Unlike many on here I'm a Kevin fan and think he's a great dancer. But I notice that this year and last year the judges seem to be pushing for him to win and overpraise his partners.

The judges rarely find faults in his dances and at first I thought nothing of it but now it's becoming obvious and other dancers are nitpicked at for the slightest of things.

I'm with you on this, I like Kevin as well (I went to see him & Karen at Grimsby this year and have booked to go again next year) but the bias is getting on my nerves.

I really liked Kellie and enjoyed her partnership with Kevin, although in the end I preferred Jay & Aliona so was annoyed that the judges seemed so desperate for K&K to win. They seem to be starting early on their mission this year, and for me its all the more annoying as Louise's dancing leaves me cold.

I would actually like to see Kevin paired with a complete novice dancer, possibly an older lady - I think he'd do well in that situation and maybe, just maybe, he would then get less negative attention.

They have pushed for a win for Kevin for a few years now and it seems to be having the opposite effect. Over the top reactions by his sister and wife does not help either. They seem to pick on everything Danny does which makes it more noticable this year as he is a better dancer

Yet we have a thread currently underneath this one entitled "It's Obvious Danny Will Win"!!!

Oh well...

Even if they are pushing for Kevin to win, go figure. He, Joanne, Anton & AJ are the only British pros on the British version of the show (the original for that matter) where a British pro has never won.

Its not rocket science...

I don't think they are but if the thought has ever entered their minds they are extremely misguided.
The GBP tend to do the opposite to what the judges want if it is felt the judges wishes are excessively blatant.

To be fair, there's a difference between someone who's obviously winning and someone who the judges are desperate to have win.

Take last year: The judges were outright desperate for Kellie to win, but it was obvious Jay was going to win.

Anyway, you are right in that this is different...ie pro (Kevin) against celebrity (Danny).

Who wins? There is only one way to find out...

I don't think so...I think maybe he just dances in a way that appeals to the judges - clean, clever, correct, but that maybe doesn't translate as well to people at home because it's not usually overly exciting.

The judges nitpicked what Ricky Whittle did too, and there were no Cliftons in sight when he was around. Good dancers get over-judged just so that it looks like they're still getting critiqued. They're obv not getting judged like the lesser dancers, so they get criticism that is more singular to them, whereas the lesser dancers get very similar comments that aim to encourage at the same time. The judges motivate better dancers in different ways, as it makes no sense to use the same level or type of critique with them.

People constantly go on about a Clifton or Kevin being pushed for a win or being favoured, but never give any reason as to why this is the case. None of them have won the show, so it's not like we or the BBC even know if they're overly popular with the public. Kevin has had three decent dancers and one okay dancer (Susannah was never actually good). Joanne had Scott Mills on her previous occasion (one of Strictly's worst dancers in history) and Karen has had an array of abilities to teach, Dave (Hairy Biker), Nicky, Jeremy, Mark Wright and then Will (who was the best of the lot by far, not even Mark Wright would have been equal to him).

Yes, Kevin hasn't had an older lady or an awful younger lady to dance with, but it's hardly his fault, and it's not like him winning is going to suddenly affect the popularity or positioning of Strictly in terms of viewers or TV survival. What do people actually think a Clifton win will do so much that the BBC would be pushing for it.

No.

Kevin is really good at what he does always supports and gets the best from his partner.
Comments and marks reflect this

Of course the argument keeps swinging round until it lands on being able to slag off Kevin. The judges *obviously* wanted Kellie to win last year because? They gave her the most marks. Who have they given the most marks to so far this series? Danny. But no, forget that, they're desperate for Louise to win and you can tell definitely that's the case because she gets the least criticism. Who got the least criticism last year? Helen. Who they turfed in a dance-off over Georgia without even thinking about it.

Like I said up above:

Even if they are pushing for Kevin to win, go figure. He, Joanne, Anton & AJ are the only British pros on the British version of the show (the original for that matter) where a British pro has never won.

Its not rocket science...

The only thing people are pushing are their own perceptions brought on by their Clifton-related grievances. Very tiring.

I wonder if it is just a "numbers" thing?

Perhaps if Natalie had a brother and cousin on the show as pros, the judges would be pushing for a "Lowe win". Or a "Skorjanec win" if Aljaz bought his twin sisters along for the ride??

Darren, Karen and Matthew were all British and won and I'm sure a few of the foreign born winner have citizienship. Flavia's lived here since she was 4 for one.

Actually Kellie hardly got criticised last year. From what I remember Helen got nitpicked at regularly.

Darren Bennett won in 2004 with Jill Halfpenny.

I stand corrected as I was not so much of an early viewer of Strictly.

Let me adjust what I've said and say there has been no fully British winning pro in 9 series...


True - for not dropping her ballet training...

Kellie got criticised plenty. She was midtable for quite a lot of the series.

Kellie was joint second in week three, joint leader in week four, joint leader in week five and then dropped back between weeks six and eight (joint 4th in 6, 5th in 7, 4th in 8) before bouncing back to joint second in nine, third in ten, joint second in eleven, top in twelve and thirteen. So not sure whether I'd say she was midtable for most of the series.

She finished level with Jay and Aliona in terms of scoring - both picked up 34.1 points per dance, total of 545.

Of course, very much like Danny with the Foxtrot, if Jay hadn't messed up his Quickstep so royally he'd be slightly ahead.

Hopefully Claudia or Judge Rinder will win it and the judges can look all confused as to how it could have possibly happened.

Aye, they threw a load of points at Kellie in the last few weeks. It's Week 8 now - in the first 8 weeks of the last series Kellie beat Helen on the leaderboard once, and when she did it was by one point. Helen got much less criticism, on the whole, and they still cut her without blinking.

(Also if I'm being nitpicky she wasn't the leader in Wk 4 she was second )

Darren Bennett is British isn't he? Matthew Cutler is British isn't he? Karen Hardy is British isn't she?
They all won in the earlier days, and they're all British!

The audience don't care if the Pro is British, otherwise each series a British Pro would have won regardless of the celeb partner. The results speak form themselves, they don't care if a Pro winner is British.

This.

They're my 2 picks.