I said 'so far its pants' after the first six I think, so not that premature. Anyway its had a decent response from the likes of you, so thanks for that!
Now we are up to 11, and the latest two are the usual Breakfast TV and Olympic 'suspects'. The gymanast is hardly well known amongst the current 'heroes' crop. My guess is another one will be thrown in too.
I am not suggesting some of them will not be able to dance. Some of them always can! But to me there have been far more initially exciting lineups than this one.

I think you find the thread was started at only 5 of 15, which is very premature and by now we can see the celebrities are far from the technical term of " pants" and a great line up.

You state Olympic gymnast Claudia Fragapane is " hardly well known" maybe not to you, I was watching her this very week in the Oylimpic games, Claudia made history by winning four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
She also won three successive silvers at the European Championships and was named Young Sports


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...g-line-up.html

Do consider, if you start a thread with an emotive title, with your opinions in an open forum, you will get or provoke responses, and they also are very much entitled to thier opinions as well.

At 5/15 celebrities this thread IMHO to tarnish the names as pants was very premature.

I don't usually watch Strictly but I plan to now simply because Claudia is in it and I have enjoyed watching the team in Rio.

That's your opinion though, not fact! Its all down to where your interests lie and who you are familiar with. I think the lineup started well but, in terms of people I've heard of or consider to impressive signings, it soon fizzled out. Again, this is my opinion - I'm not interested in the olympics, I don't consider models to be celebrities, and I think four fairly interchangeable presenters is really dragging it down.

I'm sure some of these people are really lovely and I'll enjoy watching them, but there's not a lot that's making me go "wow"!.

For me personally the line up is looking great. There are only three I haven't heard of and none of them are reality TV stars, which are my biggest bugbear. I'm not a fan of Ed Balls being in the line-up but he's the only one that got an "Ugh?" when I read the announcement Considering they're never going to get A-listers I think signings like Will Young, Anastasia and Louise Redknapp are about as good as it gets for Strictly. I also love the participation of the Olympians. They have done our country very, very proud in Rio and are true inspirations to many young people. Strictly seems like the ideal post-Olympics opportunity for one or two of them to enjoy their moment in the sun.

Ed Balls I have heard of, but would struggle to pick out of a line up. Louise and Anastacia are not very current. Couple of blokes with hard to spell names.
Daisy Lowe I know of because she dated Matt Smith and is Gavin Rossdale's daughter. Bush the band wouldn't mean much to someone under 30 or even 40. Naga thingy and Laura Whitmore I have accidentally seen on TV while channel hopping.
I've never watched Hollyoaks, don't know Danny Mac.

I remember Will Young when he was a singer and the Gymnast I have seen as people keep going on about how short she is.

Apart from that its not a bad line up.

That's a rather strange statement! Will's last album reached the No1 spot!

Gymnasts have a very good track record on reality shows like Strictly/ Dancing With The Stars and Dancing On Ice. Beth Tweddle, Louis Smith and Shawn Johnson. It isn't surprising as to be a top gymnast you have to be very disciplined and dedicated. I would imagine that Claudia will do well.

Mega sales do that nowadays. Has he not been dropped by Sony ?

Actually apart from Laura Whitmore's voice there at least isn't somebody annoying like Lulu on. Yet.
Will be interested to see how Anastasia and Claudia Fragapane will do to be honest.

What, Melvin?

But surely that's only if you're more interested in 'celebrity' then what the show is actually about? I could give a flying monkey's about how famous and well known they are, I'm more interested in what they dance like and how they come across when the show gets going.

Their skill and personality isn't at all affected by how many column inches they produce and it's those things that make the show good.

I think on the plus side the majority of the cast so far is made of people who will want to actually do a bit of work to keep themselves in the show. Usually (it seems to me, anyway) there are at least two or three who sign up with obvious little intention of getting further than the first few weeks aka easy pay cheque/having the opportunity to get their hands on a dancer. So in terms of that I think it's not a bad line-up. But I admit I would not like to see anymore presenters this season, tv or otherwise!

That's probably the attitude taken by a lot of die hard Strictly fans who would watch whatever, but there are a lot of casual viewers who decide whether to bother watching based on who's in the line up. You don't see their skill and personality until they start, so they base it on who they've heard of/comes from a show they like etc. In that respect, this is not a particularly diverse cast (so far) that would capture the interest of a range of 'floating' viewers.

Then, considering the show's remarkably high ratings every year, it must have been very lucky!

Tbh I don't think you're right. SCD is a brand name in its own right and will have an audience regardless as long as it doesn't have people who are genuinely off putting.. A few would watch purely for someone they particularly like but considering the age profile of the audience, I think they watch more for the show than who is on it.

Absolutely spot on!

There are one/two who make me go, " wow" but the rest are up to the SCD standard, some posters may not know everyone, but maybe they shouldn't be provoking by posting a series is " pants" when 5/15 celebrities are only announced. That feels like a predetermined view, that whoever is announced they feel it would be pants.

Now , finally, we have all the names it's.



Brilliant!

Fantastic lineup very pleased that we have two Olympians as contestants really like both Greg and Claudia

Well, I think this thread's well and truly done. It might be my favourite ever line-up on paper.

I think its a strong line up.

However,

Claudia / Melvin / Daisy will struggle for votes I feel.

I think Laura is more likely to struggle for votes than Claudia.

I agree. Claudia has the Olympic boost behind her. Even if she and Greg are rubbish (I doubt it), they'll make it some way at least.

I do think Melvin will struggle, even Ed (whether good or bad) is going to have people voting for him. Laura will probably do decent but will probably be vying with Daisy for the same kind of vote.

Yes, I think Melvin will get lost in this line up, which is a shame as he seems a nice guy and probably won't be too bad.

Whenever I read articles about Laura, there's always loads of comments underneath about how smug she is - whether it's true or not, the appearance of it never goes down well with Strictly viewers so she'll need to come over a lot better on TV.

I've always got the smug vibe off her too sadly. I'm sure she's a nice girl and will probably be a decent dancer, but unlike Caroline for me from two years ago, she's not that got that down-to-earth, self-deprecating feel about her.

Everything can change that though, that's Strictly for you!