I guess it is equally as irritating for Anita's supporters when people go on about Gleb being the reason for her wins like she doesn't even need to bother turning up

Personally, while I don't think that the Jay/Aliona partnership is anything special to write home about, and I don't see them being anything magical in comparison to other SCD winning couples, but maybe that's just me. ....I do think though that their wins are most definitely well deserved and my only surprise is that he isn't winning them all as I thought before the tour started no one else would have got a look in. I was sorry not to have gone to the tour this year as I'd love to have seen their Jive danced live.

It is just you and a few others, Dilly! Just as I don't see the appeal in Gleb!

We've never witnessed such a genuine growing friendship, mutual respect, personal closeness, care of and concern for each other, harmony of temperament, delight in each other's company off the dance floor, melding of attitudes towards 'doing' SCD on their terms, obvious and declared mutual love, plus their strong connection coming over to the public and making that public want to show their pleasure in the couple's partnership, their shared joy of their dancing and approval of their conduct throughout...plus exquisite moving, exciting and artistic dancing. It surely is a once-in-a-lifetime alliance.

Well said, Korky!

Who's going on about his being in a boy band being the reason he won? I think he won because his nerves and shy manner struck a chord in a lot of people's hearts (BiB 1) and because he could dance (BiB 2). I liked him too and was glad he won and look forward to him soon tying up the tour victory. Maybe then his more anxious fans can relax and accept that some people connected with Anita (or Georgia, or whomever) just as they connected with Jay.

Seriously? Words fail me.

If you really think that then you've clearly not been watching Strictly as long as I have. There have been some fabulous friendships between celeb and pro going right back to the start, to try and suggest that Jay and Aliona are anything special or unique in the shows history is laughable.

Some of the behviour on the Jay supporters thread is bordering on a bit weird. Discussing in depth which hotel they are staying in is creepy and stalkerish IMO.

I don't see any special appeal in Gleb either tbh. He seems to be a nice guy who is easy on the eye, and having a good time on tour but I'm as indifferent to him as I am to Jay.

Lol, nope.... I saw all this with Russell Grant and Flavia first tbh Korky.

I agree. I think Jay is a great dancer and I voted for him a few times this series, but he & Aliona are just one more in a list of great Strictly partnerships. They wouldn't even come in my top 5 in terms of chemistry and fun in VTs etc., but I suppose that's all very subjective.

Well they kind of expected Peter Andre to win judging by the headlines in the beginning and look what happened. And look how far Jeremy Vine went surpassing far better dancers than himself.
My point is these things are unpredictable. At the end of the day you as a participant have to persuade the public to vote for you - however you can. And the casting department does their job - convincing showbizz and other celebrities to participate. You are surely not complaining about the selection we had this year?

Ahhh that's an issue then isn't it you think the thread is bordering on a bit weird, we really don't want anyone to feel like that so hey ive come up with a solution maybe just don't go up there maybe be the less you see of the thread the better you'll feel.

Russell Grant - exquisite moving and artistic dancing? Well, each to their own, I suppose.

Well perhaps that was a little stretch too far (the rest of the description was them to a T ) but they're not really qualities exclusive to Jay I wouldn't say either. Again, each to their own I suppose and we all see things in some that others don't.

Yup I agree. Just off the top of my head there's Alesha and Matt, Louisa and Vincent, Jodie and Ian, Chelsee and Pasha, Chris and Ola, Susanna and Kevin and yes, Flavia and Russell Grant because you could just see how much they both enjoyed themselves during training and peformimg.

I don't think the relationship between Jay and Aliona was particuarly warm or close, he would have been good with whoever he was with. In fact I found how cougerish she was around him a little bit disturbing at times. Especially given that she's married. But that's just my opinion, I fully expect to be flamed by hysterical Jay fans for saying that.

Can I post a question to you. Actually I'm going to do it anyway, why do you feel the need to pick on Jay and Aliona fans still, first you comment about the appreciation thread not being to your taste why would it it's not aiming to please you, and now you comment on Aliona being what you say 'cougerish' What because she's a decent human who's ego doesn't blind her. I'm not attacking you but i'de really like to know how you've come to these conclusions this is us discussing btw please don't take it the wrong way we are are grown adults I'm assuming so let's have a grown adult discussion shall we?

