Strictly Come Dancing has reached "burnout" - Nigel Lythgoe

So You Think You Can Dance supremo, Nigel Lythgoe has told The Guardian that Strictly has suffered "burnout".

"I think that in the UK once something's successful, it's wrung out like a sponge and gets overdone," said the 60-year-old (Sixty? Good grief, I'd no idea!) "There were too many episodes (agreed)... there's burnout. I imagine Strictly will go off air, and come back in 10 or 12 years." (Oh, jeez, I bloomin' well hope not!)

In respect of losing the battle for ratings, he continued: "I don't believe the poor ratings were because of the judges, I think it's that the stars weren't strong enough. It's always difficult, isn't it? You start to run out of celebrities that people are interested in. Or you pay them a fortune to go into the Big Brother house." (see 'A'List? 'Z'List? on Jaye's Jottings for my thoughts on that subject!)

I do agree with Nigel that the show is too long - the 14 week run and the two hour shows - a return to the original original format, including losing the dance-off at the quarter final stage would give it a boost, I think. And the show itself needs to keep moving, less of the VT's. It is hard work when it goes on and on, even more so when you're blogging it! On a plus note, it was a good move to let all the celebs have a stab at both Latin and Ballroom before leaving - the two night show the first two weeks worked very well. But go off air? The ratings would have to drop a lot more than they did! And it's looking like we may not have X-Factor up against it next year!