http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pre...07/dance.shtml

I'm surprised its back. The ratings weren't great and it seemed flawed.

They have made a few changes:
-each couple will now be a professional and an celebrity, meaning most will come from national versions of Strictly
-the ballroom/latin section is gone- each couple will now perform just a freestyle routine with national elements, and optional ballroom or latin elements.
-I've heard they are also considering a professional jury in addition to national votes, to try and even up the bias in voting.

I think the changes have been made for the better, but I agree they should just cancel it completely.

I'll be interested to see who will be representing the UK. Chances are it will be a Strictly couple, but I don't know which of the pros would actually agree to it. I hope it's none of my favourites. I think we'll hear pretty soon- we knew about Camilla and Brendan this time last year.

Yes, Katie, just wanted to list those changes. It seems however that idea to add professional jury with weight of 20% of the total outcome has been dropped, as it is not mentioned in this press-release.

Germany and Switzerland have opted out from competition and it looks as Azerbaijan is the only newcomer. It seems that after 2 years of BBC hosting show will move to the winning country in 2009.

Currently, many couples have already been selected and I'll copypaste the list from ESCKaz website which still is the source of information on this event, and you can find additional information on these performers there:

Sweden: Danny Saucedo (singer) and Jeanette Carlsson
Spain: Rosa Lopez (singer) & ?
Portugal: Raquel Tavares (singer) and Joao Tiago
The Netherlands: Thomas Berge (singer) and ?
Austria: Dorian Steidl (TV host) and Nicole Kuntner
Finland: Maria Lund (singer) and Mikko Ahti
Ukraine: Lilia Podkopayeva (gymnast) and Kyrylo Khytrov
Ireland: Gavin O'Fearraigh (actor) and Dearbhla Lennon
Poland: Marcin Mroczek (actor) and Edyta Herbus

I didn't really like the show but I did enjoy watching Brendan and Camilla's dance together and thought it was a shame they weren't placed higher.

I'm wondering whether Kelly Brook would be the British celeb entrant, the only reason for me thinking this is because so much was made of her enjoyment of dancing in Strictly and her potential and then her sadness at having to pull out.
There's also been the rumours in the tabloids about her competing in Strictly this year which I think would be very unfair to the other contestants and highly unlikely. This could be more likely.

I'd definitely rather Kelly did Eurovision than SCD7, as you say it would be highly unfair on everyone, and I suspect would be pretty unpopular with the viewers.

Until Matt and Flavia split up I had a feeling it would be them. I can't think of any other particularly likely candidates.
That's a pity, as I think it would have helped. I don't think Brendan and Camilla were the best last year, but they deserved to be placed higher than they were.

I think they have made two good improvements though- it will be a level playing field if every couple is pro/celeb, and they don't have to compete in both ballroom/latin and a national dance. Of course in the UK we still have the difficulty of a 'national' dance which will represent England, Wales and Scotland.

ETA Just noticed this year's commentary will be by Len and Craig
I'm glad Bruno won't be doing it again, I much prefer Craig.

I'm surprised Graham and Claudia are hosting again, I didn't think they were very good last time.

My question will be: with unchanged length of the show, 135 minutes, with 1 less country, and 1 less dance per country, how they are going to fill this?

I hope that jury will be introduced still, may be BBC just didn't mention it. If they bring jury, I can imagine that they will allow them to talk after each dance, more than those 20 seconds given to national commentators.

If not, I don't really know, how they will fill almost extra hour.

You'd think they would just make it shorter! It dragged on last year so I think it's a good thing they're only doing one dance each.

I agree on that, however I feel that 1 minute and 45 seconds is extremely small amount of time to get remembered by voting public. Another reason, why juries should get in.

I think it'd be great to see Kelly do it! Camilla didn't know anything about this series when I spoke to her.

Shame it's in Glasgow too, at least London is fairly simple for people to get to!

Well, Glasgow is simple for some people!

