I really have not enjoyed this years series. Firstly, I was very underwhelmed by this years line up, especially after last years spectacular one. I thought I would enjoy there being 16 dancers this year but now I have just got a bit bored!
Secondly, the judges have really anoyed me this year! It seems to me that they are purposely fixing their marks to try and make it clear what order they want people in the leaderboard (by undermarking and overmarking) this has happened throughout. Once someone does a 'good' dance they appear to get high marks throughout the rest of the competition.
I really do not like it how this year the judges have pushed John Seargent out of the competiton. Although he claims to have left of his own accord, he would not have done so if the judges did not make a fuss. After all it is an ENTERTAINMENT programme, and personally (he wasn't my favourite) but i would rather watch John dance than Austin (who is the cockiest shit ever) Rachel (who is as dull as dishwater) and Lisa (who is undeservingly at the top of the leaderboard). John IS NOT my favourite but he always bought a smile to my face whenever he danced, unlike some of the others.
It has also annoyed me how the judges mark have been sooooo inconsistent (I am not even going to start talking about this because I will never stop!)
Fianlly, why has everyone been going on about how great the talent is this year?? There are no Alesha's, Mark's or Jill's. No-one is ggod at both the latin and ballroom and yet the judges seem to think that they are the best thing since sliced bread!!

I could go on and anme another 10 things that have annoyed me this series, and although i hate to say it, the main problem this year is the judges! (the judges). We need some new judges next year that are consistent and fair!

Sorry to ramble on....do you agree.........?............

No, not really.

It is true that we haven't had a clear winner or a clear set of finalists and there have been poor weeks for all the better dancers. But that has made it more interesting, not less, with quite a number of people who have looked like possible winners at one time or another.

As for John S - good riddance as far as I am concerned. I wish the beeb would stop including people who obviously have no chance to begin with - but obviously the controversy they create keeps bums on seats.

As for the judges - well I guess we all have problems with how they mark from time to time - but we probably would with any set of judges. Overall, as a team, they seem to get it right most of the time.

Nick

OP.........are you seriously saying you would rather watch John Sergeant dance than Austin?

You really have to be joking.

I agree - sort of.

Now I enjoyed John dancing, it always brought a smile to my face. I will also admit he was not the best dancer, and of course the argument raged about whether this is a dance or entertainment programme. Now we are down to the last five and still people are arguing about their favourite being the best entertainer. So how come people were vilified for liking John? I did actually say at the time, when there was all the hooha on these very forums, that when it came to the last few weeks people would still be arguing about their favourites being good entertainment.

Last night Austin's paso was pure entertainment, and the people and judges loved it. Not a lot of dance content as Len did point out.

For me, the only reason people wanted John out was because he was going to win the thing and take the glory from someone else's favourite, hence the hooha.

For me, last night Lisa was technically the best dancer, and had the judges not put her top of the leaderboard she would have been in the dance off. If I say more I am going to give away the results. Suffice to say, it is indeed a popularity contest, and there really was no need for John to have gone.

Of those left, well I don't mind who wins. In one way or another they are all entertaining, just not as much as John entertained me. But they have worked hard, and for that I salute them.

I kinda agree with you OP. The JS affair exposed the nasty side of SCD which I think has tarnished this year's series. It was interesting that I was listening to Talksport this morning and one of the presenters was asked, if invited would he go on the show as he did a lot of ballroom dancing with his wife. He said no, as he felt the show had moved on from when it was an entertainment programme where people learned to dance. He went on to say that the show was now very serious for the competitors and it was no longer about fun. He said he loved learning to dance and dancing with his wife and wouldn't like that enjoyment to be taken away!

SCD is a fantastic series but, I do think the judges this year have concentrated far too much on the competitive element of the show and hopefully they have learned their lesson. I really don't want any of them to leave but, next year I would prefer the criticism to be construtive rather than rude and personal. I was watching some of the old clips on YouTube and the difference in their attitudes towards the dancers is noticable.

I think there are 2 things: any year, it's going to depend on how much you like the contestants, same as with any show like this. If you absolutely love at least one contestant, then it works, if everyone you like gets voted of, it's a bad show. For me, this line-up isn't as exciting as last year's, but I've understand people who don't agree.

It's harder to tell if the nature of the show has changed. I think the judges are more grumpy, which I really, really can't stand - but they have always annoyed me every year, so I don't think it's a huge change.

