Strictly Come Dancing Mayhem

Arguably X Factor has managed to recover from the outrage and disaffection caused by the early expulsion of Laura and Diana and the show ended on Saturday with Alexandra crowned as this years winner. Doubtless the debacle caused by the loss of a fourth contender in the semi finals of Strictly Come Dancing will also be ironed out and forgotten in the final this coming Saturday. The absence of John Sergeant, who voluntarily retired for the show a couple of weeks ago, has brought a voting anomaly to light and forced the programmes producers to allow all three remaining semi-finalists free passage to the final.

One lesson to be learned from this is to bar what might be foreseen as charming but ‘joke’ contenders from future series of the show. Either’Strictly’ is a serious opportunity for keen amateurs to seize a unique opportunity to develop their latent skills as dancers or it is simply Saturday night entertainment and not to be taken too seriously. Clearly, the outrage and controversy stirred up by the John Sergeant issue has demonstrated that it is the former rather than the latter and future contestant recruitment must take this into account.

It only costs 15p to call the show and vote from a BT landline so it is unlikely that the furore caused by this latest teacup storm is about money. Voters registered their approval for either a favoured contestant or the best dance of the night on Saturday and this is where the problem lies. The votes will be carried over to next week and those who voted for their favourite will have little problem with this. The voters most attuned to the true ethos of the show, however, are those who acknowledged the best dance of the night and they have just cause for complaint. Their vote will now be carried over to be attributed to a dancer who might not produce the best performance on the night of the final. This goes against the grain of Strictly Come Dancing and undermines its authenticity in providing an environment for a true and accurate assessment of the best overall dancer on the show. There may well be a contender, this coming Saturday, who produces a blistering performance, only to lose on the basis of last weeks vote. This will cause genuine dismay and outrage and must surely be wrong.