.

I wish we had a 'like' button.

I used to think the judges were quite harsh and unfair on James when he was on the show.

However, after watching him on CBB and reading his constant hypocritical shite on twitter, I get their drift.

He really is something else.

He also mostly supports / likes whoever is 'current' in the Reality TV world.

I've stopped reading his SCD tweets, they are full of bitterness.

I've stopped reading his SCD tweets because they are full of touting for his wife's tacky calendar.!

Also last year wasn't James supporting Caroline and saying on twitter that the press were being unfair to her and bullying her because of her dancing background? Don't get me wrong I wanted Caroline and Pasha to win but as others said James' view on previous experience seems to differ from series to series.

He was, but you have to remember she was up against TWO Cliftons and Kristina, and James gets on with Pasha, so it was special circumstances.

I'm so sad I went back to look and yes he was, but he was presenting Caroline as the learner and having digs at Pixie as the person with too much training, so he's trying to do the same trick again for Peter. Though on the final, once she was against people with less training:

James JordanVerified account ‏@The_JamesJordan Dec 20
Remember people naturally think people at the top have more chance of winning...
They don't .

Be nice to see the best win.

Caroline

So basically he'll say anything from one week to another to push his friends.

Nope, loved Natalie, wanted her to win and still annoyed we never got to see her jive with her magnificent hair unleashed.