My one solid complaint is with the direction of SCD and ITT. They have focussed too much on the judges, and they have played down the training rooms and the way the couples are gettting on. Take one example - Rachel and Vincent hurting their backs. In previous years, any injury would mean that we followed them to the doctor's etc, this year barely mentioned. In series 4, I can remember knowing if Mark was finding a dance difficult and going quiet on Karen or not from training footage. This year several of the celebs have talked about having 'black Tuesdays' or similar crises of confidence, but you'd have no idea of that from ITT. Now maybe most people don't want all that soapy stuff, but I like to get to know the celebs, and I really don't feel I have this year. I like them all in interview, but I don't really have a sense of how they are working as partnerships, and that has made me much less invested in their dancing. Instead, we get too much short clips with dramatic music implying their lives are on the line if they don't stay in, and 'Ask Len'.

I think the directors of the programme haven't done a good job of getting the celeb stories across this year, and that has taken some of the fun from it. I think the feeling that it's all 'hard work' this year is a big problem for the show and needs to change back next year.

I was thinking the exact same thoughts last night. Clearly Austin & Erin have had their difficulties - they've said so themselves on ITT but it's not been shown in glorious technicolour meltdown a la Mark & Karen.

As you say, maybe these soapy asides don't affect the overall result but they do add to the investment of the viewer as you say.

Great post jtnorth - you've articulated my vague feelings of discontent perfectly.

The inconsistencies with the marking and the obvious favourites this year has really grated with me. I was also irritated by the intimation that there was a rivalry between Tom and Austin, when in fact they were clearly getting on very well.

More than ever this year I've found myself agreeing with Craig and I'm certainly not claiming to be a dance expert, but having watched all the Strictly series' I like to think that I've picked some knowledge up along the way.

There has been too much interference and 'fixing' this year, rather than just letting the competition run it's course. Think back to Julian Clary and Chris (Spencer Moon for Eastenders) they both made it really far in the competition and although the judges were not particularly happy about it, there wasn't the persecution of them by the judges as there was of John this year.

As to the line up, I don't think it's been any less impressive than passed years, but I have felt that the dances haven't wowed me like before, I can't say whether that's the routines or whether the talent isn't as great as in previous years. However I'm sure that every year they use the platitude that the dancers are the best there have ever been, when it's obvious that this year there's no Alesha Dixon or Mark Ramprakash.

Weird I didn't think I had much to say.........

I was actually thinking about this very issue this morning as I brushed my teeth. There is definitely something about this series that has 'soured' it for me. It's similar to how I felt about "I'd Do Anything" earlier in the year, that it was less fun than previous series of that kind.

I think for me it is what seems to me to be the 'fixing' of scores by the judges. I was also surprised how the JS thing was handled - they complained when he was in the competition and then they complained when he dropped out. The implication is that it's the way the public vote that they have an issue with - as if they think they can tell us the voting public how they should spend our own money to vote. In actual fact I haven't voted at all this year and I doubt I will now.

I also felt that whilst during the show the judges were not quite as harsh to John as they had been to other weaker dancers in previous years - and indeed Arlene said that if we looked back we would see that the judges had been quite kind this series - I think they probably did this because of the accusation that their harsh comments provoke sympathy voting from the public. The problem was that the judges gave interviews outside of the main show in which they were still just as scathing. It made me think that they take us the viewers for fools, as if we wouldn't take exception to the comments they made on ITT or in newspapers.

It also feels to me after yesterday's show that they singled out Christime as the one they want out and Lisa as the one they don't want in the dance off. I thought Christine's Latin was great yesterday. Surely the judges could give good comments and slightly lower scores to the couple they see as the worst, as the lowest score will always get the final score of 1, without it having to be significantly lower than anyone else's score or accompanied by seemingly biased comments, which certainly get my back up.

I sort of feel as if I just want this series over now and should pin my hopes on next year's series being better.

I also agree with the poster who mentioned 'Ask Len'. I used to like Len, but over the past 3 series I've disliked him more and more and I resent him having such prominence in ITT when I feel that the stars of the show are the competitors and that the focus should be on them.

Sorry, this turned into a bit of a rant!

I've seen "OP" posted everywhere what the hell does OP mean?

I'm quite amazed about how quiet the whole JS thing has gone. Last week it was big news, this week, nothing.

I'm left thinking that maybe it's all been a big set up - by the SCD team and JS himself. To get people in to watch the show - have numbers been dwindling because it's not as exciting as previous years?

Just my thoughts.

