SCD 16 Glitter ball on the horizon🕺 💃

[xsquared]

Shiny new thread.

I don't think Strictly is about the best dancer winning. I think it's about the journey, improvement and entertainment. If you have never danced before the show you can't be expected to dance like a pro, but you can still win. I wanted Charles to win. He impressed me.

I'm glad the viewers have the final say in the final otherwise the decision would be far too black and white. The judges would choose the best dancer. They would choose Ashley, and that decision would not reflect other criteria - like best improved.

Do the viewers have all the decisions in the final next week ie first eliminated etc

Next year hopefully no more ringers

Lauren looks out of her depth now

Tess was originally Bruce’s sidekick and ‘beautiful assistant’. If she had been interviewed for her current job I doubt she would have got it. The cutesy and patronising comments seem to be the only way she can ad lib, and are now her default unfortunately. I’m sure the new executive producer will put their own stamp on the next series, but if the viewing figures are steady or increasing I suspect it will remain much the same.

I'm not so sure Ink The judges don't seem very keen on Ash. they were far more complimentary about Stacey because of her enthusiasm and the emotion she brings to her dancing.

Faye seems more popular with them too. But if it were up to the judges I believe that Stacey would win.

To be fair to Lauren I think she is ready to leave now and I think she will be horrified if she gets through to the final

I agree dippity - I think she would heave a huge sigh of relief if she went now - she's out of her depth and knows it. Poor little begger - she looked very upset at the judges comments and I don't blame her - weeks of "Ooooh you are amazing etc" and then suddenly "That was shite".

It was cruel - same with Joe,

I'm sure I remember many years ago when all round here was green fields etc, the lovely Julian Clary being kept in until the final by the "Pink Vote". Poor lad - he was dreadful and knew it and was desperate to be voted out but popular acclaim kept him from dance-offs.

It was week after week of public humiliation for him. It's not kind.

The judges should have been giving the feedback they gave last night weeks ago

This entire series has been shallow from the judges, and a fat disappointment of favouritism and bipartisan voting in their part. It's been deeply unhelpful and unfair. At least Len could be counted on to be pleasant to the crap ones but fair to everyone.

Totally agree Mayhem

I’d start by sacking Shirley, Bruno & Dave - in no particular order!

I don't think I have ever, ever seen support for Tess as a presenter. . . . .
How is she still in this job? Genuinely baffled.

As are we all! There must be loads of women presenters, just as pretty as she is, who could offer more than poor dress sense, patronising comments and an inability to read an autocue.

I'd much rather watch Charles than Joe dancing. I didn't like Charles to begin with but he grew on me.

Same here x.

I started off thinking he was vvv handsome, but arrogant and creepy, then ended up thinking actually, he's okayed his dancing's not at ll bad and they are picking on him and it's not fair.

I am a "bring-me-your-picked-on-people-and-I-will-give-them-a-cuddle" person, so immediately gave him my allegiance. (And his dancing wasn't NEARLY as bad as that of people who were getting better comments - it was a fix!)

The results show needs to be shown on Saturday night

Will never go back to the Saturday night (as it was when the show started) because I suspect that, crap as it is, it pulls in the viewing figures.

Karen Hardy would be excellent as Head Judge but I suspect she wouldn't do it (even if offered) as she would not be prepared to be told what to do in terms of story arcs etc. Whereas I feel Shirley has sold her soul to the devil

My husband was adamant he saw David Bradley (Filtch) in the audience last night. We saw him at comic con last week and he was asked his signature dance move- he did the Filtch shuffle run

Ppeatfruit I get the impression the judges will vote for the technically best dancer. Their minds can't compute it any other way. The best is Ashley. They know the viewers think her time is up, because she doesn't meet the rest of the criteria to win, but they seem stuck and can't work round that.

My views on last night..

• Felt sorry for Joe - I genuinely like him and it must have been quite crushing to hear some of the remarks.. I really liked his VW too!
• Lauren should be in the dance off (probably against Ashley) as theres no way that Joe will be there.
• Didn't mind Ashley's dances but I didn't love them.
• Best dance (and dress) was Staceys Charleston imo.. her dress was fab!

