Strictly Come Dancing 2023 #35

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Boring Monday said:
They might keep the internal squabbles and general difficulties away from the public by sheer force of contact stipulations, but celebs Are going to talk to each other and know. I would imagine that the behind the scenes machinations are an open secret among the celebs most likely to be approached.
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I have a very loose 'friend-of-a-friend' link to someone who did the show several years ago and didn't have an especially great time of it; they were (and still are) a BBC employee, and our mutual acquaintance mentioned after the fact that while said person was very guarded in terms of exactly what they were prepared to say about their time on the show, if [insert name of their well-known co-worker] was offered the gig and asked for their advice/experience, they'd certainly not recommend it.

I'd LOVE to know exactly what gets shared 'off the record' 😁
 
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I think there's a lot of layers to this:

- The show is too intense and expects far too much from the celebs and pros

- Gio probably is a bit of a dick

- He's skated by in the past because some of his partners have either also been dicks (Laura), somewhat irritating (Ritchie) or not bothered by his nonsense (Michelle, Rose)

- Amanda was not in the headspace to be on the show in the first place, let alone be partnered with someone who is maybe not actively malicious but is not a warm and caring sort of person, she may have done better with one of the other boys.

- There's also the weaponising of mental health you see now, especially on SM, and some people will cry trauma and PTSD just from someone looking at them funny once, which means she may not be taken seriously regardless of what happened
 
Boogs said:
Their after dance interviews are quite interesting. Very touchy feely but she does appear to be quite delicate (for want of a better word). She says she loves dancing with him in this one and 2 weeks later she was gone 🤷🏼‍♀️
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To be honest, I take what they say like that with a huge pinch of salt. Strictly is at a minimum 50% PR. The bingo card for ‘one big family’ and ‘friends for life’ was being filled in the launch show when they could most likely barely pick each other out of a line up.
 
ChastityDingle said:
I agree.
I hated that lift that Gio and Amanda did. It just looked awful. I remember cringing at the time, thinking oh no, please. 🥴
And, yes, Graz lifted Zara a lot to cover up for her lack of skill.

That stunt that very nearly went badly wrong, in Vito and Ellie's dance added nothing whatsoever to it. Vito was visibly shaken afterwards, in the Clauditorium. I remember Gorka patting him on the back and giving him a thumbs up as if to reassure him. That should never have been attempted, imo.

And Nigel's accident, just crazy stuff really.
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I rewatched the final week ITT with Ellie and Vito and Vito actually said that Matt Flint was asking in rehearsals if they should tone it down and wondered if it was too risky (he didn't specify that it was the final lift being referenced but I assume so). In that case, Matt, who is a very experienced choreographer and has worked on the show for years, should have stepped in if Vito was getting carried away and vetoed (Vito-ed?) the final lift.

I found the 'stupid cow' clip from 2021 that Rose posted and took down. Notable for Kai's 'oh tit' face when he realises Rose and AJ are there 🤣, and Gio being in an absolutely foul mood and not giving a duck who heard him. I'd imagine if something like that went down with Amanda she might find him very hard to work with.

 
Boring Monday said:
To be honest, I take what they say like that with a huge pinch of salt. Strictly is at a minimum 50% PR. The bingo card for ‘one big family’ and ‘friends for life’ was being filled in the launch show when they could most likely barely pick each other out of a line up.
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Indeed: she’s not going to walk straight off the dance floor and announce on camera that she was dry heaving all the way through the dance as being within 3foot of each other is torturous.

Everyone on Strictly ‘officially’ has ‘the best time ever!!!!!’, all of the time.

Didn’t Sophie EB rebel and refuse to say it was ‘the best thing she’d ever done in her life’, as she reserved that sort of effusiveness for getting married or having her children?
 
Ag
Harlot O'Scara said:
I think there's a lot of layers to this:

- The show is too intense and expects far too much from the celebs and pros

- Gio probably is a bit of a dick

- He's skated by in the past because some of his partners have either also been dicks (Laura), somewhat irritating (Ritchie) or not bothered by his nonsense (Michelle, Rose)

- Amanda was not in the headspace to be on the show in the first place, let alone be partnered with someone who is maybe not actively malicious but is not a warm and caring sort of person, she may have done better with one of the other boys.

- There's also the weaponising of mental health you see now, especially on SM, and some people will cry trauma and PTSD just from someone looking at them funny once, which means she may not be taken seriously regardless of what happened
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Agree with everything you say here. Gio has had some great partnerships whatever we think of him. I did not warm to Richie at all on ITT. The Ranvir situation does not seem to relate to their Strictly partnership per se.
 
