Do you honestly think that 16 celebrities have blocked out almost three months from their work schedules just in case they get to the final? They are all self employed and have agents who will try and get them work from week two onwards but it will be booked on the understanding that they may not be able to fulfil the booking and the clients will have back up arranged.

That's how it works in the business they call show.

Oi!! Me first!!

I had amny P&O cruises and John will have agreed in principle to do this thinking he wouldn't have lasted on SCD this long. P&O will have been aware of his commitments and would have had a stand in in case, so John didn't have to leave because of his commitment to the cruise.

On several cruises I have been on, the scheduled person hasn't been able to make it because of long standing commitments, and an equally eminent person has appeared in their place.

John didn't go because he had to fulfill his commitment to P&O.

Didn't Jessie open in a play the week after she left the show?

The celebs are often seen rehersing for and performing in overlapping committments - Aled and his singing tour, Letitia and her panto, Esther and Anton on a boat, Peter Schemical and some football stuff in Denmark.

Good publicity all round.

Yes, quite often the celebs are straight back to work the day after they leave Strictly.
However, all of them have been voted off or lost in a dance off and have fulfilled their Strictly contract with the beeb.

The only person to pull out was Kelly Brook and that was most certainly not for other work commitments.

John won't stay on the cruise for the whole time either. P&O, like many other cruise companies will book him, fly him out to a particular port, let him do his presentations, talks, interviews etc, let his have a couple of days with his wife on board having a holiday and then fly him back from another port.

On the last cruise I went on, Tom O'Connor started on it, and after two days he left and Roy Walker joined. He left after three days and then we had some one else. The guests don't stay for the full holiday, so it is fesibile that even if John had still been in Strictly, he could have flown out on the 30th (Sunday, 2 days after it started) and then flown back on the 2nd - a Tuesday to carry on training.

Another scenario is that Kristina could have gone to for those few days and kept up his training.

While P&O want quality acts, they don't want to give them a full cruise - then the ship would be full of acts and not be making money!