I wouldn't mind either Joe or Stacey winning - and I suspect Joe will, given that it's purely the people's vote. Not sure what I think overall of the series but I do think if it does get some changes (yes to no more Tess), it'll be for the better.

I'm finding Tess really patronising. It's so insulting.

There seemed to be a lot of activity on Twitter yesterday to get people voting for Joe. My suggested order for audience voting would be

Joe
Stacey
Lauren
Faye
Ashley

which paired with the judges' points would put Ashley and Lauren in the dance off. I've not looked for, or seen any spoilers, so this is my prediction only

Tess has had the same script for 12 years and still can't deliver it. She absolutely has to know where bodies are buried or else she does it for free. Agree she can rock a frock but she's got all the personality and warmth of a ver glamorous rock.

I read something suggesting that Ashley is quite hurt by all the criticism and was pointing out that the producers came to her, she wasn't begging to go on the show. I think in a way she has a point: they must be well aware that the public don't like ringers and that they could well be setting her up to fail. That said, Faye obviously has much more support because she comes over as a nice person and doesn't go in for all the simpering about how amazed she is if she does well.

I can see the argument that they can't exclude people who have some dance experience as it would filter out a large swathe of actors, and would mean that in the early stages all the dancing would be at the same pretty terrible level. However I do think in future they really need to exclude people with such a high level of experience.

They also need to filter out people like Joe who have such a large online following that it's near-inevitable that he would win just because they are all automatically voting for him, even if they haven't watched the show.

Ashley has to be out this week - if she is in the dance-off (and she must be, surely) it doesn't matter who she is up against, she will go out. The only one whose dancing ability is comparable is Joe, and he has a Twitter following in the billions, apparently - they won't get rid of him.

People saying no ringers needed really aren’t thinking about it from the perspective of an entertainment tv show that needs to pull in viewers. Look through all the Strictly threads on here: loads of complainin about ringers interspersed with everyone talking about memorable dances from series past that they watch over and over on YouTube, virtually all of which were performed by ringers! Ringers create the spectacle, the wow factor and the legends of the show - and whilst they’re on they also provide a bit of controversy and provoke debate and argument and ‘shock dance offs’ - all of which keep the show at the forefront of people’s minds. They’ll never get rid of the ringers! The show has benefited a lot from Ashley, it benefits from having a contestant that people don’t like as much as having popular contestants as well. Whether it’s been a positive experience for poor Ashley herself is a different matter! But I think you’re being a bit daft if you imagine it’s in any way in the producers’ interests to stop havin ringers, sorry!

Why so Godrestye? She is a better dancer than any of them so whoever she's up against will go out instead.

Ageee about your post on ringers, captain. Memorable dances such as Jay's jive, Jill's jive, Rachel Stevens' AT, Danny Mac's samba are often mentioned as favourites. They are all ringers themselves!
Very few people talk about Chris Hollins, Ore or Joe's dances even though they were winners.

It will be vairy interesting to see whether Joe’s (and Lauren’s come to that) public following is sufficient to get him from the bottom of the leader board straight into the final. I’m getting to the point where I wouldn’t mind Ashley winning, it would be a travesty if either Joe or Lauren do.

I think there's room for both ringers and novices. The ringers can't expect to win though or be 'hurt if they are in the dance off. That's the nature of the competition.

Are you confusing Ashley with Lauren Schaden, Ashley was joint first and got a 40.

I've just watched them all through on YouTube. I really like Stacey's Charleston, it has a real 1920's traditional vibe to it and the pacing of it is very enjoyable. It's much preferable to Ashley's movie week Charleston which was technically better but so fast that the moves were a bit of a blur and so less enjoyable.

BBC have much improved the way that they show the dances on YouTube, they have allowed the video to run a bit longer beyond the end of the dance so that the links to the other dances don't block the view of the end of the dance and they now include the judges scores at the end of the video.