Kelly would be a very good choice actually, she's a very good dancer, she's better known internationally than most other Strictly celebs, and she's beautiful (not sure how many male voters the EDC attracts though!). Also Brendan has done it before so presumably he wouldn't mind doing it again.

I think it would be good if Kelly did it actually aswell and I'm sure she'd be great.

I actually don't think any of the top three from SCD5 would do it as all three seem to want to focus on their chosen careers and distance themselves from SCD a bit, not in an ungrateful or unappreciative way, I just think they all seem aware that they could end up pigeonholing themselves. I hope I've written that right and not derogatarily.

Personally I'd love to see any of the top 5 do it.

I see what you mean and it wasn't derogatory at all. I definitely think Alesha wouldn't do it, I heard somewhere that she ruled out doing the tour for that reason.

I'm trying to think who the top five were now! Alesha, Matt, Gethin, Letitia, ... Kenny?
Oh yes, Kenny's Paso in a kilt! That has national elements

Lol yes!! That would be brilliant. But I actually meant Kelly rounding out the top 5. I can't remember around what time she had to withdraw now, I thought it was within the last 5.

*Goes off to watch kenny's paso again lol *

I'd love to see Kelly. I was gutted when she withdrew from Strictly. She is so talented.

If the voting is anything like the song contest then whoever we put in hasnt got a hope of winning even if they are hands a feet better than the others !! so its a bit of a posioned chalice.....glad a poster above said Camilla didnt know anything about it when asked because personally I wouldnt want to see her and Geth do this.....not because I wouldnt want to see them dance again but because its a bit of a waste of their time I think.

It might not be a SCD professional anyway.....they will surely be just started with their new celebrities at this point.

That's a good point actually. I think last year the contest was a bit earlier, and Strictly started later than it will this year, so there probably wasn't an overlap. Well I'll be pleased if none of the current pros does it, I wouldn't really want to see them get slated like last year.

Actually since it doesn't have to include ballroom or latin, maybe it will just be a highland dancer, morris dancer or similar, teamed up with a random celeb.

I'm pleased that they are now sticking to one class of couple. It was far too confusing and frankly unfair, to have pro couples representing one country, while pro-am couples danced for others, and so on.

Nice too, to see some changes in the judging panel. I might actually watch it this year!

Re-Kelly Brook. I had wondered about this whole SCD6 rumour, but now I think that she might well be a good choice for the Eurovision. While I didn't really like her personality, she does have talent and can move well. Since she had to leave SCD, it would be nice if she was given another chance to shine.

I agree actually I think it would be nice to see Kelly out there again although since SCD might be starting by then it may well rule out a reunion with Brendan which would be shame - they were a well suited couple still there's plenty of talented male pros who could be persuaded. Since it looks like poor Nicole's been jilted on SCD maybe she could do something - give her a talented male celeb for a change and show the idiots who fired her what they've rejected.

Having in mind number of times Strictly has been mentioned in BBC press-release it's pretty much clear that they will involve someone from SCD.

Surely Nicole and Barnesy's Salsa would wipe the floor with everyone!!

I never really got the big deal with John's Salsa! What I wouldn't mind seeing is Nicole pairing up with another ex-Strictly celeb. It would be nice to see her (finally) dance with someone with some potential!
In that case I feel sorry for the pro if he or she is also involved in the new series!

I think, regardless of who does the competition, we're still going to lose/come in the bottom because of the obvious bias and voting for each other by many other countries.

Last year was an absolute joke the way the voting went.

What about Darren Bennett and Jill Halfpenny, or Alesha Dixon and Matt Cutler, or Karen Hardy and Mark Ramprakash? They are all winners and they would be very good ambassadors for the UK.

Yes, but how likely are they to do it? Jill hasn't danced with Darren since 2004, can't see her going out of her way to make Eurovision the first time she goes back. I don't see Alesha doing it, she has her public image to think of, can't see Mark wanting to do it either really.

The reason I said Matt and Flavia was that when they were a couple dancing was what they had in common, so they were more likely than some other pro/celeb pairings to do something like that. Now they've split up obviously they're not going to though.