I find it odd how the past 4 years Maria has had good partners who have all reached the final stages of the show.

its one of those DOI mysteries like why does Dan always get people from popular ITV soap?

i always thought that was for geographical reasons, i.e. being based in/around Leeds. As for Maria, I agree, she is due a duffer, be interesting to see how she does with one.

In series 1 there was nobody from Emmerdale so Dan was partnered with her by chance.
Then because he lives near Emmerdale he gets to skate with Emmerdale stars cause it's handy because they live close together.

As for Maria it's clear she's the producers favourite god knows why. I wish other girls like Susie would get good partners instead of Maria.

Its still a little unfair on the Producers parts for him to always have relatively well known ITV stars on an ITV reality TV Show.

Maria should have been with Doctor Hilary

And the band played believe it if you like. If it's proximity why did he go and stay with Linda during series 3?

Why does Fred always get the less able skaters? (Bar Zarah but, that was only out of chance because of Michael going out).

Melinda was good enough but the judges were very shoddy towards her

I'm not complaining.

She's one of the reasons that I watch this show.

I love Maria, she's lovely
She is due a crap celebrity though

During early rehearsals and before the show started, Linda was still working in Emmerdale, so was living Up North.

I thought she was often undermarked.

She was definitley undermarked IMHO.

Who knows which celebrity will be good or bad before they start? Could it be that maria is just very good with teaching methods? They all start from a level playing field.

So if Maria got Todd they would have won?

Gary is the worst partner she's had!

This is often brought up and, while I agree to an extent, aren't there (albeit brief) auditions prior to casting? Obviously there may be some flattering to deceive but you're not telling me that some celebs don't look a hell of a lot more confident than others when they first get on to the ice. Maria was definitely due Bobby Davro or Dr Hilary this year.

Let's see what happens next year...

I think the production staff probably do have certain expectations about ability, as do we as viewers.
I for one expected Emily to be one of the front runners and Mikey to be atrocious when the line up was first announced.
How wrong can you be ?

Sometimes the ones you expect to improve week on week and challenge for the top can stagnate and the others suddenly get it an improve week on week.

I actually really like Maria she is obviously very nice and friendly as well as supportive to her partners. I'd much rather see her week on week than someone like Frankie who I find bolshie and unappealing - she looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp most of the time.

I agree that it would be lovely to see Fred get a partner of the quality of Suzanne Shaw or Claire Buckfield though

Maria also won DOI in Australia as well. It must be frustrating for the pros like Susie who continually get the lame ducks when Maria always gets a good one. Have to say i was very surprised she got a promising celeb this year - I though they would give her a duffer to ensure she skated with Ray on the tour.

If Gary ends up doing the tour I can see the Ray fans being unhappy.

It isnt very fair at all to be honest. If I was one of the pro's who got rubbish partners every year, i'd be really annoyed.

And also, whilst its right to claim that you never know what your going to get beforehand, lets face it, Maria's partners have never looked bad before the series started. Before we had even set foot on the ice, did anyone really think that any of them would be the dud?

I really thought this was Susie's year when she landed Jeremy, but sadly it wasn't to be

Totally agree about Maria - she always ends up with the reasonably young, fit and attractive fellas who are able to respond to a bit of coaching even if they didn't start out fabulous (Gareth Gates wasn't brilliant at the beginning, and neither was Duncan James, really). She also comes across as lovely so I bet she wouldn't even mind having a duffer!

Ray could skate with anyone and make it look good though, so I wouldn't have thought breaking up that partnership would be a problem.

I agree about Maria too, though I do like Gary.

Hope Fred gets someone brilliant next year.

I've gone off Frankie and was hoping her and Danny would go last night.

Actually I don't think it would be too bad. I love watching Ray but if he goes out on a high with Maria I think he would love a new challenge and he is used to working with different dance partners and understudies etc anyway and as someone has said he would probably look good with whoever he is with. He will probably do better on the tour than Maria if she is with Gary (I agree her weakest partner in terms of performance so far). I thought she was due a duffer or an older celeb this year she does seem to do well when they allocate the celebs. She works as a trainer too so is probably one of the better teachers among the pros, so maybe she could do more with a weaker celeb than some of the others? Will see what happens next year!

How do you know that Duncan and Gareth wouldn't have been duffers if they'd had different partners? Might it not have been Maria who made them as good as they were? Being young and fit is no guarantee of becoming a good skater (see Emily) nor is being older a guarantee of being a poor one (see Donal).