John Sergeant to pull out of Strictly Come Dancing

I think that's a shame, i really do.

I think that's really sad. It is quite annoying to me how the judges whinge about John. It is a bloody entertainment show and he is entertaining.

L
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But surely by him pulling out another of the couples will also leave this weekend?

Thats a real shame about him leaving (I don't watch the show but know abut the gossip). I read somewhere that even the other contenstants were starting to ignore him - apparently after the last show was aired, once the camera stopped rolling he was milling around on the dance floor with the other constantants and they were blantily ignoring him. Poor bloke

I actually think it's a bit mean of him to pull out like this.

It's like sticking two fingers up at all those people who voted to keep him in. What was the point?

I think it's a real shame. I didn't like the fact better people were leaving because he was being kept in, but I'm not of the opinion that he should "fall on his sword" (a fave phrase in the SCD message boards) and leave.

Plus you're right, it's a bit unfair on all the people who voted for him.

WMSS - he hasn't given any thought to the people who voted for him last week. It says on heatworld that he will still be appearing this weekend for a final dance but I'm guessing there'll be no elimination this week?

I think this is awful.

So now the judges and contestants are basically deciding who's 'allowed' to win the show? People have forgotton that in series one Chris Parker couldn't dance at all and was utterly awful but got to the final as the public voted for him because the judges were so mean. Also, Julian Clary got pretty far didn't he? last 3 or four? He wasn't too brilliant either.

Both with SCD (and X-factor with all the belly aching after laura went) press/judges etc are forgetting this is a show voted for by the public. That's the risk you take guys.

So Austin Healy will win SCD blah, blah, how dull.

I know it's a dance contest, but for me it's an entertainment show and nothing more.

Yes it's nice to see Jodie improving, and yes it's encouraging to see the more mature lady like Cherie being flung around the floor, but I don't smile half as much at them as I do when John comes on.

It's like X Factor. I enjoy watching the audition stages when you can laugh at the really bad singers, but find the live shows excuriating to watch. I just can't be bothered to watch people sing who know they can, but pretend they didn't have a clue they could hold a tune. Yeah right!

Alesha was great all the way through last year's competition, and if it was based on ability then the right person won. Yes she was the best dancer. But she had trained as a dancer, and dances as part of her job, so was bound to be good.

I think John should stay in. And if he wins it, then it means the public wanted to keep him in. And that's what it's about for me. Not really who's a good dancer or not, but who's the most enteraining. And John has that in spades.

Aw no! I love JS he is the entertainment factor on SCD. When he takes the dancefloor I grin and he makes me happy. I also love seeing how much less of him there is every week as Im sure he has lost half his bodyweight so far!

I think that if its a public vote, then thats it the public decide. What a sad state of affairs.

According to the Telegraph the producers of the show are thinking about introducing New rules for Strictly Come Dancing which will mean a contestant who finishes bottom of the judges’ leader board for three weeks in a row will be automatically ejected without participating in a dance-off.

So much for the public vote.

But he says that it was his intention to have fun on the show, and if what has been said is right and the other contestants were ignoring him then maybe it just wasn't any fun anymore. Very demoralising to be ignored ☹️

I am finding this all quite odd. I would have thought the very POINT of having poeple like John Sergeant on in the first place is to see how far they can go. It's not like they could have ever thought he was going to be the greatest dancer in the competition, so why have people on in the first place? It is actually quite nasty of them to think 'well, we'll get some rubbish dancers on for the first few weeks so we can all laugh at them and then we'll boot them off later'.

L
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lets get one thing straight - the public vote is not some altrusitic BBC policy for its licenceholders, its a revenue generation tool, thats it. it is an entertainment show, not a dance contest. and JS and his partner are damned if they do and damned if they dont (ref minxs comment about it being mean of him to pull out). he has never said he s the best dancer, its nothing to do with that, its entertainment, and those who are whinging about it should realise that that is all it is.

a similar thing happend a couple of years ago with "make me a supermodel". Jen hunter kept being voted in despite her being overweight and really, not a great model. when you think of the profile of the viewer for that show, its mainly women, and JHs stand against "skinny models" did her a lot of favours, until that is she said she wanted to be a size 8, then it all went pear shaped (?) and she was voted out for being an insincere loon. the judges were apoplectic that she d been kept in upto that point, but as with SCD, you give the pubic the chance to vote, and they will vote for WHO THEY LIKE, not neccessarily the "best" person. plus, the demographic of SCD i would imagine is made up largely of older people, who may well like JS, and are keeping him in for entertainment purposes, and there is nothinh wrong with that. talk about a storm in sequined C cup.

Maybe the BBC could think about having a dance based competition and not just an entertainment show. Bruce could still host, but it could be on later at night and maybe they could drop the 'Strictly' from the title...

L
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From AA Gill's TV column in the Sunday Times this week:

There is a crisis at the very heart of democracy. Last week, just as the American media proved that, yes, they could manipulate the man they loved into the White House, so it was here in Britain, mother of parliaments. The crisis is that the electorate have got it all wrong in two polls — on The X Factor and Nonentities Come Dancing. All right-thinking people realised the masses had made a desperate error, akin to Germany in 1933, by voting off some dumpy-arsed, tearful cruise-ship warbler from The X Factor. Cheryl Cole said it was a travesty, and Simon Cowell that it was plain the public weren’t voting for talent. In the Upper House, on Strictly Come Dancing, a terpsichorially challenged audience failed to dismiss the political broadcaster John Sergeant for not dancing properly, or at all. One of the judges — the strangest collection of human effluvia this side of Grimms’ Fairy Tales — admonished us by saying we must remember this was a dancing competition.

