I couIdn't agree more, I can't stand Joanne and seriously hope she doesn't get paired with my favourite, Will Young.

Yep, you're right. Karen was the Champ Gurner.

Mind you, OTT facial 'expression' is part of ballroom, along with rictus grins and mad over-extensions. If you are taught that it must be a hard habit to break.

In other dance forms we just prefer natural emotion and less panto.

If I danced like her I'd be smug too, except she's not smug, is she? It's just you that doesn't like her

As for her not being paired with Will, I hope not too. I find him blandness personified and I hope she gets a more exciting celeb.

On the Strictly smugness scale, I would say Joanne gets quite a low score even though, as you point out, her dancing and career means she has good reason to be smug.

I quite like the idea of Will as a partner for her though

Well I certainly don't find Joanne irritating or smug in the slightest, and I'm rather befuddled as to why you do - perhaps that's because you've just labelled her as such rather than give any evidence or explanation for your views.
Not that you have to explain them, of course, each to their own - I just sometimes think it's wise to follow the mantra of 'if you've got nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all"!

Oh Brian, in this case this forum wouldn't exist.

That's very true!

No need to be rude about somebody else's chosen passion.

It's Karen I don't like as much

I don’t get a smug vibe from Joanne, especially last year when she took a really good attitude to her role without a celeb (though I’m not sure what the reasons behind it were). She seems to be very marmite for some reason, maybe some just don’t like her quirky personality? I like her a lot and her dancing even more

I find Joanne quite smug and I hate her voice but each to their own, some of us will like her and some of us won't! Same can be said for all the other pros.

How can you find Will Young bland, he is great, funny, a nice person and also a good singer!

At least we have a programme which, by and large, is devoted to our passion. If others don't like it, but still feel compelled to watch it, well that's too bad for them!

(Notice that I ended that sentence with an emoticon style rictus grin in keeping with my over the top, ballroom personality.....)

[Exits stage in high heels and a shower of sequins 👠💃]

Same way I question you, "How can you find Joanne smug?" I don't think she's smug at all.

Will, however, could be called Whiny Young imo. I hate his singing voice, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. His personality is beyond bland, his music is anything but remarkable. So, each to their own, I suppose.

Please tell me that I am not the only one who watches the show, enjoys the dancing and takes it for what it is. A saturday night light entertainment program. Going by the negativity in the Strictly forum it is amazing that it gets the viewers that it does.

The mere fact that a lot of people are constantly having debates about pros, dances, song choices. .....prove what a success this show is and how engaged its audience is . I don't see discussions about those things as " negativity " or ":hate ".

I don't see Joanne as smug either. I have met her (and Kevin) many times over the years; like Kevin, she is very natural; she doesn't "put on act" for the cameras, and is bursting with enthusiasm for dance. She is also confident about her ability, something which, for some reason, some people mistake for smugness.

I have to say I was very impressed at the way she described dance moves on ITT last year.

90% of it isn't negativity- just passionate responses; and even those negative 10% are dissing it because an aspect of the show they love is -in their eyes- getting flak. If people really don't like something, they don't engage with it in the first place.

If you're looking for positivity, there's always the appreciation threads upstairs.

I thought she was excellent on ITT; away from the high octane, sound-bitey format of the main show she could show more aspects of her personality. Yet another reason to do away with stupid comedy VTs and show us the dancers in actual training.

I think Joanne might have initially come across as smug since she was trying to instill Scott Mills with confidence. She had to talk him up at every opportunity since he was just the sort of person to talk himself down.

I don't mind Joanne at all. She's a beautiful dancer and glorious to watch. I think she got better and calmed down a lot.

Kudos to her for working on her voice. Good on her. I love ambition. I liked the way she handled choreography corner so much better than Karen the Mega Gurner!

Her brother, I fear lacks not only his sister's ability to dance with real grace and feeling, but the intellect to judge himself, re-evaluate his talents' see what needs to change. She's way ahead of him on that score.

I don't mind Kevin. He is cheesy and I do find too many of his routines dependant on him in the role of nerd and a bit heavy on the musical theatre style. However on the plus side he does a workman like job of everything and I applaud him for that.

I think his paso with Suzanna epitomises the way I see him. He threw every possible paso cliche into that routine and then some, but at the same he threw every shred of effort he could possibly throw into that routine and then some. If you see what I am getting at.