Originally Posted by nelliek:
“Um, Christopher Parker anyone? Christopher Parker, young enough to be John's grandson, but who had no sense of rhythm.
Kenny Logan? The same Kenny Logan who moved round the floor (certainly can't say 'danced') with James' wife Ola last year way past his sell-by-date?
Quentin Wilson? Dennis Taylor? Kate Garraway? Fiona Phillips?
As many other people have already said, John agreed to become the BBC's token 'older overweight unfit bloke who makes up the right mix for the programme'. I doubt that he expected to last beyond even the first dance. The fact that he has is because some of the public have fallen in love with him/Kristina/the choreography/all or none of these. The same as some of the public have fallen in love with any of the other contestants and their partners.
Ask supporters of the other contestants why they are supporting them, and in the majority of cases you will get the same sort of answer 'I like Joe/Fred/Mary/Freda'. I suspect the number of people who vote each week based purely on the best dance on the night is quite small. Even then 'best dance' is still subjective. I wasn't blown away by Rachel and Vincent's rumba. Don't know whether it was the music or what - but it just didn't do it for me.
The simple truth is that SCD will NEVER be a DANCE competition while
(a) the BBC continue to provide a cross-section of people of various ages, weight, fitness levels, previous experience, and ability to take part. And those people have other commitments which means that they can't all have the same number of training hours
(b) the BBC fail to provide the public with the chance to see the whole of the dancers in one shot, not just their feet for one second, their upper body for another two seconds, long distance for 4 seconds, feet, full body, face, all in lightning succession.
(c) the majority of the judges have no qualifications in judging ballroom and latin dance competitions.
(d) the judges currently appointed fail to provide constructive criticism of a dance. 'You jumped across the floor as if you were dancing on hot coals - and jumping all the way to the final' or 'D.U. double L' tells Joe Public very little about the dance.
(e) the current judges clearly have their favourites, and overmark/undermark accordingly.
(f) the public have absolutely no idea what each judge is looking for in a dance, nor on what basis they are awarding marks in a particular week. (e.g. are they basing it on supposed ability in that week? Performance? Or purely the dance itself, on the night? The latter being quite difficult to do I would have thought if everyone is doing a different dance. Certainly makes it much harder for the GBP. )
(g) Bruce and Tess keep telling us to vote for our favourites.”
Brilliant post - couldn't agree more!
People are banging on about 'fairness' - it is 'fair' that John stays because the public want him too - simple as. If the judges don't want the public to have their say, then don't dont have a public vote - and those of you who feel that you are being given a raw deal over John's efforts, should not vote either.
Anton De-Beke has been given duff partners year after year and only stays in the competition for a short while - is this fair? I'd like to see more of his dancing but I know that wont happen. The SCD team always give him the no-so-good dancer because they know he has the patience to deal with them - can you really see Brendon in his position...
This is an entertainment show and John has entertained - can we say the same about Bruce and his unwitty ramblings
The judges are so full of themselves, it's cringeworthy. Wouldn't it have been nice to have seen each one of the judges with one of the professional dancers doing a routine for Children in Need? This would maybe have given their
[sometimes] rude comments about others some credence (especially Eileen, who is closer to John's age than she'd care to admit) because we might get to see that they know what they're talking about and it would show they are game-for-a-laugh.
) is a bad thing? 