It will be very interesting to see where the BBC go this year with Strictly contestants. Louis Smith, Harry Judd and Jay Mcguiness have done immensely well both on the series and the tour. Simon Webbe too was very close to winning and had a great tour iirc. It certainly isn't the case that these guys could have turned up and won without being any good but to me there is an obvious link between them and the far more Strictly passionate female audience of whatever age. Youthful males ticking the right dancing standard boxes have a far easier task in engaging the female audience enthusiasm than female contestants with the same ability imo.
The BBC dilemma is that if the is a Judd/McGuiness/Smith style contestant it might just telegraph the winner from the outset, and yet the lack of one could potentially put audience figures at risk.

I'm not picking on Jay and Aliona fans. But I am intrigued to know why you all get so frustrated by Anita and Gleb winning some shows on the tour? You do know that Jay and Anita are quite close and he's more than likely pleased for her, don't you?

All the pros are decent human beings by the way.

No, my comment was giving credit to the casting department for doing their job and finding a contestant who was talented and popular?

I'm sure jays good buddies with everyone as he is such a likeable individual, but saying that only Jay and Aliona 'fans' are frustrated by the wins of Anita isn't quite accurate. But it seems to me that you like to pin point only us were not the only supporters of a certain couple on here. There are dozens of posters whom they they show there affection to for their desired couple. My only intention was to give you the truth about Aliona's personality didn't mean to downgrade the other pros I'm sure their great

I think these thing go in cycles - at one point having represented your country at a sport (cricket in particular) was a huge plus point especially for the male celebs.

After 13 series is split as just about as evenly as it could be with 7 male wins over 6 female. Personally, don't think Simon ever came close to winning. Someone who is hauled through 3 dance offs over the course of a series is not an obvious contender. As for Louis, he was a medal winner in Olympic year. I think the only person who could have genuinely given him a contest in the later stages would have been Victoria had she taken to it a bit better.

The Strictly cast list is littered with personable, charming young guys who haven't even made it to half way. There's exboyband members and ex teenage heartthrobs who have barely scraped into the last few weeks. Then there's the female celebs who have been relatively unknown before hand and ended up as Strictly Legends.

Those responsible for the casting can only try to get a balance of age/experience/name recognition/profession - they can't predict with any certainty how they are going to connect with the viewers. For every Jay McGuiness there's a Nicky Byrne, for every Louis Smith there's a Mark Foster.

Have been a keen viewer of Strictly right back to Series One.

Back then it was thought handsome young men would 'always' win as 'women voted'.

Hmm - there have been 6 female winners and 7 male winners.

Those 7 men include Chris Hollins, Darren Gough and Tom Chambers - all very nice people I'm sure, but glamorous boy banders??

My favourite dancers until Jay and Aliona this year were Colin Jackson and Erin Boag. I thought Erin and Julian Clary had the best long term relationship - Julian went to Erin's wedding 5 years after their Strictly series! Neither were glamorous boy banders either

On current wins this formula is only correct 50% of the time.

I could imagine that being posted by any number of weird fan bases over the different Strictly series. Jay and Aliona might be a 'once in a lifetime' alliance for (some of) their fans but in general the Strictly audience is remarkably fickle.

By this time next year there will be a new golden couple, and in a hypothetical tour involving said golden couple and Jay and Aliona, Jay wouldn't win at all.

Exactly Perhaps I need to use more emojis in my posts

There is no sure-fire way of predicting who the majority of the public will connect with and for what reasons.
All that the casting department can do is pick a range of celebrities to appeal to the widest demographic and attract as many viewers as possible.

In fact, on a very simplistic level you could say that the casting department always gets it right, because the most popular contestant always wins, innit?

Three out of the last 5 years with Harry Louis and Jay suggests a recent trend. It doesn't have to be ex boybanders I would argue that if you put a personable good looking young male celeb into the line up now then he is at an advantage(accepting its not a guaranteed win) -obviously he has to have dance skills (people like Nicky Byrne simply weren't good enough and the audience recognise that). I hope to be proved wrong-like I say I will be interested to see who we get this year.