oh I totally agree. even when they show clips of them in training some get a lot of coverage and you only get a glimps of Colin. Its definitely not fair.
Even the judges seem to be laying into Colin and Erin.

Colin for the final!!

Colin HAS received a lot of attention, he has been tipped as the favourite male celeb to win from the day that the contestants were announced - even Bruce and Tess have said they think he's the favourite despite the fact that they are supposed to be impartial.

ITT concentrates on the contestants that provide entertainment value, that is the nature of Reality TV - you can't judge the coverage of his foot injury without first knowing how serious it is. I remember in Series 1 Martin Offiah & Erin Boag setting up a 'candid' photo opportunity alluding to an affair in order to win votes, personally I'm cynical and I would wait for the medical opinion before regarding this as anything more than press, viewer and ITT attention-seeking - if it was a serious injury then he would NOT be dancing on Saturday.

so are you saying that Bill 's injured foot and James injured back were just publicity and weren't serious because they both competed and James went to the osteopath (think spelt wrong)

He may have a lot of people saying he is tipped to win but that is not the same as coverage and its not just about his foot but coverage since the programme started.
And maybe he isn't entertainment value but maybe thats because he is never shown

Come on now, we all now Darren has got the most male celeb attention. He is the one being tipped to win... unofficially. And if i were a betting person that's where I would lay my money.

But Colin is a better performer than Darren too.

I'm saying that injuries have differing severities, Colin's participation in this Saturday's show was confirmed within 24 hours of his injury whereas Bill and James had to wait several days for confirmation - without seeing X-rays it's impossible to say but I suspect that there was a difference in the severity of the injuries.

In regard to coverage, my experience of the BBC's sister programmes to their reality TV programmes is that the sister programme doesn't back the favourite (personally I have no problem with this because if it did then it would be like watching something akin to brainwashing).

I don't recall Jill being ITT's favourite (although she was still invited onto the show once a week the same as all the other contestants) and ITT doesn't have the ratings power of the Saturday show so Colin is still in with a chance of winning even if he isn't ITT's favourite. At the moment, Colin is in the grey area of not being the best and not being the worst and therefore will receive less coverage (but will no doubt be invited onto the show once a week the same as all the other contestants and will therefore have the opportunity to discuss his injury).

Colin has been on the sister show once since it started, from memory Patsy and Anton, Fiona and Brendan and Darren and Lilia have been on at least 4 times each. I know Colin had jury service, but the dancers aren't being treated equally.

Colin is a great dancer and as other posters have said, receives far less coverage than the others. While many of us love SCD for the dancing, I think the BBC sees it more as an entertainment vehicle so tweaks the editing in favour of those it sees as "entertaining", which is a shame. All we hear of Colin is him saying how much he wants to win, which is of little "entertainment" value. Unfortunately, to succeed in reality tv and thus SCD, he needs to throw lots of tantrums, cry etc on camera. I don't think Colin is going to sink that low.

Good point, YDrew. Unfortunately, I think that most footage of Colin and Erin would be of them actually working, rather than messing about or having a tantrum, so it's probably not that interesting from an ITT/gossip perspective. I hope we get to actually find out some details about his injury, though, as at the moment it seems like they're going to gloss over it.

If there's some info about him on the show tonight it would be really kind of someone to fill us in on here, as the Scottish viewers won't be seeing tonight's show.

I wonder if the jury duty excluded Colin from appearing in the past two weeks. After all, where does he live as thats where jury duty is done? It wouldn't surprise me if he couldn't get to the city studio in time.

It's true that the footage favours those contestants providing entertainment value but that is how reality TV operates. Colin has been on a couple of reality TV shows before SCD - I watched him on Celebrity Shark Bait (a show with only four celebrities and no winner and therefore no incentive for selective editing) and although he comes across as a nice guy, he is rather single-minded and this can be construed as dull in terms of TV.

He was on ITT the first week with Darren, last week with Erin, and is apparently on this week on Friday with Erin. I don't think he was on in week two but his jury service was in Cardiff so that is perhaps why Erin has been on the show a couple of times without him.

I don't think that there is enough training footage of any of the contestants (I'm in favour of the return of Strictly Confidential) but I think that as the weeks progress and there are less contestants to cover, that might change.

Saying that Colin hurting himself is a publicity stunt is well out of order. I seriously doubt that either Colin or Erin would scoop so low, they're really popular anyway and therefore wouldn't or don't need to do that Ireally hope that Colin's injury isnt as bad as the papers made it out to be, but if it was then I hope you take that back.

As for Martin and Erin's 'kiss' in the park its not the same thing, whether it was for real or not is no way the same thing. Plus Erin and Martin were getting more enough publicity they didn't need to go around setting up shots, and neither do Colin and Erin.

Colin would not be in control of how the papers report the story - if he had to go to hospital for tests on a foot injury the newspapers would inevitably pick up on that and imply that it is a really bad injury so it sounds like a big story, but that's not his fault.
Having been an athlete his pain threshold is higher than the average person anyway so even if he dances on Saturday it certainly does not mean there is nothing much wrong with his foot and it was all a big con.

Just out of sympathy for Colin, I only hope that dancing on his injured foot won't hamper his career, It would be ironic if he was to win SCD and then when it comes to competing in the event he excells at, he has problems.

I am surprise to say the least that he is risking dancing, I know from experience how bad an injured tendon is, after having one from fallling off a kerb.

Good Luck Colin.

I didn't say the injury was done for publicity but I do think that the press coverage exaggerated the seriousness of his injury - implying he had broken his foot and would be out the competition. I'm glad he won't be leaving the competition, I just don't think his injury should have been exaggerated.

We'll have to agree to disagree over whether Martin & Erin's kiss in the park was for publicity - I think all the contestants require some level of publicity.

Colin Jackson has retired from competitive athletics.

I'm just on pins about Saturday. I want to see those snake hips.

Only gonna add this - have first hand knowledge that Colin and Erin DO have fun and laughs during training sessions - and this is not shown. So stick to my original point that there are def favourites with the BBC editors!! They can make people into what they want. They've made Brendan into a bad boy - with a little help from himself of course. But did they show a cameraman shoving a camera in Matt Cutler, Darren Bennett or even Andrew Cuerdens faces when they were voted out - no I don't think so - therefore I rest my case ........!!

Could be because they didn't follow the other dancers so closely after they were voted out - but could also be they also had a camera filming them in exactly the same way, but didn't react like a primadonna so there was nothing to show!
Totally agree with your point re: the editing. I think the show makers decide to pigeonhole people into "personalities" to create a story and they have obviously decided Colin, as an ex-athlete, should be the single-minded, "no time for fun" character...

He seems fine, so I think we have a lot to look forward to girls!

Well Zorro should have snogged Jaye then or Matthew Siobahn.

Seriously, I can't believe they would go to those lengths to win. The pros want to win based on how well they can teach their celebs, the choreography they put together and thus how well they can do on the night. Some of them have been blessed with quite good partners and others not, luck of the draw. I even believe this of Brendan and hence the frustration at Fiona's inability or are you suggesting that the Brendan/Natasha affair was quite deliberate on both parts ( I don't believe even he would have done that to Camilla after 8 years)..............

Was there any news about him today? Even a mention of the poor injured boy?

Yes they said it was badly bruised

Aw, poor boy! Does he need someone to rub it better.... ?

I'll take his mind off of it!

Exactly same goes for Darren G I think thats why I dont like him not him personally but the hype the tv can be quite manipulative cant it