Another day, another whingeing celebrity bleating about their treatment at the hands of the BBC.
On the eve of Strictly Come Dancing’s grand final tomorrow night, it was almost inevitable that a disgruntled contestant would see an opportunity to try to quickstep their way to a lawsuit against an organisation forever under the cosh.
Chassé forward Thomas Skinner, who is reportedly suing the BBC, which he claims rigged the voting to get shot of him early on. The first contestant to leave, he apparently has evidence that the corporation downplayed his public support.
Seriously? You’re a C-list reality TV personality (former Apprentice “star” – remember him? No, me neither) who has been pictured cosying up to US Vice President JD Vance. Anyway, if you hang out with someone with such extreme views as Vance, what do you think the viewing audience is going to do? Ask you round for a BBQ?
Thomas Skinner and Amy Dowden after Skinner became the first celebrity to be voted off this year’s Strictly Come Dancing (Photo: Guy Levy/BBC/PA WireThomas’s case rests on his belief that owing to the increasing number of negative headlines and scandals relating to Strictly, bosses were desperate to avoid another one. A supposed right-winger cosying up to the likes of Vance, grabbing a journalist’s phone and confessing to having had an affair was the last thing they needed smearing their glitterball.
There is only one person responsible for those headlines and that’s Thomas Skinner. He’s enough of a reality pro to know that once you commit to a reality show, your private life becomes public. The BBC didn’t need to paint him in a bad light; he’s a grandmaster of fine art ruination all by himself.
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Any TV shows involving voting manipulates the audience: it’s called show business. Take ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, which this year was won by a very nice young man called Ginge. He and his sidekick Aitch provided most of the banter and laughs throughout and proved hugely popular, so of course ITV was going to give them more airtime – because the audience were loving it. The audience dictates the outcome of Strictly in the same way.
All TV producers know that audiences bring their prejudices every time they reach for the voting button and they play on those prejudices because they have one aim and one aim only – to make great, watchable, entertaining TV. And you, Thomas, my love, were not it.
So why not just take it like a man, you great wazzock of a manchild? The audience didn’t take to you. As we know, being the best dancer is no guarantee of a win. Bill Bailey won in 2020. He was not the best by any means, but he brought so much laughter to the proceedings – and (and this really is the key) humility.
Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse, winners the final of Strictly Come Dancing 2020 (Photo: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)Likewise, last year’s winner, Chris McCausland, whose ability to navigate dancing routines as a blind man reduced us to tears every week. Humility oozed out of his every pore. Did the BBC promote him at the expense of better dancers? You bet they did. He deserved it.
Thomas Skinner would be well advised to take a long hard look in the mirror. “O, to see ourselves as others see us,” said the Scottish poet Robert Burns in his 1786 poem “To a Louse”. The audience spoke, Mr Skinner, and they didn’t like what they saw. That, and that alone, is why you were voted out first. The BBC didn’t throw you to the wolves; you happily walked into the pack with an inflated sense of your own importance, and now your ego has been bruised.
Just take it on the chin. Poor Amber Davies has been ruthlessly attacked throughout her stint after she became a replacement for the injured Dani Dyer early on. You haven’t heard so much as an atom of a moan come out of her mouth; in fact, her professional partner Nikita last week stepped in to defend her, begging people to be kind. The audience’s beef is that they regard her as a professional dancer, which is probably the reason the brilliant Lewis Cope (who had seemed the surefire winner) was voted off, too. Again, not a peep out of him.
For the most part, Strictly contestants and their partners don’t bang on about how unfairly they are treated. To a large extent, the show has always been a personality contest; the judges, too, have their favourites, but that tends to be based on the particular specialities they are looking for in technique.
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Contestants know this – or, at least, the ones with any sense of decorum and talent do. All Thomas Skinner has done in throwing his toys out of the pram is reveal himself to be a sore loser. A brat. A bit like Vance’s boss, come to that.
Television is not fair. Television entertainment, particularly in the sphere of voting, is never going to be fair. People like you, or they don’t. They might like you one week and not the next. This just wasn’t your year, Thomas. And if you keep behaving in the way you are now doing, it never will be. In the words of the hosts, everyone must just Keeeeeep dancing!
Or, in your case, don’t.
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