Harlot O'Scara said:
I think there's a lot of layers to this:

- The show is too intense and expects far too much from the celebs and pros

- Gio probably is a bit of a dick

- He's skated by in the past because some of his partners have either also been dicks (Laura), somewhat irritating (Ritchie) or not bothered by his nonsense (Michelle, Rose)

- Amanda was not in the headspace to be on the show in the first place, let alone be partnered with someone who is maybe not actively malicious but is not a warm and caring sort of person, she may have done better with one of the other boys.

- There's also the weaponising of mental health you see now, especially on SM, and some people will cry trauma and PTSD just from someone looking at them funny once, which means she may not be taken seriously regardless of what happened
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fully agree with all of this 👏🏻👏🏻

i think, like you say, they really need to put more time into considering personality matches rather than chucking any old pairings together. on paper, an emotionally fragile person like amanda was never going to gel with someone like gio, who has thrived with partners who either aren’t scared to push back with him or are able to just roll with it.

plus, as others have said, what’s the point of the bench if you can’t swap out partners?! gorka is a great teacher and able to adapt to most people, and was available at the point that amanda had her bye week.

from a HR perspective (for want of better phrasing!) a shake up is needed on a lot of fronts.
 
LaBlonde said:
fully agree with all of this 👏🏻👏🏻

i think, like you say, they really need to put more time into considering personality matches rather than chucking any old pairings together. on paper, an emotionally fragile person like amanda was never going to gel with someone like gio, who has thrived with partners who either aren’t scared to push back with him or are able to just roll with it.

plus, as others have said, what’s the point of the bench if you can’t swap out partners?! gorka is a great teacher and able to adapt to most people, and was available at the point that amanda had her bye week.

from a HR perspective (for want of better phrasing!) a shake up is needed on a lot of fronts.
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She covers the fragility with a veneer of bolshiness though so maybe they thought she'd be able to handle Gio. I don't know what they were thinking pairing him with Richie though- that was never going to work.
 
I’m not sure how the process of pairing up the celebs and pros works but I’ve always gathered they are reluctant to take much steer from who the celebs want apart from in certain cases.

What would make sense is to have them all commit to a week of “speed dating” style dancing as part of their contract where they go round and spend a good few hours/day with each pro and then the celeb can submit some sort of feedback as to who’s teaching style they thought worked best for them etc - obviously this wouldn’t be the only decider but could at least be factored in, especially if someone said they clashed with someone and didn’t want to be paired with them. (Not sure if you could have the pros feedback as nobody is going to say they want Nikita over Ellie for example)
 
I've watched strictly since the beginning.

The training VTs used to be very realistic. Remember Mark R and Karen have a real go at each other??? Now it's all stunts and I'm doing this for my granny - cue meeting with granny.

Also back in the day, they used to do a meeting where they got constants and pros together before they paired them up. Wonder if they still do that.

Would really like to know the process of arranging the couples.

As people have said, Amanda's had a tough couple of years so signing for strictly might not have been a good idea.

However you look at Annabel who's had an arguably worst time and she said strictly gave her a reason to get up in the morning.

I know the pros also make a difference.

But there is a massive difference between being bereaved and being a carer.

Can I also say I read a post in the Showbiz forum that said - soldiers get PTSD not celebrities on a dancing show 😱😱😱
 
I never got ‘bolshy’ from Amanda while she was on the show (I don’t follow her on socials so maybe she has a different personal online). At first I perceived her to be full of her own self importance and that she took the whole thing entirely too seriously because of the way she would waffle on. I changed my mind quite quickly though and I felt like she was actually very ill at ease and acting out of nerves.

We don’t know exactly what went on with her and Gio but if she went to the bosses with concerns and they weren’t addressed then that’s a problem. I imagine it can be quite a toxic environment behind the scenes and not just for the celebs. Then there’s also the obvious meddling by production, emotional manipulation and ever growing list of injuries each series. The show needs shaking up from top to bottom.
 
Honeystar said:
I’m not sure how the process of pairing up the celebs and pros works but I’ve always gathered they are reluctant to take much steer from who the celebs want apart from in certain cases.

What would make sense is to have them all commit to a week of “speed dating” style dancing as part of their contract where they go round and spend a good few hours/day with each pro and then the celeb can submit some sort of feedback as to who’s teaching style they thought worked best for them etc - obviously this wouldn’t be the only decider but could at least be factored in, especially if someone said they clashed with someone and didn’t want to be paired with them. (Not sure if you could have the pros feedback as nobody is going to say they want Nikita over Ellie for example)
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They do a speed dating day with all the Pros and Celebs. They will also do a couple of hours long taster session for some celebs who aren't really sure about it Krishna had a session wit Katya this year.

I'm pretty sure they producers do talk to the celebs to get an idea of who might be best and since Laura and Gio they have been a bit more wise to put two people together that would obviously be awkward. Like this year it might have been awkward to pair Ellie with Gio since Ellie worked with Georgia and they still appear to be friendly.
 
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