Strictly 2020

[AlexRS2782]

Thought i might as well get this years thread started rather than continuing the one from last year.

Bit of a mixed bag, as it always is, from sports, acting & a politician thrown in too. Nice to see Jamie Laing back as he never got the chance last year and it could be interesting to see what Bill Bailey comes up with given his comedy routines, plus Jay Bell is normally good for a laugh whenever he does the NFL coverage.

Full line up below:

- Max George - singer / actor.
- Jay Bell - retired NFL cornerback & current BBC NFL pundit.
- Caroline Quentin - actress / presenter.
- Nicola Adams - retired Olympic medal winning boxer.
- Ranvir Singh - ITV presenter / content editor.
- Clara Amfo - DJ / presenter.
- Bill Bailey - comedian / actor / musician / wildlife supporter.
- JJ Chalmers - former Royal Marine Commando / current BBC presenter covering the Paralympics, Invictus Games & para sports features.
- Jamie Laing - actor / reality TV / Made In Chelsea - taking up the slot he had to vacate last year after injury.
- Maisie Smith - Eastenders actress.
- Harvey Leigh Cantwell - better known as HRVY - singer / presenter / social media.
- Jacqui Smith - former Labour MP / Home Secretary under Gordon Brown in '07. Better known for losing her job in '09 for her role in the expenses for porn scandal.

The series will be truncated and run from early / mid October until mid December.

Kevin Clifton & AJ Pritchard have confirmed they have left the series.

Nicola Adams has confirmed she will dance with a female partner .

Bruno Tonioli will have a limited role for the majority of the series but will appear remotely as part of the "Sunday" show. He's likely return to judge the last 3 or 4 episodes once Dancing With The Stars has completed in the USA, but that's subject to whatever Covid restrictions are present on travel / isolation by November / December.

The dancers / celebs are now expected to spend at least 2 to 3 weeks during September isolated in a hotel and, so long as nobody tests positive for Covid, they'll film all of the group routines for the series during this time.

[AlexRS2782]

BossHogg said:

Dancing on Ice beat them to it with a same sex couple.

I get the impression that's probably what the BBC / Strictly producers were hoping would happen - good way of seeing the response on a rival show before deciding whether to commit. They spent a fair bit of 2019 dropping hints, getting the judges to talk about it, then seeing how the press / social media responded and even had the all male pro dance as well. At the time, ITV would have been mad not to have done it on DOI and that way BBC / Strictly got to see the pros / cons unfold before commiting themselves. Given how positive it was for DOI it would've been stupid for Strictly not to do the same this year - it's about time tbh.

[AlexRS2782]

Truckosaurus said:

I was somewhat disappointed to see a small studio audience, I was hoping for them to copy sporting events and have fake crowd noises including booing when Craig gives his comments.

TBH I think they've done well to get even the current setup running. It looks like they're following the same route as Bake Off Extra Slice with regards to having a limited audience.

The smaller audience could be one of the best things about this year. They may have to finally scale back the excessively fake, cue card placement booing, whenever Craig gives a comment that's even only slightly negative, which has become more common over the years. It's usually more pointless when you get a massive jeer of boos over some throwaway comment about a loose hand, and then 30 seconds later Craig hands out an 8 and the crowd are cheering.

[AlexRS2782]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

I'm really not liking the slo-mo replay at the end of each dance between the judges comments and the score.

I assume they're using that as stop-gap filler so they don't have to show the dancers heading up the stairs and getting sprayed with anti-bac / hand sanitiser before they stand opposite Claudia

Although it looks like the ongoing thing we'll have this series is repeated cuts to the audience / family members / friends so that we can ensure everyone is reminded about social distancing, bubbles, face coverings, etc.

[AlexRS2782]

Must be the first time in quite a few years that the 2 dancers at the bottom of the leaderboard, in the series first elimination show, are the same 2 in the dance off by public voting.

[AlexRS2782]

The CGI isn't ideal, but i guess it's the best option they've got given CV. I think it was someone from the props department on ITT last week who was giving an overview about how things have changed this year and due to the required distancing, anti-bac, etc, they don't have as many people working on props and those that are working on set on the night don't have the ability to change out sets as quickly as previous years as a result.

It seemed this week was another one of those years where you get 1 or 2 dances where the showrunners have picked themes for the night (Simpsons / Star Wars) and then told the pros to somehow create a dance working with the theme music. In the case of The Simpsons, it's easier to save because it was a street commercial type of dance so more free reign, whereas Jason & Luba got left with a normal dance to Stars War theme.

The Star Wars dance reminded me of a couple of years ago when Jeanette & the guy from JLS got similarly shafted with the theme / music on one of the themed weeks. Fairly sure he was meant to be MJ and the music was one of MJ's tracks, but because of the fast paced dance they were doing, they'd sped the song & music up and it was awful - as a result he ended up being voted out that week.

The audience comprising the showrunners, etc, seemed to work ok this week - even a bit of noticeable banter being nudged at Craig from a couple of the other dancers, showrunners by the sounds of it and the bonus of very little fake booing again.

Edited by AlexRS2782 on Sunday 8th November 00:49

[AlexRS2782]

Vintagejock said:

The boxer is pretty bulletproof. More than an inclusive BBC dare do than have her leave early.

If that really was the case, then how come she ended up second bottom based on the judges score and then, as a result of the public vote, ended up in the dance off with the risk of doing a worse dance than before and being voted off by the same judges?

There's no difference between this and H on Dancing On Ice last year. Loads of talk in the build up to the show launch and maybe on the first week, but by week 2 onwards it's just a partnership like all the others on the show.

