I agree. It would have been interesting to see Gary do a ballroom sense he loved the dance and as he said part of the reason he joined the show was to learn that dance. What a shame he didn't get the opportunity .

yes, it was very unfair for Gary - and look how much better Don was.

Last year Jimy Tarbuck nearly did Jive, and nearly had a coronary - and he left! Maybe thats why they are being "nice" to John - but surely they have learnt and put him on a treadmill before he started the series????

Also, series ONE - no one went out week one. And in series one the next week's dance was chosen on the SCD on three after show

Gary couldn't even be @rsed to come on ITT so that shows how much he loves SCD!

The fairest format would be for all dancers to do all dances. Everyone stays in for the whole series, with judges scores added to an ongoing leaderboard.

So by Christmas you have the best dancers with the best score at the top and is the winner.

Only downside is no voting for the public, but does that really matter? What percentage of the viewing public vote anyway?

I think it would be good to see everyone to do all dances, and the time of the show would be constant each week.

In Gary's defense he was away on work.

So he definitely knew he was leaving the show and had work booked for today? That was well planned!

Well you have to admit his schedule is pretty busy.

But there was certainly no excuse for just 10 hours of practise for his Jive.

As a licence payer, I demand Lesley be put in charge of the BBC!

You could still have a public vote - their votes could be tallied up as they are now and added to the judges then the points would be awarded each week. There would be a league table and it would be obvious which dancers have improved and which have not, and which have the public vote!

I'd vote for that scenario...

Originally Posted by tvd
The fairest format would be for all dancers to do all dances. Everyone stays in for the whole series, with judges scores added to an ongoing leaderboard.

So by Christmas you have the best dancers with the best score at the top and is the winner.

Only downside is no voting for the public, but does that really matter? What percentage of the viewing public vote anyway?

I think it would be good to see everyone to do all dances, and the time of the show would be constant each week.

This would be the best way of judging everyone

I don’t feel that the format is fair and agree with many of the comments above and elsewhere.

I think all contestants should get a chance to do one ballroom and one Latin dance before a decision is made.
I feel sorry that Gary did not have a chance at ballroom as he was obviously so enthusiastic and that was his main wish in joining the show. Phil Daniels, on the other hand, could probably have danced a very credible Jive, but only had one chance with the technically exacting Waltz.

I also feel that the girls have an unfair advantage. They dance 2 group dances and have a dry run on the live show before facing the judges.

Perhaps fewer contestants and cumulative scores initially before someone is sent home.

At the very least, everyone should dance before there's an elmination, and everyone should alternate ballroom and Latin for at least the first half of the series. Other ideas like letting everyone dance one ballroom and one Latin before being up for elimination are also good, and certainly they've worked well on DWTS.

I feel an ITT segment coming on. Watch this space. I bet he'll get his wish.

As long as Karen unlocks her door!

Does it have to be fair? At the end most of the people get eliminated anyway, just the way how to get to the same/similar result would be different. Now it's about luck, abilities, and popularity and that's what makes it exciting. If it were just about all dancers doing all dances it would get boring soon.

I think its almost impossible to be completely fair. Even if there was no elimination in the first week, so the first elimination happened after everyone had done a ballroom and a latin, it would still be biased to who had done well in the second dance because it might be perceived as an improvement.

The girls have an advantage because they dance in the second week and had the benefit of the group dance first, but, the boys have the benefit of 2 weeks to practise for week 5 and the girls only have one. That could really favour the boys!

To be honest, I enjoy the format as it is, and think unfairness cancels itself out by the time we get to the end of the competition. Some contestants will get an unfair deal at the beginning, but I think its almost impossible to avoid.

I see your point entirely. A lot of celebs find it easier to be led around the floor inthe early weeks and struggle to dance on their own. However in three dance offs we have only seen two latin and four ballroom dances, and only one person doing a latin has been eliminated. The people doing two ballrooms could be said to be at a disadvantage as generally they are less spectacular to watch and perhaps less popular with the viewing public. (Personally I prefer the romance of the ballroom and would love to have waltzed with Mr Darcy!) I think Len said something like this in week 2 when the bottom two both did a foxtrot.

He may have been better at ballroom with Karen to lead him around the room. However Gary's basic problem was a lack of time for rehearsals so I'm not convinced he would have been any better at ballroom. Of course we'll never know.

When the SCD phone in raised money for CIN I could see a point having an elimination every week. Now that it is only BT that benefits I really don't see why your idea wouldn't work. They did it on DWTS last Spring although not in the recent series where everyone had to do a ballroom and a latin in the first week and there were two elimination nights. It was a lot to learn but of course training always starts four weeks or so before the show starts. The only disadvantage with this was less time to train for their second week dance.

I think it is not just to do with fairness, I think it would be more interesting for the viewer to see contestants do 2 different dances.

I must say I really like the idea of a league, it would be totally different and a radical departure for a reality show.
It would show a greater level of commitment from the participants rather than just turning up for a couple of weeks just to re-raise their profile without putting in too much effort.

Listening to interviews with celebrities there is a long list of people out there who are desperate to do the show so there would be no shortage of dedicated contestants.

I think maybe the reason some celebs do a back to back dance is because the producers are looking at the overall picture, i.e. the end programmes. They have a rough idea who will be there and who wont, of course this is not an exact science as we joe public sometimes like to throw a spanner in the works and other variables like someone who seemed rubbish suddenly has a light bulb moment and finally gets it and starts dancing amazingly.

We just look at each show, but imagine the logistical nightmare of making sure all the way through that there is a nice mix of dances. That all the women wear different colours. That one week doesn,t end up all ballroom or latin, and all this with the variables of who will be there and who wont.

Of course i could be wrong and they do it deliberately cos they wanted to see Gary jive

Of course the format is fair!!!

Its the fairest of ALL formats -

For the PRODUCERS!!!!!

What makes you think they give a s........t about any comments that we come up with??

For them, the only thing that matters is to provide a programme that will run for the right number of weeks and consistently match/beat Z-Fctor in the ratings!!!!!!!

JJ

You're absolutely right of course. the producers have no interest in fairnes. They only want to continue to have one of the most watched programmes on TV.

Other people are away on business, eg Len was in LA the same time Gary was in Dubai. During the week this is OK.
In any case Gary was out by then so what's the problem?

I agree. And I also agree that the two dances Gary had to do, seemed to play to his weaknesses - whereas they also played to (for example) Tom's strengths. So it's been weighted.

In fact, I think it's unfair to have any eliminations before each contestant has had a chance to do 1 ballroom and 1 latin.

Was he somewhere that didn't have these newfangled telephonic instruments?