I dont blame Austin and Erin for it at all but there were other couples there eg Rachel and Vincent, Cherie and James etc.. so i wonder if they felt a bit put out with all the Austin and Erin mentions.
I dont think its Austins fault though, it was probably Tess picking the clips.

Really? I'm not a rugby fan, so had never heard of him - just as there were others who were complete strangers to me.

I was familiar only with Gary Rhodes, Mark Foster, Heather Small, Don Warrington and Jodie Kidd; had heard of Cherie Lunghi, Jessie Wallace and Gillian Taylforth (Gillian for the wrong reasons)!

I'd heard other names bandied about - but of some I was completely ignorant.

Agree that Alesha and Matt should have played a prominent part for SCD in the NTA.

Personally would have wanted Alesha and Matt to have.....

Danced.
Presented the award.
Collected the Best Talent Show award
and Alesha to have given the speech

but I don't seem biased or obsessed do I? Ha
..................scurries ( actually runs like hell) back to the M&A thread

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle1876342.ece

Now as it's in The Sun, I don't know whether it's true or not, but I still think that this little incident has done them more harm than good.

And how awful was Tess' speech at the NTAs? If her four year old daughter had done it, she might just have made a little bit more sense.

ya know the Sun should be paying us royalties as that smacks of the Lazy Journalists approach complete with non specific quote from a non specific person

And who exactly was the "Strictly source"? It might as well have been a poster from DS.

A load of old rubbish about nothing whatsoever. The British public can form their own opinions and many more people will watch SCD than watched the NTAs on Wednesday.

Isn't it about time this nonsense ended? After all, we haven't had an anti-Cherie thread for a while ... :yawn:

I agree Servalan- it's probably just The Sun egging up the situation!

I don't think any of the pros/celebs would be that immature to think something like that, bearing in mind plenty of the other stars have made other appearences on TV!

I like how it says "big performance"! I heard they were dancing for like 15 secs max!

Agree 100% with these posts.

I wouldn't have watched the NTA if I didn't know SCD was up for an award and I wasn't really watching the show for most of the time, just keeping an eye out for the SCD nomination.

I wonder which celeb hasn't been on a TV show or on the radio since joining SCD.

I agree - and I'm sure that the other contestants will be laughing at how ridiculous that article is. For whatever reason, they were picked to do the dance and I have no problem with that, seeing as they are among the top candidates to give a good performance and its getting a bit too analytical and judgemental to make it a big thing.

However, if its true that the VT almost concentrated only on A&E as well, I think this is unfair (and unecessary) especially if they were doing the dancing on stage as well. And I don't think people are being mean spirited by pointing this fact out. It would be really easy to have a celeb selection on the video - no reason to focus solely on A&E and I think it was a bit much having the same couple on both the video and the dance. No, its not a huge thing in the great scheme of things, but this is a forum for discussion and I don't think its such a big thing either when someone points this fact out.

If you want to know how upsetting it might be for supporters and pro partners of other zlebs to watch all the free exposure Austin got at the NTV show - ask yourself how much you would have enjoyed watching your least favourite couple get the same treatment............

It might influence your opinion.

You are so right. If they'd chosen John and Kristina I'd have thought why on earth couldn't they have chosen someone who can dance! And I'd have thought ITV were trying to sabotage SCD LOL!

As it doesn't sound as though you saw either the dance or the VT you aren't really in a position to comment.

Producers missed a BIG opportunity in showcasing SCD to a wider audience by not giving Alesha and Matt the opportunity to do one of their dances from series 5. Alesha is one of the biggest and most well loved celebs ever to appear on SCD and not Austin with his horrible sleeveless shirt.

I'd never heard of Austin either! The only ones I'd heard of before the show were Mark.... 'cos we used to live near him; Don and John.

(Maybe Alesha wasn't available for NTA)

She was there in the audience with Matt and went up stage to receive the award. There were quite a few current Strictly couples there as well.

I've watched it now so that's ok! I don't feel I need to make any alterations to my original comment either!

Completely agree with you. It was huge missed chance. I know couple of people who never watched strictly before and are now loving the show all of because of Alesha.

Austin is not even the star of this series let alone Bringing in new audience to the show. Never heard of the guy before strictly.

Poor Austin i really hope he doesnt read any of this, it makes very sad reading, the way people have turned on him through no fault of his own.

I think that very few people have "turned on him". Yes, some have commented on the amount of time devoted to him and have percieved that as bias but most seem to be able to differentiate between what TV producers choose to do and any input that Austin has.

So far Austin has been one of the best celeb dancers and I have no problem with him doing well.

I didn't watch - I loathe award shows - but I did watch Youtube - Matt and Alesha were there - so why Austin and Erin in preference to M&E

The decision will have been taken by the NTA production team and if you want answers, you need to contact them.

I hardly think it's in the SCD production team's interest to push Austin forward above the other contenders this year - they'll want to preserve the sense that anyone could win for as long as possible. If anything, it makes more sense for the decision to come from ITV - highlight a couple doing well in such a way as to make it appear that they're so good they'll win anyway, so you might as well not bother watching. They're the only people who might benefit from it. And even I admit that is quite a far-fetched conspiracy theory ... Although it probably makes more sense than that nonsense in The Sun.

So sorry if some posters feel their own personal favourites were eclipsed by A&E - but it's hardly their fault, so they don't really deserve any flak.

Now that does make sense. I mean the one thing this series does have going for it (theoretically) is that it's a pretty open contest and any one of about five couples could win it. Why would the BBC want to sabotage that?

In fairness, people aren't turning on Austin. It's not him who they have the problem with, it's the perceived bias of the producer's towards Austin and Erin.

Two pro dancers could've done the main dance and announced the nominations (Karen and Anton for example, or Darren and Lilia, as they're two of the better known pros, and both are out which'd nullify more claims of bias), and then Tess could've given a speech which was praising the production as a whole and not singling out specific dances. The clips should've at least shown the remaining ten dancers if they were going to focus on this series. It wouldn't be hard to do, just a bit of cutting.

It's not Austin's fault, but he seems to be being blamed for it - as another FM mentioned, it's the Emma Bunton affect all over again.

EDIT: I do think it'd be up to SCD which clips to give to the NTA producers to show, though, otherwise there'd be claims of copyright.

If the BBC did have an input, I'd have thought they might see the benefit of using this series to get more people watching it? And Austin and Erin are probably the strongest couple at the moment, so they give viewers who haven't tuned in before the impression that it's worth watching to catch some really good performances.

As the dancers - pros and celebs - are under contract to the BBC for the series, any appearances, especially one on another TV channel, would have to be OK'd by the BBC first. The BBC would also have to agree the use of footage from their programmes. That would have been the opportunity for the BBC to send either pro dancers for the performance bit, or to decline to allow any of the current dancers to perform. They didn't do that which would suggest that they were happy for Austin Healey to be showcased in this way rather than be even handed and show all the competitors.