It's almost that time of year again! :wub:

 

Strictly's back next month so expect celebs to start getting announced any time from Monday :D It's usually early August time!

The line-up:

 

Ashley Roberts

Charles Venn

Danny John-Jules

Faye Tozer

Graeme Swann

Joe Sugg

Kate Silverton

Katie Piper

Lauren Steadman

Lee Ryan

Ranj Singh

Seann Walsh

Stacey Dooley

Susannah Constantine

Vick Hope

Edited October 23, 20186 yr by Jase 🎃

Christ that is REALLY scraping the barrel, pretty sure she's only regional on Capital? She does a couple of TV bits but that's still really scraping for a show like Strictly. The papers are saying that married big names are put off by the "curse" that's been in the media again with the Redknapps breaking up...

 

I hope to god the Scarlett Moffatt rumour I've seen is wrong because I can barely stand to watch even a few seconds of her.

...WHO? :lol: normally I'm quite good with reality lineups. I can see her being the one who's good but goes out really early because the public haven't a clue :')

 

Another name that seems almost certain is Catherine Tylsley (Eva in Corrie) which is pretty good! Up for that *.*

Source (Nozze02 from DS Forum)

 

Rumoured Participants

 

 

Females

Lorna Fitzgerald - 22 - Former Eastenders Actress

Maya Jama - 24 - TV and Radio Presenter

Chelsea Halfpenny - 26 - Casualty Actress

Stacey Solomon - 28 - TV Presenter

Vick Hope - 28 - Capital FM Presenter

Lizzie Yarnold - 29 - Skeleton Racer

Maddie Moate - 30 - Cbeebies Presenter and YouTuber

Rachel Shenton - 30 - Actress

Jessica Ennis-Hill - 32 - Heptathlete

Alex Scott - 33 - Retired Footballer

Clara Amfo - 34 - Radio One Presenter

Catherine Tyldesley - 34 - Coronation Street Actress

Steph McGovern - 36 - BBC Breakfast Business Presenter

Dawn Porter - 39 - TV Presenter

Cherish Finden - Pastry Chef

Professor Alice Roberts - 45 - Historian

Amanda Mealing - 51 - Casualty Actress

Anneka Rice - 59 - TV and Radio Presenter

 

Males

Josh Cuthbert - 26 - Union J Singer

Joey Essex - 28 - Television Personality

Spencer Matthews - 30 - Reality TV Star

Greg James - 32 - Radio One and Television Presenter

Tom Allen - 35 - Comedian

Tomasz Schafernaker - 39 - Meteorologist for BBC Weather

Mike Tindall - 39 - Retired Rugby Player

Johnny Vegas - 47 - Comedian and Actor

David James - 48 - Retired Footballer

Boris Becker - 50 - Tennis Player

Mark Labbett - 53 - Chaser on The Chase

Brendan Sheerin - 59 - International Tour Guide on Coach Trip

Chris Kamara - 60 - Football Reporter

Les Dennis - 64 - Actor and TV Presenter

Graham Cole - 66 - Actor

 

Unknown

Mystery Hollyoaks Actor

Meghan Markle Related

Spice Girl

I would lovr Mark Labbett lmaoo, also here for Chelsea Halfpenny, Lorna Fitzgerald and Rachel Shenton of the rumoured females. They do often have a Casualty/Holby/Call The Midwife or one of their BBC drama actors on the show so Chelsea Halfpenny or Amanda Mealing is probably a good bet, ofc after last night's Casualty depending on what happens it might be that Chelsea is more likely :P

 

I'm here for Tomasz and Greg as eye candy too.

In fairness it doesn’t feel like they’ve led with Vick Hope through choice!

 

They always manage a far more C-List lineup than other celeb shows in the game so I’m not too worried yet.

Brendan from Coach Trip would be amazing! :lol:

Chelsea Halfpenny’s the niece of a previous winner as well so I’m pretty confident she’s in!

Oh yeah I forgot about Jill! I think like Chizzy and Joe from last year, perhaps it co-incides with her Casualty exit which will be sad. It all seems to add up!

I think for me this will be the first year where, whilst I will watch, I'm not watching Strictly as intently as I have in previous years. Purely because I think they jumped the shark last year - voting actual contenders off way before it was their time to go because they dared to push the boundaries and do something different, and the subsequent blatant overscoring of two participants in particular to get them into the final from both Shirley and Craig that fast made it an unenjoyable watch (although all the more better when Joe and Katya emerged as the dark horses and very deserving winners and screwed the bookies over).

 

Coupled with Brendan not being back in the professional lineup this year (OK, he was a bit head full of steam at times, but he's always been one of the best male professionals the show has had) and it's not really the same show for me anymore. I feel like the Ore Oduba series was the peak and I wouldn't be surprised - certainly looking at the list of rumoured names, of whom I only know Anneka Rice - if this is the first year that it starts to struggle a bit in the ratings.

Edited August 5, 20186 yr by ThePensmith

That list is still full of solid names, perhaps not so much the female list but Chelsea Halfpenny for example is very popular in Casualty, Rachel Shenton recently won an Oscar so has had a fair bit of publicity, Cath Tyldsley was very popular in Corrie, and then Jessica Ennis is a double Olympic medalist.

