I watched the NTA's last night, well done to Strictly for winning Best Talent Show!

I was just wondering what everyone thought of Austin and Erin presenting an award and dancing on stage? I wondered if it was slightly biased and since Alesha and Matt were at the awards it seemed to me that they [as winners of the last series] should probably have done the honours...

Austin and Erin were great though

Either that or the clip shown during the nominations should have focussed on Alesha & Matt. There are also a number of other couples who are still very much in the competition.

Its obvious they've chosen Austin as their winner from day one and all this favouritism towards him has made me go off both him and Erin. Which is a shame as I would have probably liked him more without all of the favouritism.

They could have, and should have showed Alesha winning, not a whole section from Erin and Austin's Jive! Then they had Erin and Austin presenting an award and dancing. They've already chosen their winner.

On a sidenote, I really hope they don't win it as I find him cold and quite cocky. Even though I do love Erin.

Haven't seen the clips, but it just sounds like bad judgment by whomever organised it. If they were having preferential treatment from the programme, they'd have been on ITT more than three times.

And hey, SCD won the award. That's the important thing.

They? Whose they? ITV? The organisers of the NTAs?


So, not biased at all then....

Austin is one of my favourites and I'd like to see him win but it was unfair imo whoever made the decision.

We were voting on last year's show, not this years. It seems logical to me that Alesha and Matt should have presented an award, they were last years winners, people would have loved to see them and in doing so there would have been no perceived bias to this years' contestants.

I agree. It's unfair that Austin and Erin were selected over the nine other couples still in the competition. We were voting for last year's show and Alesha and Matt should have been the ones presenting the award (or if you want to be ironic, how about Kate and Anton?).

Yes this DISGUSTED me. Its always the previous year so Alesha and Matt should have done it.

AUstin .Grrrrr gone of him now.

Definitely should have been Alesha and Matt, especially as they were both there anyway. And I would have thought Alesha was better known than Austin to that audience anyway.

Yes I think it was biased and unfair to focus so much on Austin and Erin.

I've nothing against A&E but this was either yet another bad decision by the shows producers or an ignorant and wrong choice by the NTA organisers.

I agree that Alesha and Matt, as reigning champs, should have presented the award or featured more in the SCD VT or perhaps both!

AFAIK we don't have enough background information for going off on one.

We don't know how they came to be on the show. If the invitation was independent of any input from the BBC, then it puts a different complexion on it. It was an ITV show after all. If others were invited before them and turned it down or couldn't do it, again it makes a difference. If it was a collective agreement that Austin & Erin should do it, then that's another different spin.

For once let's wait patiently for more of an explanation before possibly over-reacting.

Fine that A&E did a little dance and presented an award .......it was good that someone from SCD was invited to do that and they are from the current series so, no problem.

What i found strange was the VT before the winner was announced and how it just concentrated on A&E...... it will have been nothing to do with them of course and i wouldn't stop voting or supporting them just because of that ........it was up to the producers or whoever of the NTA what they did show.

Just strange they did not show M&A dancing and winning (as that was what a lot of people will have remembered when voting) or more couples from last year and this

I don't see the problem with it; Austin and Erin represented Strictly in a very positive light. He's one of the most famous people on the show and good with the media, and with Erin, one of four pros who have been here since the start, I don't see the problem? If they've managed to get more people to watch Strictly, then good on them!

Other people have been on TV shows outside Strictly too, I know for fact Cherie has been on the Paul O'Grady Show, and countless have been on Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong.

I know Kelly and Brendan, Zoe Ball, Emma Bunton have all presented awards at the NTAs over the last few years, why wasn't there an uproar about it then?

Anyway, all I have to say now is gutted Simon Cowell!

With the voting only open for a couple of hours after the show, things like this aren't going exactly make a huge difference are they?

It's not like people could have rushed to their phones and voted last night. And does anyone believe that someone's going to watch on Saturday and go 'well my favourite dance tonight was X but I'm going to vote for Austin instead because I saw him on the NTAs....'?

Totally agree.

Austin got publicity on the NTA, fair enough. As a staunch Mattesha supporter I felt we certainly could have had more of them in the montages, however, none of this is Austin's fault personally.

Also, I think he should be chuffed with what he and Erin did on the stage, not many of the current contestants would be brave enough to dance on stage at a live television awards at this stage of the competition! Personally I think that deserves praise not a bashing!

I was puzzled when they just concentrated on Austin & Erin's jive when they could have shown so much more. The BBC was in control of this section and imo it was bad judgement.

To be honest, I reckon they probably asked some of the other couples to do it and for one reason or another, the celeb in question turned them down.

You needed somebody that would be good on the stage and a good dancer. So obvious choices for the presentation side, like Andrew Castle and John Sergeant, were ruled out by their lack of ability, while good dancers like Tom Chambers (who IMHO would have been just the person for that gig, as a 'continuing drama' star and housewives' fave) were too tied up to attend the whole night.

Far from being picked as 'favourites' (other than because Austin is actually quite good), I think Austin and Erin were probably the compromise choice - someone who would do OK in front of the mic and be able to manage a few steps as well.

Plus, I can sort of understand the decision to show A&E's performance as they were there on the night, and the job is to promote viewing figures for this year's series, not ignore it in favour of past glories for the die-hard fans (who were hardly the target audience for the show). Go back to Youtube if you want endless Mattesha

Yep,the BBC must have supplied the VT so it was obviously biased towards A&E..........the BBC are in danger of promoting THEIR out and out fave for the show too much........some people (not all) will be put off by this no matter how good Austin is.......

Once again this is absolutely nothing to do with A&E themselves.

Missed the point the point is they should have shown a variety of couples that included M&A (respecting them as winners of SCD2007).

Exactly- I didn't see the show and can't believe what a huge fuss is being made to be honest- they would always use one of this years couples in order to promote the show to an ITV audience!

Blimey- if A&E are their favourites then why haven't they been on ITT as much as some of the others (the same as Cherie and James who have only been on a couple of times!).

Gutted I missed the show - dying to see a clip - does anyone know if there's one around?

I don't want endless Mattesha and I wasn't even supporting them last year. I do, however think we had Austin & Erin overload last night. It's the VT that I'm objecting to. Even those of us who were not fans of Matt & Alesha must recognise how much they contributed to the show and there are other dancers who are good or entertaining.

I found it biased. They showed a clip of John and Kristina training, but everything else was Austin and Erin orientated.

I'm sure they used to show a whole medley of clips so that there was no bias in previous years!

I believe also the BBC have marked him and Erin as winners from day one.

I understand they can show clips of several couples from this series but the award should have been to Matt and Alesha as teh awards are for the past year.

This was a publicity stunt by the BBC to promote AUstin as their winner. I would not be surprised if he now gets the Emma Bunton treatment.