Opening post

Original Post(er).

Original poster

Ohhhhhhhhhh thanks very much hahaha I feel stupid now

I think your comment about Austin was unnecessarily offensive. It has put me off commenting on the rest of it. Why do people need to descend to those levels of abuse?

I wholeheartedly agree with this, and I'm pleased someone else picked up on that as well. Although I love the forums.... people using such personal insults (regardless whether it is against my favourite or least favourite couple - and I have defended almost all celebs against such insults this year) is rather poor. The OP's point would have been much better made if he/she had refrained from using such language.

Overall however, I agree that this year's strictly is strange. And although I'm not a conspiracy person, I think the judges use the scoring and positioning on the board to keep people in, and not just based on the dancing on the night.

Furthermore, the judges have overmarked all the couples and they have their favourites.

Regarding the inconsistencies in the marks -

There has been talk for the past two or three years about how people would quite like to see a kind of Strictly "Champion of Champions" with the most successful couples (top three maybe - or a strategic selection) from each series competing against each other.

I'd be very interested to see how the judges mark the likes of Jill Halfpenny, Denise Lewis, Colin Jackson, Darren Gough etc when put up against the current crop of celebs. The marks in the first three series were quite a lot lower than they are now. The scoring has got higher and higher until it reached nigh on lunatic levels last night, particularly in the ballroom round.

I agree with a lot of this thread - I have been a strictly addict for years, but am finding now that given the chance to tape ITT, I will say oh no I can always catch it on iplayer - and I don't bother. I am not sure if this is because I have voted for the last three people to go out, and maybe it did seem in the first weeks that the people still in are the ones earmarked to be still with us at the start. I am not sure if there is a conscious effort by the judges to undermark the chosen victim each week, or if it is a subconscious thing - self fulfilling prophecy and all that - but I know after we had watched the first two dances last night, my family said oh everyone is doing so well tonight, and I just said wait until Christine comes on - and what a surprise, she got terrible comments and marks. And I wasn't surprised, as Arlene was winding herself up to mark her down on ITT the night before and if say Lisa had been wearing a Christine mask, she would not have got those scores. Maybe next year it should be Strictly masked dancing - the judges are only allowed to look at the couple from the neck down?!

And another thing - the band - it must be very hard for people to keep time when they have been training to a track, and then find the band plays the same thing at an entirely different tempo. So often a dance which looked great in the ITT clips of rehearsal rooms seems to be completely lacking punch on the floor, and I think it is because the beats aren't where they are supposed to be.

Will still watch until the bitter end and have decided to support the oldest person there - yay Brucie!

I would. No actually I quite like Austin- he makes me laugh. Get rid of boring Tom with no personality and put John back in. I used to get excited to watch John's performance, I don't look forward to anybody else's.
This year has been such a let down- there's no excitement, and most of the dancing has been boring- no wow factor like Aleshia or Matt last year.

It's always a good time to think; I'm always strangely creative when I'm brushing my gnashers.

I don't like how this turned into sections of the publc vs the judges - both sides are to blame for this. The judges for expressing views to the press and in Arlene's accusing a competitor of being lazy which was deeply unfair and sections of the public voting for someone regardless of their ability and the fact that other people with more potential got put out - they have also do things just to spite the judges. Both the judges and sections of the public have played favourites are tried to get their choices of whom they want or out enforced on each other and it's created a horrible atmosphere.

BTW - I would like to say respect to every person who has said they liked Christine but they acknowledge she is the weakest link and needs to go - we need more of that rationality.

The whole thing in many ways has been too predictable. Lets be honest we all knew from 1st show that Austin & Tom would be in quarter/semi finals. These two have been coasting along knowing that they haven't been in any threat of being in the dance off. Next year they have got to sort out the male celebs as there have been (this year & others) too many with two left feet. Surely in the recruitment process they do some assessment of basic dance ability. An odd one or even two less fit (like Don) is fine but 6 out of 8 is ridiculous. It has meant that these two have built up such a fan base from day 1 that they are basically set for the final as far as the public are concerned.

Judges may stop this at semi-final putting a girl (likely Rachel) through but they won't win. If they do the winner is going to be decided at semi-final by whoever of Tom or Austin survives going into the dance-off.

The only way to make a 'real' in fact interesting final is to have a fight between these two guys. Isn't this what they were building up in the first show of the series. :yawn:

Yeah, but they staaaarted it!

Are you Harry Hill, trying out ideas for next week's programme?