That last paragraph .....beautifully said Paso Princess, thank you My sentiments too! It will be so sad for such emerging dancers not to get their chance, and for us not to be able to share their journey ( there, I've said it too!) To me, that is the whole point of the show !!!

Well said Paso Princess

Two seperate shows

I do hope we are not going down theDancing With the Stars route

I agree

two different nights is like the U.S. version too much

And even so, some of the Dance *experts* on here have said they were thrilled he stayed in week after week, as they got to see their fave pro Hanna Kartuunen, so there are all sides to everything!


Perfectly put paso princess!

Journey - there, I've said it too! I love watching the progress of novices who come through to the final - it's the essence of learning to dance, rather than people who can already dance well.

Key for me in all this is fair scoring in the first place.

No excuse now - if there ever was - for over-marking to protect favourites on the basis that the public will vote the 'wrong' way.

If 'judges' pet' puts in a mediocre or poor dance on the night, scores should reflect that.

I'll reserve judgment until I know whether this is a case of wanting it both ways.

Thats true the judges excus last year was a little help so the better ones won't go wasn't it... Now they have no reason to overmark...

Beautifully expressed PP, I couldn't agree more .
You have voiced exactly the reason why weak dancers can get through at the expense of better ones ,
And no one can guess how the audience will perceive a couple , or even one half of that couple . Our assessment of a celebrity cam make a huge difference and surely last year proves we cannot be forced to vote for the couple whom
the judges favour .

I totally agree with you guys - E.g. I read that Craig knows Kelly's boyfriend really well...have a feeling that Brendan Cole won't have to rant and rave this year

The only reason they have two shows in the US is because the program is broadcast across 3 time zones...... and lets not forget their results show is still live unlike our PRE-RECORDED and inevitably leaked one.

well said and beautifully said

Yep ~ also pretty sure he won't be pushing his luck with illegal lifts etc.....

Re Emma's Jive - she got 9s for it - which is why when Louisa and Vincent came out and burnt the floor they had nowhere to go with her but the 10 in week 3 - just so that they COULD keep her above Emma.

IF (and its a big IF!) the judges can mark objectively this series - then I don't mind them getting the last say on who goes - but if they show their bias once again - and ignore mistakes from their pets whilst penalising others for the same mistakes then I shall be pretty peeved and will be getting snotty with emailing the beeb!

As someone said earlier Carol Smillie's Cha Cha was very good - if not quite brilliant - whilst Emma's was truly dreadful - both got 30 and it was difficult to see why Emma didn't get lower marks or Carol got higher one's... but then Carol was consistently undermarked week after week whilst Emma was overmarked!

Mmm and a certain judge persistantly found fault with Carol and pulled her to pieces on the show. Thankfully Matthew stepped in.

Emma could do no wrong.

Something is wrong with that judge. Methinks they should be replaced by Karen Hardy

I don't mind if they are fair (one wonders if they can be with the likes of Emma comments last year) but Children In Need will lose out as there won't be the underdog mass voting.

Karen has such a huge fanbase that I'm not sure it would make sense for her to be a judge rather than a dancer, otherwise I would agree with you.

She did say in the Woman article that she would jump at the chance though.

And that's why it's the Beeb who will suffer because there will be a few people who'll think there is no point in voting

And I think you could count on Karen to be fair with her comments and marks. There would be no bias and it would be constructive

I watched the new season of Dancing With The Stars last night and they still have the old Strictly result format, where it's 50% judges and 50% viewers and the couple with the lowest combined total leaves the competition. And if you remember their last season, tall Clyde was finally knocked out in the 4th week despite being a rubbish dancer and Billy Ray was in their quarter finals?!

I can spot people already in their new season who will get quite far in the competition despite not having much talent in dancing e.g Wayne Newton and his partner Cheryl Burke. Both have a really strong fan base and they wasn't in the bottom 2 despite receiving quite low scores.

Yet the BBC have not felt the need to change the DWTS result show format, so my only guess is the BBC have decided that it's only the British public that cannot be trusted in voting?!

I'm pleased with this change. In essence they are just choosing between the bottom two couples. If anything it will lead to increased voting to save your favourite.
The public have continued to vote in programs like DOI and X Factor even after the judges have made bad choices from the bottom 2
eta: I'm also hoping it will mean fair judging in the first place