Strictly Come Dancing--am I on my own here?

Every great statesman needs a cultural hinterland.

Goethe was a writer, scientist, and philospher. Mandelson likes to watch himself a bit of telly!

I read that as Mandelson likes to watch himself a bit on telly!

Still true.

Would Goethe have done any better than Sergeant in the jive section, though?

He learnt about Faust through a puppet show so I'm sure he would have had something to say about this.

Fozzie Bear to win next year's series.

"Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?"

Mike Yarwood?

".. and this is me!"

Sergeant to pull out of Strictly

Former political journalist John Sergeant has decided to pull out of the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing.

The 64-year-old has received strong support from the public since the show started, but the judges have been critical of his dancing.

In a statement, he said: "The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far."

BBC One controller Jay Hunt said: "We are very sad to see him go."

Alltogether now!

"YEAH, RIGHT!"

lol at office of 50 people grinding to a halt as half the sales force goes "What? He's gone? Oh my god WE MUST TALK ABOUT THIS AT LENGTH"

Bang go the ratings, bang goes the probability of any more series.

I trust that the BBC will be refunding charges to everyone who rang in and voted for him.

Another victory for the bullies and thugs and A Good Story.

I thought this might happen, and I was wondering how JS would time it/explain it. (You've got to tread carefully, when thousands have spent money keeping you in the show.) I'd love to know the full background to his decision.

I trust that the BBC will be refunding charges to everyone who rang in and voted for him.

Well, the votes were only ever to keep him in the show for one more week, not for the whole series - and since JS will be dancing a "farewell" performance on Saturday, you could argue that the contract hasn't been broken.

I'm sure that the BBC will.

Privatise it now.

Beeb would have wanted him to stay in, tho. Strictly beat I'm A Thingy in the ratings at the weekend, and that's not because of Christine Bleakley, now, is it? Plus, if you wanna be proper conspiracy theory about this, you'll notice that the judge that's been doing the talking in the papers is Arlene Phillips, co-creator of Britannia High. On ITV. Also, the last time Beeb tried making stars out of the judges, they wound up with DanceX.

Well I guess we won't be seeing AP on the panel after the current series then.

Britannia High is the worst TV programme ever.

I saw the 2007 DanceX winners supporting Rihanna, just under a year ago, on the last night of her world tour.

"Our workout video is coming out soon!", they pleaded, just before disappearing for good. It was almost poignant.

DanceX - proof positive that the British public does not want to watch a "dancing competition."

Update from Beeb News:

BBC One controller Jay Hunt told journalists the BBC had "have every intention of reimbursing people" who had voted for Sergeant during the series.

Money raised by calls to Strictly Come Dancing goes to Children In Need.

Come to think of it, where does all that Children in Need money go?

Paying for Sharon Shoesmith's Ascot tickets?

The current series of SCD is the first time I've watched any of them. It's the "dancing competition" aspect that interests me the most, so I like it when the judges get technical, even when I don't fully understand what they're saying.

(I'm crap at making technical judgements of my own, and so the judges' comments are often at sharp variance with my own opinions; I find this fascinating.)

From this perspective, I'm glad that the plug has been pulled on the Cult Of Sergeant. He deserves better than to be remembered as a comedy panto turn, and the show deserves better than being dragged down by it. Yes, I'm taking the high-minded Reithian angle here!

I'm taking the democracy/licence payers' money angle myself.

Since the BBC can't fiddle 'phone votes any more they arrange for inconvenient people to be bullied into quitting. Thus they get their way regardless.

The whole organisation is rotten to the core.

Well, it's all speculative either way. But if we accept the hypothesis that the programme-makers have bullied JS into quitting in order to further their own ends, then I'm confused. I thought JS was a ratings-grabber?

On the other hand, if we accept the hypothesis that the programme-makers have bullied JS into quitting in order to preserve the high-minded Reithian integrity of te show as a "dance competition", then I can at least see a logical consistency.

But I'm instinctively not a conspiracy theorist. Conspiracies often make for the most seductive narratives, but I have an innate suspicion of their neatness, and an innate scepticism that the alleged conspirators could be so efficient and effective.

My own speculation: peer pressure from JS's fellow contestants (including the dance professionals), which soured his enjoyment in taking part.

^^^ this
If the BBC have pressured JS into leaving, then they've just lost a good portion of their audience, who will watch X Factor in the run up to Christmas instead. But I don't think that's the case, they must see from the number of votes that he gets that a sizeable chunk of viewers are probably watching because he's in it.

So, yes, it's probably the prospect of having to mix with increasing bruised celebrity egos that's caused JS to leave.

I'm also thinking back to JS and Kristina's reactions on the "Sunday evening" (sic) results show, when their names were called out. They both looked astonished, disbelieving, uncomfortable, nervous, and far from happy. Especially Kristina. And then they both failed to show up for the hug-a-thon at the end. I'm sensing guilt and/or peer-pressure, not the wielding of corporate sticks from on high.

A conspiracy is a conspiracy, whether r not what is being conspired is actually worth doing.

Having said that, peer pressure, in a sense of "everyone else hates us" plus "I look stupid dancer now" probably forced his hand.

Then the not very professional pros should have been fired and replaced.

No one's going to watch "professional dancers" on their own.

They should have been taught in no uncertain terms to know their place on this show and to keep it.

But what else can we really expect from the gutless BBC?

More celebrities!