Now, I think it’s time I called the old dancing judges, Cheryl and Simon into my office to remind them of a few home truths. Listen carefully, all of you. Strictly Come Dancing is not a dancing competition. The X Factor is not a talent contest. The Queen Vic is not a real pub, and Basil Brush isn’t actually a talking fox. They are all entertainments. Dragons’ Den isn’t real venture capitalism, and I’m a Celebrity. . . Get Me Out of Here! isn’t a real jungle or, indeed, real celebrity, and everybody there has been begging their agents to get them in it. You are all suffering from a common green-room delusion: you believe your own billing. You are not on television because you’re experts or gurus. You’re there because you’re either funny, hateful or shaggable, and if you’re in any doubt which, then it’s not the latter.

The public votes for what makes the best television. If that means dismissing a dull genius for amusing crapness, they’ll do it without thinking. Hands up anyone who remembers the name of the men’s ski-jump gold medallists the year Eddie the Eagle came last? Exactly. Who knows, who cares?

There have been some interesting studies done on the wisdom of crowds. It turns out they’re almost always intuitively right. You really can’t chase ratings, court popularity and then claim your audience has got it wrong. They understand that the airwaves and iTunes are chock-a-block with talent they will never get round to listening to, better than anything on The X Factor, and that there was once a real dance competition on television. Only late-night drunks watched it. What we want is a fat oik who’ll sing Nessun Dorma once a week, and that kid who fell on his back in the shower. The audience isn’t a talent agency. They want to switch on the telly and be amused for an hour, and John Sergeant dancing is Dr Johnson’s dog and, therefore, entertainment.

Spot on. And since we're all clearly crying out for a serious dance competition without people like John in it, it'll never be cancelled due to low ratings etc.

Isn't that the point people are trying to make though? SCD is based on dancing, yes, but in all honesty it isn't really about the best dancer, it's about who is most entertaining/who the public find most likeable. Sometimes that ties in with the best dancer (like Alesha last year), sometimes it doesn't (like John this year). Or at least that's the way I see it.

If it was about dance and dance alone, then they shouldn't be having celebrities, they should have real dancers. The whole point of the 'celeb' bit is it's non-dancers trying to dance. Therefore the public should be judging them on their performance rather than ability shouldn't they?

And by 'performance', you include all manner of things such as likeability, humour, entertainment etc.

So chances are, it boils down to a popularity contest really ?.

i think AA Gill (above) has summed it up far better than I can.

Am I the only one who thinks that having the "Breaking News" ticker on BBC24 and interrupting the business news for this "news just in" is just a little OTT?

Totally agree. Was still typing my reply out so didn't see it at the time. ?

AA Gill has summed it up perfectly for me too.

I think it is a real shame that he has felt that he has to withdraw.

I thought that the whole point of the programme was that it was an entertainment show, and also the voting enabled money to be raised for children in need.

The people dancing are all "celebrities" - it is not a competition to win a part in a show,or get a contract of any kind.

Personally, I think that the producers should have tried to make him stay - if for nothing else than to help raise more revenue for Children in Need.

IT IS NOT FOR CHILDREN IN NEED!

There's no charity involved this year.

I think it's really sad that he feels the need to stand down. I totally agree with the others and the article above that if you ask the public to vote you go by what they decide. The audience are not dance judges, we vote for what's entertaining. I said all of this the other day on another thread but I think JS has worked really hard, he's not been lounging around all day eating cakes, he's been training just as much as the others.

I was quite surprised to find this out last week, and think it's pretty shoddy. Not that I vote, not from over here ?

I hadn't realised that - I'm rather shocked actually!

Did anyone hear the press conference on radio 5? John Sargeant was being heckled by Jeremy Paxman who then ended up doing his own mini press conference and called the 5 Live reporter a nitwit ?

I had no idea it was ever for CIN/Charity?

What, you mean the people who produce the show are going to make decisions about it? How very unfair! ? They can do what they like.

Given that most of what you read in the press (did someone quote that esteemed journal Heat? ?) is utter b*llocks, I'm not going to waste any time with whether he's being ignored by the others.

He signed up for the show, I think he should stay in... but as it's his personal choice, if he wants to make the decision that him quitting won't affect his future TV prospects (it won't) then he can do what he wants.

At the end of the day *prepares for lynhcing* it's just a TV show!

Can't... breathe...

I ❤️ AA.

I actually thought his press conference was very gracious - he just said that there was a risk that the joke would go too far and not really be funny any more.

THere is a suggestion that he has a commitment in a couple of weeks time as well ?

I sooooooooooooo wondered if that were the case, but on a largely pro-JS thread, I feared I'd get lynched for suggesting it!! ?

I also wondered if his agent was advising him to quit while the going was good? Lots of publicity, he seems quite gracious and 'fair' and he goes out on a hig before people turn and start saying it's unfair about the really good contestants losing out.

I'll just take my cynical backside off to another thread, shall? ?