Now the dust has settled I hate to admit it but I am still so sorely disappointed that Ray won. I was truly hoping that, out of the three finalists, the one who had progressed the most would win i.e. Donal. To my eyes, Ray started off at a high level and maintained that level all the way through with the gap between him, Donal and Jessica getting smaller. Why oh why did the producers of the programme invite somebody to take part who had so much more experience of in-line skating than anybody else? And yes I know you will think roller blades and ice blades are different, but the principle is exactly the same. A very disappointing result indeed.

I'm not at all disappointed. And actually if you think about it...the country got to decide just who they wanted to win...someone who had improved loads or the better skater. 75 % of the voters wanted the better skater. Democracy in action.
I thought donal was great but i still prefer to watch the better skaters. This happens every year...younger, fitter celebs with dance experience or ice hockey experience take part. It has nothing to do with fair and everything to do with balance.They usually win...and the producers love it that way...a whole load of celebs with differing abilities. I'm sorry....much as i liked Donal, I would have switched off had Ray or jess not been in the comp.

We don't actually know why the voters votes as the did.

We don't even know the percentage breakdown of voters, rather than votes.

For all we know, Ray won because he was cuter.

Had it not been for Ray and Jess I wouldn't have bothered watching throughout the series.

Not at all, I've voted for Jessica as I've found her to be superb every week.

I am glad Ray won he was brilliant from day one. In fact when they all came on on the first show he did a over shoulder lift with Maria and I thought whoo were going to see some fireworks with this one.

He was consistantly good every week. He even made the flying routine interesting.

I am gutted that Jess didn't get to do her Bolero but I was thrilled with the final 3.

All I wish is that we didn't lose some of the better people over rubbish ones so early on. I am sure that Graeme could have been quite good.

And to add, I really think that Zoe was no-where near on a par with Jessica skating wise.

I don't agree with any of that. She did not look tired or struggling to keep things looking taut or elegant. She was doing some difficult technical things, and some were better than before while others were worse. There was no lack of performance compared to other times; that's simply a myth created by Jason's uncalled-for comment.

That makes no sense.

If he declined to do the show, no one apart from a few on the production staff would even know. And he could decline without saying anything that would sound smug or arrogant,.


We don't know why the public voted as they did.

That he was top of the leaderboard every week supports the OP's suggestion that "this has been a foregone conclusion since Day 1"


As if only supporters are watching -- or voting!

Jason thinks the judges' comments influence voters. Posts in this forum make it seem that people were influenced. What, if anything, is the reason for thinking the judges have no infleunce?

But Jason would think that, otherwise there would be no reason for the judges to be on the show. As to the real influence, I'm divided about it. If the judges are horrible to a celebrity, I think they do influence the public because people are more likely to vote for the underdog.

If Jason's comment would have been uncalled for and the public would have disagreed with him they might have voted for the specific celebrity (e.g. why did Donal end up in the final two where Jason wasn't so nice about his flying).

For whatever reason, Jess didn't get the public support. It obviously was not due to her skating, because that was excellent. It also couldn't have been due to her nasty personality, because she hasn't got that.

I personally think that her biggest mistake was that she used Mercy, a routine which ended her in the dance off just 2 weeks earlier. A much earlier routine showing her improvment from that time would have been much better.

I'm sorry Veri but you are wrong about Jason influencing me. From the top of the routine, I could see Jess was not performing Mercy as well as she had on the two previous occasions she danced it. I had hoped she would get into it more as the routine progressed but it didnt happen.

To clarify: That was my perception before Jason even opened his gob.

hehe...well then let me put it this way...75% of the voters did not SEEM to mind that he had some sort of perceived advantage....and if those voters were less than donal's, the advantage that ray had mattered so little that they voted multiple times to make sure he won.

hows that?

It didn't help Chris Fountain though with his skaing experience last year. In truth it's those who select the competitors. Ray couldn't help it if the others were not up to it could he. He never really had someone to challenge him unlike in previous years.

I just hope next year they don't go for the clown acts like Coleen and Todd and actually get a few who could push each other.

There are too many people I agree with to quote.

I am one of those who watched each week because of Ray - I didn't know who he was as I avoid the XFactor but I liked him for his skating. I didn't care how far behind the others were. I like watching ice dancing done well and so looked forward, in fact couldn't wait, to see Ray's next routine.

I agree with everyone who said that Jess's final performance more than technical skill let her down. There was no performance in her second final routine; it was emotionally flat and looked half-hearted. And I felt that during the dance - I did not need Jason to tell me. Lack of performance or emotion always let Jess down for me, except for her Venus routine. I loved her skating but without emotion it looked mechanical. There was one - Unbreak my heart - which had some quite stunning skating in it, but I still found it cold as ice to watch. And I felt that despite the judges insisting that there was emotion in the routine, which brings me to,

The judges' comments never influenced me in the slightest throughout the series or in the final. I made up my own mind based on what I saw and felt. I am amazed that anyone should think that the public are so gullible.

I agree there may have been a degree of popularity voting with Ray but in this instance popularity and ability actually married together very well so it would be difficult to prove which motive was followed most. He was by far the best skater AND performer combined so deserved to top the public vote most weeks based on his ice dancing alone (which he did, discounting Colleen/Todd) - excluding props week when he fell behind Donal in the vote, and Donal did give a great performance.