 

I don't think you can say a series is going to struggle because objectively you don't know many of them and are a bit bitter over last year :lol: Personally the only ones I don't know at all on the female side are Maddie Moate and Alice Roberts and I know of all the males. It's not always really about the names anyway, it's just an easy thing to watch on a Saturday night that doesn't take itself seriously.

Considering the average audience last year was 11.14 million, the second highest ever, I think it has quite a way to go before it "struggles" with ratings. It could dip to 9 million on average and still be one of the biggest shows on TV. The public are still infatuated and even if it doesn't match the 11.14 million average, I doubt it'll be too far behind.

Lorna could be this years EE contestant then! I was hoping for Shona tbh :(

Yeah it’s had bad line ups in the past and not struggled at all, it’s a bit like CBB in that it’s the characters not the status that makes the series. Hyped af, last year was so good with Shirley <3

 

I think for me this will be the first year where, whilst I will watch, I'm not watching Strictly as intently as I have in previous years. Purely because I think they jumped the shark last year - voting actual contenders off way before it was their time to go because they dared to push the boundaries and do something different, and the subsequent blatant overscoring of two participants in particular to get them into the final from both Shirley and Craig that fast made it an unenjoyable watch (although all the more better when Joe and Katya emerged as the dark horses and very deserving winners and screwed the bookies over).

 

Coupled with Brendan not being back in the professional lineup this year (OK, he was a bit head full of steam at times, but he's always been one of the best male professionals the show has had) and it's not really the same show for me anymore. I feel like the Ore Oduba series was the peak and I wouldn't be surprised - certainly looking at the list of rumoured names, of whom I only know Anneka Rice - if this is the first year that it starts to struggle a bit in the ratings.

Do you mean Aston? He left because no one voted for him and Janette apparently isn’t that good herself at ballroom and her choreography didn’t resemble the dances :lol: and that personality didn’t help let’s be honest x

The Aston controversy always annoyed me because ultimately, he was the least good of the two in the dance-off. If they're judging based on their overall potential, it renders the dance-off pointless and they can save time on the results show. However, the judges need to look at what's in front of them, and his performance got a 25 compared to Mollie's 27 that week. It's just the way it goes. He didn't deserve to place so low in the competition but it highlights the importance of bringing your A game every single week.

The Aston controversy always annoyed me because ultimately, he was the least good of the two in the dance-off. If they're judging based on their overall potential, it renders the dance-off pointless and they can save time on the results show. However, the judges need to look at what's in front of them, and his performance got a 25 compared to Mollie's 27 that week. It's just the way it goes. He didn't deserve to place so low in the competition but it highlights the importance of bringing your A game every single week.

Tbh, while I agree with the decisions most of the time they should scrap the dance off and just have the lowest judges+public points go home. It means there’s no tension once you know who’s there as it’s obvious 90% of the time who’ll win. I always cringe at them trying to pass off the Sunday show as live :lol:

Considering the average audience last year was 11.14 million, the second highest ever, I think it has quite a way to go before it "struggles" with ratings. It could dip to 9 million on average and still be one of the biggest shows on TV. The public are still infatuated and even if it doesn't match the 11.14 million average, I doubt it'll be too far behind.

 

Maybe you're right, but there comes a point with every show in a light entertainment format where it begins to lose steam. Just look at X Factor, which comparatively, has done continually worse and worse for seven straight years, and has just signed Robbie Williams as a judge 10 years after that would've been a star booking and his wife whose only real claim to fame is being well, his wife. Same when Bake Off went to Channel 4 and they got rid of Mel & Sue and Mary Berry.

 

I'm sure ratings wise it will still as you say, be averaging at least 9-10m viewers, but I wasn't the only one left with a bad taste in the mouth after last year's series, particularly on what I (and many others) felt was the lack of transparency on the producers' part not revealing the voting figures when Aston-gate happened. It may defy the odds and continue to prosper for all we know, but equally you can only change a winning format around so much or before viewers begin to tire of it.

Bake Off was always going to decrease in its ratings even if Mary/Mel/Sue moved with it. There’s a significant percentage of people (largely elderly) who basically have BBC One as a default channel. The age breakdowns showed that I think two thirds of the lost audience were like 65+. It still did incredibly well for Channel 4, getting its highest ever ratings for a series. If Mary, Mel & Sue were such a huge part of its success, then their many shows on the BBC since Bake Off would have also smashed but.. they’ve only got ~3m.

 

Strictly will do fine, each year I’ve thought it’s peaked but it still continues to do incredibly well. Every year a massive favourite goes out early, largely the ones who peak too soon, because they aren’t good at everything (they’re often Janette’s partners too oops)

On a positive note though: last year's series made me a fan of Reverend Richard Coles, whose autobiography I've subsequently read and it is an absolute hoot.

The Aston saga was ridiculous, they'd have got flack either way tbh because they always go on about the dance-off being what they base their decision off of, and Aston was worse than Mollie in that scenario. If they did do that, everyone would say the dance-off is a farce and there's no point to it if they're just going to save their faves. That was the fairest way, people clearly didn't take to him much as he was in the bottom 2 (his attitude was offputting for me personally) and unlike Alexandra when she found herself there, he didn't outperform the other person in the dance-off. It shows on a show like this that one bad week can see you off.