Self-explanotory

Great thread idea!

For me, Mark is the only choice!

He, like Derek, is very creative and innovative in his choreography - but doesn't cover for his partner's weaknesses with filler material in the same way that I feel Derek tries to do.

He always seems to build a strong relationship with his partners very quickly, and displays great chemistry with them on the floor (he was fantastic with Katherine Jenkins!).

Finally, he was born to British champions and grew up in the UK, so he just seems like a great choice!

Couldn't make a choice, as I've never heard of most of them, and the only one on that list I've actually seen dance is Gleb.

I thought Artem was on DWTS now?

OP asked for male and female, but could only vote for one! My choice would be Mark Ballas or Derek Hough as male choice, and Karina Smirnoff as female choice.

Keo, Alan, Emma or Witney I'll go for. We need more Americans

Derek Hough, the only one I go onto YouTube to watch.

Derek

That he is. The list seems to be culled from a rather old source. Mrak Ballas and Tony Dovolani are absent from the current series, for example.

Well, to be honest I'd take all of them. Much as it pains me to say it DWTS is far and away superior to Strictly in every imaginable way now and this is reflected in the standard of the pros. It's no surprise to me that with the choice to make between over there and over here Len has opted for the former.

No, no, no!

I do love a lot of the pros on DWTS, but I think Strictly is far better in quality.

DWTS is more gimmicky, has shorter dances, completely bastardises almost every style, invites "social media celebs" on the show, includes live tweets (really?), has Squeaky Ann Inaba, shows on a Monday (?) and features ridiculously lenient judging.

ETA - I'd imagine if Strictly ran on advertising fees like DWTS, the US pros would defect in the blink of an eye!

As two of the judges are identical with the Strictly panel and the marking is at least as consistent across the four of them (if not more so - I have much greater success in predicting the scores on DWTS!) I'm not sure that lenient judging is a fair accusation, especially as Ms Inaba ruthlessly imposes a one point penalty for illegal lifts which nobody on the Strictly panel ever does. The marks for the first dances of both series were certainly pretty equal this time round and I'm not sure that we've seen a 9 in DWTS yet after 3 dances.

I can't see anything wrong with having a range of 'celebrities' including social media stars. Whether you care to admit it or not many such people are considerably more famous than those from conventional media and sports backgrounds. And surely what matters is whether they can dance ultimately, not how they cam to fame? Nor should it be forgotten that DWTS is streets ahead in representing minorities, older people (without treating them as cheery old duffers expected to dance with Anton and preferably leave in the first couple of rounds) and the disabled. When Strictly can boast a double leg amputee or a profoundly deaf man, or indeed anyone with any kind of disability among not merely its competitors but its finalists, then I might consider it to have something to teach on contestant choice.

I've only seen a few clips of DWTS and I couldn't stand it, way too showy routines and you could barely tell what the dance was, and very smug pros. Not surprised Gleb and Artem are on it. I don't like the female judge either.
I'll stick with Strictly as it is.

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I don't think Len's decision is anything to do with the quality of the shows, just the fact they can pay him several times what the BBC can. I suppose it depends whether you prefer flash or substance in your dancing, but if DWTS is so incredibly superior to Strictly, it's surprising that its doing so incredibly badly in the ratings whereas Strictly is doing so well.

Julianne Hough but she isnt on the list

male - dont mind

Incredibly badly? How do you work that one out? It's more than holding its own in a difficult slot. Strictly isn't up against Monday Night Football and NCIS now is it?

The last DWTS show got 10.74m viewers. The Strictly launch show got 10.43m. Considering the size of the respective populations that is really poor, whatever they are up against. Not to mention how much it has dropped from what they used to get. If the show was still that great you'd think it would be able to hang onto a few more viewers.

It's still a hit show, plenty of producers would just LOVE 10m viewers in the US.

I would love Sharna and Val

The top show in the slot on national TV (The Voice) got 15m, the second (NCIS) 12m and DWTS was third. . Monday Night Football which is a cable show nets between 12 and 17 million depending on the game. According to you every one of them is doing really badly. But of course that's just not the way it works. Live TV is a whole different ball game in the States.

I like most of the female pros on DWTS, but I would vote Emma.
No contest, I would pick Sasha from the male pros.
I wish both were here this time instead of AJ and Chloe, who I feel are too young to be pros.
Imagine Sasha with Claudia and Emma with Will.
That would be EPIC.

Emma Slater is a cracking dancer, I was gutted when she didn't join Strictly. From the guys I'd like to see Gleb return or Val.

Who do you think she would have got had she joined back in 2013?
I loved Gleb and his "different" choreography, but maybe better for DWTS. Not a fan of
Val.

I'm not saying anything about any of those shows. All I was saying is that in comparison to Strictly DWTS has lost a lot of viewers over the years and is now doing badly in comparative terms. That doesn't really back up your assertion that DWTS is far and away superior in every way, but if you think it's doing well we can agree to disagree as this wasn't what the thread was about anyway.

Perhaps Ben Cohen, she would have been more height appropriate than Kristina. Although it wouldn't surprise me if, like Tristan, she would have auditioned for Strictly long before 2013.