Baffled how a performance with that many mistakes and lack of oomph was still getting 8s.

Why don't the judges just give him the trophy now and put us all out of our misery?

I was there week one

Well the public pick the winner so he has no chance, thank god for that

OP, do you agree that his DO performance was miles better though?

I think his first performance was down to nerves, he didnt look his normal happy self in his initial intro.

In your opinion. Although he was in the dance off tonight he's never been there before. Ali was in the dance off a few weeks ago but I dont see people saying she will never win. Its not cut or dry who is going to win it.

I feel exactly like that about Ali, I am so sick of being told she is the best, perhaps she is, but she is inspid and I do not find her entertaining.

Undoubtedly - very much better and there was no way Natalie C was going to compete with that. However I do feel his position has been regularly boosted by over marking for performances containing mistakes and lack of commitment that the judges seem to come down much harder on with other celebrities.

He and Ali leave me fairly unmoved. I probably only marginally prefer Ali because I prefer Brian to Natalie and that's no way to judge is it? Ali strikes me as the 'Jessica Taylor' of this competition ... if she was with a less charismatic professional than Brian she'd probably be invisible.

Ricky just seems to me to be nowhere near as good as his marks suggest and has personality minus.

I strongly disagree

Well, the lack of commitment has been discussed before but I dont think people realise Ricky routinely rehearses on sundays and also rehearses till very late hours in the evening/early in the morning and also whilst he is at work. He has a busy schedule and works around him as much as he can, so I dont think he has a lack of commitment to the show compared to the other contestants. He may have reduced hours but his commitment to rehearsing is a strong as everyone else. I guess what Im long-windedly trying to say is it is quality, not quanitity.

I don't doubt Ricky has a very heavy work schedule but over the years this has been the case with many of the celebrities. Ricky showed in the dance off that he can put a bit more zip into it, but up till now has barely bothered.

Ricky's a great dancer, he brings energy, fun and enthusiasm to every dance, makes too many mistakes but even so is still clearly ahead of most of the other contestants in terms of ability and technical skill. I'd be quite happy for him to win, even though he's not my favourite.

What took you so long OP, there are so many who got there before you I'm surprised you left it so long! As for giving him the trophy, I think that has Team Cola written all over it so, you've no worries there.

However, the WWWs will be here defending our guy to the bitter end.

Hmmm, you cant really say he barely bothered in is QS and his AS now. Both extremely good performances.

None of the celebs currently left have been completely void of errors and mistakes and I dont think saying they were barely bothering is reasonable.

My view on tonight's initial performance from Ricky was down to nerves, tiredness and stress. He had been up there with the training hours until his incident, so you cant say he wasnt bothered. He stated in his blog he didnt get chance to work with the main choreographers on his routine and was hoping to catch some time with them today. I can sympathise with the stress he is under over this week so Im not suprised in the slightest he gave an underwhelming performance initially. But he should be commended for getting over his nerves and gave his DO performance his all.

I think that Ricky has been getting high scores because of the content. Even with mistakes, a lot of what he does is difficult. I guess that makes it hard for the judges. I was underwhelmed by him in the main show tonight, but thought he was excellent in the DO. Don't think he'll win, but he's been a good dancer all series.

Probably the fact that I registered for this forum quite late in the day Laura!

No idea who I want to win now really ... probably would have been Jade in an ideal world. And Tuffers if only he could have danced a bit better of course.

OK - to me he looked as if he was barely bothering. No energy, arms not doing very much and lots of hiatuses (is that a word?). Others have performances like that too of course, but tend to get marked down for them.

I agree, Ricky is overmarked but he's still a fantastic dancer who deserves to lift the trophy. Personally, I'm at the 'anyone but Laila' point. I really hope she doesn't win.

Didn't like the R 'n R but Ricky is still one of the better dancers left. I want Ali & Brian to win but I won't be hugely disappointed if Ricky wins. Or Chris for that matter.

Don't worry I feel the same about Chris & Lalia