Edited by AlexRS2782 on Monday 9th November 00:03

[AlexRS2782]

RichB said:

The Surveyor said:

<clip> Jason Bell would have been allocated the Paso Doble, and would then have to do a movie themed Paso as it was movie week. He and Luba went with a Starwars theme for their Paso, which was a poor poor choice.

But when you say "went with" would they have chosen Star Wars or would the production team have told them here's your music?

Yeah the couples have never had a choice over the music - it's whatever is cleared / paid for use by the show for the season in advance.

It's why there's usually at least a few poorly matched choices of music / dance - proved this week by Jay & Luba with Star Wars theme - and also the odd week where you get a slow paced song that gets pitched up to suit a faster dance - and usually doesn't work either.

Edited by AlexRS2782 on Monday 9th November 21:50

[AlexRS2782]

The Surveyor said:

AlexRS2782 said:

RichB said:

The Surveyor said:

<clip> Jason Bell would have been allocated the Paso Doble, and would then have to do a movie themed Paso as it was movie week. He and Luba went with a Starwars theme for their Paso, which was a poor poor choice.

But when you say "went with" would they have chosen Star Wars or would the production team have told them here's your music?

Yeah the couples have never had a choice over the music - it's whatever is cleared / paid for use by the show for the season in advance.

It's why there's usually at least a few poorly matched choices of music / dance - proved this week by Jay & Luba with Star Wars theme - and also the odd week where you get a slow paced song that gets pitched up to suit a faster dance - and usually doesn't work either.

Nope, I just don't believe that. Are you saying that had Jamie Laing been voted out last week, Anton and Jacqui Smith would have been dancing the Hercules Charlston, or was that decided a season ago as well ?

Well no, because Anton & Jacqui would have had another dance style / theme already lined up had they gone through. You can believe it or not, but it has been discussed before on ITT over the years that the couples have no choice over the music they get for their own dance. They're told what the music is, and obviously theme when it comes to the movie, musical, etc, weeks, and asked to choreograph around that.

It has also been raised on ITT before, although never shown during the midweek training montages, that the celebs / pros are generally made aware of the dance types they'd likely have for the following 2 weeks, if they were to progress, and there is some preparation for that. As a result, had Anton & Jacqui gone through in week 1 they would have had their own dance style / theme to perform.

Edited by AlexRS2782 on Tuesday 10th November 00:44

[AlexRS2782]

Saw this on ITT earlier this evening - it's sad, but i think we all knew it was quite likely, with the way things are this year, that the show would get caught out by CV at some point.

I know it won't be a loss for some on here, but it appears Rylan is also isolating for 2 weeks after someone he knows outside the show tested positive, so he's had to pull out of Strictly as well as CIN, etc.

It looks like they're still sticking with the elimination this week so essentially 2 couples will go.

[AlexRS2782]

From what's been posted Motsi went back to Germany briefly this week for a family matter and then returned to the UK. So she's only isolating for the next 2 weeks because of the UK's current travel / quarantine restrictions. It appears she offered to WFH and judge there for the next 2 weeks, but the producers were concerned over live feed technical issues on the night and asked Anton to step in.

Based on his brief chat on ITT earlier tonight with Gethin, i think Anton will offer some fun judging comments whilst still being fair. He certainly seemed very happy to have been given the opportunity to do the judging and evidently Len's given him the thumbs up too

[AlexRS2782]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

...and Bruno will be off-he seems to miss episodes these last few years so maybe he can't be arsed?

He's also been one of the main judges on the US version, Dancing With The Stars, for years & normally he'd fly between the USA & UK every week to judge both shows. Due to when the US version airs there are the odd weeks where there's a clash & no time to fly back so we get a guest judge on the UK version.

He's listed to return as a judge for the last 2 UK shows, once the US show concludes on November 23rd, but that's obviously subject to Covid quarantine restrictions.

[AlexRS2782]

Possibly explained if she's wondering if, as a result of that dance, whether there's going to be another week of the low rent, celeb gossip sites / papers claiming she's shagging Giovanni

Some of the papers / gossip sites seem desperate to find some form of affair / relationship this year (even if there isn't one) probably in the hope they can go on about them breaching CV regulations A couple of weeks ago they were claiming HRVY & Maisie were at it, that got debunked, but it appears they've changed to Ranvir once they found out she was performing a tango All a bit sad / pathetic really.

[AlexRS2782]

Confirmed earlier today that Bruno will no longer be returning for the final due to Covid concerns.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-5509...

[AlexRS2782]

I'm not sure why people are surprised with Bruno's decision this year. It was always the most likely outcome.

He's judged the US version for an equally long length of time as the UK version plus his own home is in the USA so given the fact he can't just jump on a plane and fly back & forth like previous years doing the US version was the only choice. He also confirmed last week, when being interviewed about not returning for the UK final in person, that one main reason was due to his age being higher at risk of CV and not wanting to spend 2 weeks isolating after finishing the US show.

Worth noting that that same thing happened with the US version - Len Goodman was meant to have been judging again this year but due to his age & CV confirmed he wouldn't do the show and made the odd appearance via video link like Bruno.

[AlexRS2782]

Another week, another load of online trolls / bell-ends. Looks like this weekend it was Motsi's turn.

Seems that after Saturday night she was on the receiving end of loads of people posting / DM'ing abuse at her claiming she was drunk & pissed up during the show, a few people telling her to quit the show and leave the country & obviously some racist abuse thrown in for good measure too - muppets.

[AlexRS2782]

Good on Bill. Yes HRVY & Maisie probably had better performances, but given what's gone on this year i think the public vote reflected the entertainment value and he deserved the win. I think that makes Oti the first pro to win back to back series on the UK version.

Sway said:

I can agree with pretty much all that.

Is there still going to be a Christmas special?

I think it's mainly a "best of Strictly" looking back on performances over the years plus interviews with various dancers, celebs, judges, etc.