Andy Murray has played two 3-hour-plus games in the last two days. Early signs are that Djokovic's semi-final, playing now, is going to be a very quick and easy win for him. And as he had a day's rest yesterday, the chances are he will have a pretty easy and quick win over Murray tomorrow. If it's a one-sided match by 7.15 people will be switching over to BBC1.

And running in April and May was wrong too, notice how they always schedule it competitively with Syco shows. Why?
It's a quintessential Christmas show, air two or more episodes a week closer to Christmas.

To be fair the backing dancers are a rarity but they have been there for a few years at Blackpool. I certainly don't think it was enough to label it dreadful. My continuing gripe is that Danny was always just a bit of polish away from being a pro himself and Ed Balls (tonight) playing it a bit too straight imo.

Nice sarcastic post. Yes, the backing dancers made it dreadful. And not just that, there was no atmosphere at all. Blackpool is something that I look forward to every year on Strictly and this year it was dire. Last year was just the same but this year was worse. And because of the backing dancers the routines had too much faffing and not enough focus on the couple. Overmarking was evident. Peter Kay's cameo saved it, he was hilarious.

Is that enough criticism for you? Only in the past few years extra dancers has been normal.

And it's scheduled on a Saturday night, the perfect day for it. Wouldn't really fit on any other night on BBC1. (Compare with Tonight From The London Palladium which does fit on a Wednesday because Wednesday at 8pm on ITV has long been an entertainment slot. That's where I remember The Benny Hill Show being on most of the time in the eighties, not to mention the variety series Wednesday At Eight which couldn't really go anywhere else - although it had to change its title to London Night Out after football coverage meant STV had to show Wednesday At Eight on Tuesday at nine.)

It is but those female dancers bring a certain something something to the show.

Scantily clad beautiful people sell whether they are contestants or dancers. Or people showering under a waterfall.

I thought I made it clear that any criticism was too much? I'm really not sure what BBC is supposed to do about a lack of atmosphere (not that I have any clue as to what that actually means) - use cattle prods to gee up the audience? But then I suppose I can't take any comment too seriously from someone who thinks ...

Last year was just the same but this year was worse.

.. is a coherent critique!

Seeing as Syco shows are on Sat nights for over 20 weeks every year maybe it's just that it couldn't be avoided.

And as for being a Christmas show, I really don't see that at all. It's the kind of LE that should be a staple of Saturday nights all the year through, and especially in peak telly season.

Ah, you've seen Gleb's Argentine Tango on DWTS, then?

They're the reason the X Factor trailer is my current favourite TV trailer.

Okay.

The dances were overmarked.
There was too much cheering.
The atmosphere was over-hyped but fell flat.
The dances (minus Danny and Ore) failed to live up to expectations.
Hate the backing dancers.

Copied from my post on the Strictly forum. Is that enough detail for you?

I see you've joined the BBC can't do any wrong club with ADP who apparently thinks I'm an X Factor poster despite not watching the show.

Didn't you know. SCD is above criticism.

The backing dancers were very good. IMHO.
Marking is subjective and down to people's favourites, and seems that those who have a favourite then feel the other competitors are overmarked.

Great show tonight.

Detail aplenty. Justification round about zero.

I would make no claim to membership of the BBC can do no wrong club. I simply don't watch shows that I don't enjoy so that I can moan about them afterwards with other perpetual hole pickers and assorted grumps, whoever they're broadcast by! Nor am I so demented as to think that the BBC could or should present every broadcast minute exactly to my particular taste and absurdly inflated requirements.

You mentioned X Factor on a post of mine an hour or so back.

Disagree on all points.


The dances were overmarked.- subjective, each person has a favourite and thinks the others are overmarked, for one forum post that a celebrity is overmarked there is another that it's under marked.
There was too much cheering. - er audience enjoyed it, how to stop that? Should they be quiet?
The atmosphere was over-hyped but fell flat. Er ...how over hyped, how flat, subjective.
The dances (minus Danny and Ore) failed to live up to expectations. Bar Eds which did have mistakes, I found them great but subjective.
Hate the backing dancers.personal preference, I like it now and again and always are a feature in Blackpool.


Agree.

Take a look at the Strictly Forum sometime. There are people there who think no dance in the history of the competition has been worth more than 6 cos they're never done 'properly'. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so bloody depressing. God alone knows why they're still watching a programme about which they hate everything!

Yes, because you constantly mention it in your posts, it's beyond comprehension seeing as you claim to not watch the show and hate it. You somehow linked a poor Children in Need rating to X Factor's decline.

Mentioning X Factor once doesn't make me an X Factor poster

Yes agree there are a few negative posters there.

Without starting an argument, you denied a XF post on mine, then agree you did.

CIN link was the rating on a LE show is very similar to XF, but some feel XF is great but CIN is poor, which is double standards.

I don't know why Craig underscored Kevin and Louise. It is blatantly obvious this year that the judges are biased towards their favourites.

Neither do I. I watch Strictly because I love it and enjoy it, and so I'm criticising it for the first time this series because the show was poor, in my opinion.

Neither am I. Looks like we agree on something!

And just for you Baz, here's my justification:

The dances were overmarked - Claudia's jive didn't deserve 4 9s, it wasn't fluid and she made mistakes. Louise looked like she was being dragged around but still managed 2 10s. Danny got 40 with mistakes.
There was too much cheering - the audience were told to cheer more because it's Blackpool so it's special which caused:
The atmosphere was over-hyped but fell flat - this was Blackpool, it had been talked about all week, and yet there were sound issues, the dances were poor and the camera work was shoddy. For the so called "special week" it should have been a special effort.
The dances (minus Danny and Ore) failed to live up to expectations - see above.
Hate the backing dancers - they get in the way, they block your view of the celebs who are being marked, they distract you from what should be the main focus.

And every time there's a Cowell show on, BBC One should roll over, put dead air up against it, and give it free reign? Umm I don't think so.

I'm going for 10.8m for SCD, 6.3m for X Factor as it the best live show of the series personally and 9m for IAC

It's blatantly obvious that you can't prove that judges are biassed in favour of anyone with an example of how a judge (in your opinion) demonstrated bias against a particular couple. You can argue all you want about individual scores being too high or two low but I've generally been in agreement with the order on the leaderboard at the end of most shows which, after all, is all that counts.