Actually, this is the best possible outcome for JS personally, isn't it? Just when it was all threatening to turn ugly, he Does The Decent, Gentlemanly Thing. As a result, Saturday's show will be one great big JS love-fest. The other contestants get to pay him lavish, emotional tributes, and (whether you were pro or anti his continued participation) he leaves the show as a National Treasure. Genius!

Marcello is turning into the Geir of BBC threads.

They should have been taught in no uncertain terms to know their place on this show and to keep it.

I thought that Cherie's partner's outburst on Sunday night was sincerely expressed and, from a contestant's perspective at the very least, entirely justified. One Saturday night TV talent contest whose participants are brow-beaten into knowing their place and never going off-message is quite enough, thank you!

I think James Jordan (Cherie's partner) is just paranoid and pissed off because last year he was dancing with Gabby Logan and she got voted off very early (in a dance-off with also-not-shit Penny Lancaster), before similarly untalented Kate Garraway and Kenny Logan. As I recall, Kenny asked if he could quit and let his wife stay on in his place, and wasn't allowed.

There's been a massive groundswell of "John Sergeant shouldn't still be in this", but if people feel that strongly that someone else should be in instead of him, they should pick up their phones and vote for them and not him. The level of vitriol thrown at Sergeant's abilities are quite incredible - he wasn't even the worst dancer in the series, and his ballroom is passable. Do none of these whingers remember the utterly cringeworthy performances that somehow got Chris Parker to the final?

Dissapointed not to see Thatcher crashing in during Sergeant's press conference.

Bryan Adams on the One Show wondering WTF is going on

Whom my mother has just incorrectly identified as Bryan Ferry...

I've gone right off James Jordan now.

I watched It Takes Two last night.

JS completely dignified and noble.

The rest of them from Goodman on down to Jordan, petty, sneering and evasive.

JS goes - now the "real" contest can start "in earnest."

JS stays - gets the sent to Coventry treatment, is bullied.

JS goes because he quite correctly believes that he came on the show to have a bit of fun rather than be howled down by jealous "purists" - gets bullied for not having the "guts" to stay.

So it's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Public school bullying at its worst - and once again, the bullies, the mediocre losers like James Jordan who'd be lucky to pull three pensioners to the opening of a new British Heart Foundation charity shop in Garstang - have been seen to triumph.

Once again, if people didn't like JS being on the show then they should have been allowed to exercise their democratic, licence paying right to vote him off.

But that's the New BBC Order for you - get rid of anyone who's in the slightest bit different.

That's what happens when you run an organisation on the basis of fear.

So, let's see...

Increased ratings for next saturdays prog.

Then decreased ratings for the rest of the run.

Oh, and JS to 'return', albeit not as a competitor, but by popular acclaim, to do more dancin'

One thing did strike me last night: A heck of a lot of 'old folk' who do the tea dances and are actually less good than JS, voting for one of their own not in a spirit of irony, but in a spirit of 'he's enjoying it like we are, and is not young and 'attractive' but old and happy.

i.e. a spirit of occupying the same spirit as they do.

Are their votes less valid and less 'important'?

Guess so.

Clearly the BBC are now more interested in not upsetting the tabloids than they are in getting ratings. I understand that R2's Saturday audience has done a convincing impression of the Titanic since Richard "We're Calming Things Down Here" Allinson and Alex "Abandoned Phone Boxes" Lester took over from Ross and Brand.

Like I say, the BBC are rubbing this particular baloon for all it's worth.

JPaxman much involved, and fair enough, he's a mate.

"So, Bryan Adams, What do you make of all this" The One Show, etc....

You'd think that JPax would do the decent thing and step into Sergeant's shoes on Saturday...

(either that or get Tom Paulin or Paul Morley Out Of Newsnight Review...)

A heck of a lot of 'old folk' who do the tea dances and are actually less good than JS, voting for one of their own not in a spirit of irony, but in a spirit of 'he's enjoying it like we are, and is not young and 'attractive' but old and happy. i.e. a spirit of occupying the same spirit as they do.

I was at an 80th birthday party the weekend before Strictly started and the chatter was all about Sergeant, very much along the "he's one of us" lines.

Just to keep things shipshape:

Correction 20 November 2008: An earlier version of this story wrongly stated that the money raised from calls to Strictly Come Dancing goes to Children in Need.

Since January 2008, the BBC no longer gives money raised by phone votes to charity. The money raised by Strictly Come Dancing phone votes pays for running the phone vote system itself. No money goes to Children in Need. Rules were changed after last year's phone votes scandals.

"have every intention of reimbursing people" does not necessarily equal "going to refund every caller's charges."

Anyway, let's stop Children In Need now. Fuck all use to the children in need in Haringey, wasn't it?

The star also gave his opinion on John Sergeant's exit from Strictly Come Dancing.

"He's fallen on his sword for the good of the nation," he said.

"He knows why he's done that and hopefully it's positive."

The star in question then mentioned that he's going to film a movie version of his cancelled US series, and went on to say " yerrr, we're going to get actual gorillas to film it, yeahrrrr."

It's Ant 'n' Dec and the Blue Peter cat all over again:

A cabinet minister has called for the judges of Strictly Come Dancing to be sacked following John Sergeant's decision to quit the BBC One show.

Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy said the the ex-journalist's dance performances had been "entertainment and good fun"

...

"The fact is the judges don't know what this programme is all about."

I thought it was all about judging which celebrity was the best dancer?

I thought politics was about running the country, not watching fucking television programmes.

I want a blanket ban on politicians making any comments on popular culture.

I don't want politicians to be my friend. I want politicians to govern this fucking country properly, to be remote, elitist, in charge.