Quite agree - there was barely five minutes before Ray was announced winner and the end of the programme - it was verey rushed, and not even Ray got much of a chance to say anything..would have much prefered a DOI spin off programme on ITV2 so that Donal, Flo, Ray and Maria were able to comment, and also so all the finlaists together. It was all much too rushed

I cannot quite believe this post - who are we to say what he should and shouldn't have opted for? Did you expect Ray to go and watch how well the others could skate before he accepted the job?

Philip Schofield said that nobody could predict how well he would do - just because he can dance does not mean he can skate well - Ray used to do the same dancing comps as a child as Stephen Gately (a child dancer - and yes he probably also rollerbladed too as that the craze for kids their age at the time), but Stephen could not transfer his skills onto ice. If anyone had a big question mark over them it should have Jess who had already done a televised ice dancing comp and had some significant professional ice dancing experience. Surely what you said about Ray applies here That (s/he) could have gone for something further away from things (S/he) could already do

I am not far off that. Ellery either stalled or was parked in a orbit where he doesn't go anywhere. If he could do one set of steps and one big lift why couldn't anyone fill his routines up with two sets of steps and a second lift - couldn't he learn more in the time even if he physically could do them? I agree with Zoe's problems buts its not her fault if people vote for irrational reasons or T and D or whoever give her lots of lifts because no one else can do them and the show is dull without. Its just what happens to girls who can do lifts and don't get better routines. It happens to Clare too and she can't win even though she's better (and shorter) and can do exciting enough lifts to get to the final . Bonnie - after more practice at the skating side - skated better on tour than almost anyone so she was also perfectly capable of doing it. Suzanne only escapes the underappreciation of lifts problem after the controversial marking week when Nicky raises the issue and after that its her (out)matching Chris by doing dance steps he can't do.

Michael was better than Donal when he went and Donal didn't get that much better - I think Michael might have made Donal's marks and would have been more dynamic. Donal frankly was weaker than any finalists ought to have been - it was a journey to not that far away. He has the hunk on a journey story (which never gets females to the final even when the journey is longer) Roxy was getting better at the performance aspect and she might have got the big lift right in the end. Agree its unlikely she is going to turn into a Clare but a Zaarah or a Gareth standard performance might have objectively beaten Donal. I suspect that the people who voted for Donal would still have voted for him, but in terms of marks I think she would have passed him. Point is we never got the chance to be impressed because the public vote was voting for Colleen for being hopeless and Donal for improving less.

Agree about Gemma - there should have been more there and if it wasn't there someone should have known that. You wonder with her whether extra weeks training ( like Jessica had had previously ) would have produced more confidence on the ice - perhaps there is an argument there for handicapping and training everyone up differently over different timescales to close some of the gaps in experience before things start? My under-developed candidate is Melinda. Melinda could do the big overhead lifts from early on. She seemed fit , she could perform at least as well as Jessica. She ended up doing some of Clare's early big lifts which no one else managed at all - bar one by Jessica. There was more there - unless there was some injury limiting things. She just wasn't used - she had no really good routines or even the ones where the music and routines fitted together better and someone else got the new lifts whilst she ended up doing the same things week after week. The public vote had deserted her for no good reason too and perhaps they couldn't be bothered ? You have to wonder though if she would have had more to show if the pros choreographed their celebs like on SCD - would that stop people being underdeveloped or make things worse?

The comment about Ruthie is true but so is the converse. The skaters have zero experience of or training in acting, directing or performing on stage or directing or performing on television. There's no reason why they should know what looks good or credible or entertaining on TV. Their careers were based on what would please professional judges looking at an ice rink. They may have choreographed some of their own performances but that still leaves a role for someone like Jason saying that the choreography is weak or the detail of the performance is sloppy and someone like Ruthie pointing out the acting is non-existant or hammy and the entertainment value is minimal. I appreciate that the Ruthie role is the most subjective and the audience are voting for something else anyway but its actually more important to a TV show than somone pointing out that someone's skate, that we can't see, is at the wrong angle.

Again, I can see what you're saying and I think what it says most to me is that there should be a companion show. I'm not saying that it would solve every problem but it might iron out a few.

Your take on this is that the celeb (and/or couple) performing should be able to act/sell the routine for a tv audience and that the skating judges, while they might have an idea how that should come across for a live audience at a rink, don't necessarily appreciate the complexities of the aforementioned performing skills in the way that Jason or Ruthie does.

My point about Ruthie (and Jason has this problem as well but he tends to be less out of step) was not so much whether she was wrong to do what she did but more the fact that, being so out of line with the skating judges (at least a mark ahead) the public would perceive her to be bonkers. However, that's by the by when considering your other point.

I've never particularly appreciated any significant difference between selling/acting a performance for a rink audience or doing the same for a tv audience. That is to say, I've watched a lot of championship skating on tv and loved what I've seen without thinking, "I bet that would have been far better rinkside - it doesn't quite translate across the cameras." That may be a little simplistic but I think the skaters maybe know more about putting things across for a tv audience than you're giving them credit for. That said, I do see what you're saying about Ruthie. However, either it needs to be made clear that she is just marking performance (because she rarely seems to give skating any bloody credit) or she should be coached in what to look for and credit when judging skating and mark accordingly (as Jason seems to). Having a judge there who seems not to credit skating at all (or does so arbitrarily if and when she ever does) is never going to go down well unless it's made absolutely transparent that Ruthie is only there to judge performance and nothing else.

It is a pity that they are not given 2 seperate marks by the judges one for techincal merit and one for presentation.

I cant believe this thread is still on the first page!