I agree with you completely. Ray was better. Ray was great. Ray was LAST year. THIS year...Hayley is the Ray of the show in my opinion. And tonight just blew me away.

Yes the clue's in the name, teach me to listen


I was criticising just asking, I enjoyed it.

I take it you`ve watched her performance ?

I find it rather insulting to the good skaters in other series who didn't get that sort of ott reaction from the judges.

You know you could always watch it - .

It is a great compliment to Hayley that she's being compared already to the likes of Ray and Suzanne to be honest with you. Hayley fans should treat it like that. Being a better performer but a weaker skater than suzanne still equals an exceptionally good review!!

My jaw dropped at the scores

That was an excellent performance! So fierce in movements and perfect! WELL DONE!!!!!!!

Yes i know, but they are a bit desperate for something this year. Things are waning a bit expecially in the ratings so you can understand if they overreact a bit to try and increase excitement which equals ratings... I wouldnt consider it a slap to the others who got 30. Now that someone got 30 people might tune in out of interest to see what the fuss is about, or if they watched other series and not this one to see how she compares to the others that got the perfect score.

I've seen it now, and it's even worse than I'd thought from reading this thread.

No way did that deserve 6s.

It was full of dance moves on toe picks or in some other way avoiding skating over the ice. This show is not supposed to be how well they can can dance or perform with their upper bodies or how well they can dance without skating.

No one should even be comparing her to Suzanne or Ray. Hayley's skating isn't in the same league.

The nauseatingly excessive praise from the judges is made even more sickening by the basic idea of the routine being obviously inspired by one of the best ice dance routines from the Olympics.

You didn't like it much then?

I agree with the last bit and to be fair lots and lots of people (even Hayley fans) have said her skating isnt the same standard as Suzanne or Ray, nor will it probably ever will be, she's more a performance girl than a skater. Her skating ability isnt exactly exceptional, but it doesnt need to be, she isn't against Suzanne and Ray, she's against the other contestants this year. They put Hayley on last and after the marks they gave the other contestants they had to give her a 6 really.

I loved the routine so much I've just had to watch it again on STV player (so much better than ITV player, btw).

The only other routine I've ever felt the need to do that for is Ray's where he did the Robin Cousins splits jump, so that puts Hayley's routine tonight in my all time personal top 2.

Even some Hayley fans, credit where credits due have said her actual skating isnt up to the same level as Ray and Suzanne. But the point is it doesnt need to be, they've already won their series, she's not against former champions. The judges gave gary a five and so didnt leave much room for Hayley other than to give her a 6. Standards of what is a 6 varies depending on ability from year to year, cos it's a tv show, now that they gave the 30 in series 3 they want to give it to someone every year so it's curve graded so speak, you're against the best in your series, whether this is right or wrong i dont know but that's how it's done, it's not really an objective standard for all 5 series. If you're talking about best routines overall in Doi that's a bit different. People dont take scores as the be all and end all with that, people just have their fav routines, I prefer lots of routines that didnt get 30 to Hayleys tonight.

Doesn't seem to have helped Daniella who barely skates on her own. If anyone is overmarked by the judges it is her. She should have gone tonight, twice in the bottom two and even if Mikey wasn't up to the standard of the other male celebs, he was better than Daniella. He skated on his own, in time with his partner, lifted her, did his spins both in the competition and in the skate-off but still got dumped. I reckon they didn't want only one female left in the competition, and to make it look not quite so fixed, they voted 3 to 2 for Daniella.

The next total down was 22.5, so no, they didn't have to give her 6s.

And they certainly didn't have to give her such extreme praise.

Plenty of people are comparing it with other years, some explicitly.

If people had said they thought it was a great routine, or the best this year, or something like that, then fine. That seems within the bounds of reasonable opinion to me. But straight 6s? Standing ovation from the judges? Robin saying he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end? People saying it was breathtaking, they watched in awe, forget Ray, forget Suzannne, best ever, etc, etc, then no.

It doesn't really surprise me after seeing people and judges gush and gush and gush about Natalie Cassidy in SCD even though she's not even 100th as good as Hayley. But I do find it nauseating, and I think it is implicitly belittling the achievements in other years.

I think it might have been wise to watch before commenting Veri.

After all you said before viewing it seems your views were preconceived. I think perhaps you'd rather stick pins in your eyes than say "That was one wow of a performance."

Tell that to the people who are comparing her to them, either explicitly (naming them) or implicitly (such as by saying Hayley's was the best routine ever, or the judges giving her a standing ovation with Robin saying it was the first time they'd spontaneously done that).


Gary's total was 20.5. Even Danny's -- 2nd after Hayley -- was only 22.5. So there was no need to give her 6s in order to mark her higher. She didn't have to get even one 6 to be top of the leader-board.

Not everyone is doing that, lots of people are being very rational about the whole thing, go back over this thread. Oh course you'll get big fans saying stuff, you always will. Also they want excitment and to boost viewing figures as well, these shows arent just about who's the best, ratings are dropping, 30 = more viewers next week.

To be fair, that's perfectly true. Fives would have sufficed on that score. I do think there was an element of the judges deliberately "gushing" over the routine to introduce the "something special" element to this year's series.

That said, I also think the routine was easily the best this year, and as Hayley had had 5.5's in the past, sixes were always going to be the way things went.

Absolutely right - which gives the 6's more credibility.

That was Nicky

If that is in response to my comment - I repeat my assessment of Hayley's performance. This is not to belittle the past achievements of others, it does not imply that she is the best ever nor that past winners are forgettable - such views are subjective anyway; but on the night I found the routine breathtaking and make no apology for this opinion.


Just because some gushed about Natalie should not cause nausea when Hayley attracts justifiable admiration for a superb performance.

No, I say Hayley's routines are good when I think they are good. I've been (gradually) warming to her over the past two weeks. I'm even happy to say this one was very good as a performance. Indeed, it was her best performance, imo, and it was almost completely free of the things she does that I find irritating.

When she does a lot of dance moves on toe picks and similar, however, I don't like it, and I've said so before. I don't like it when someone else does that either, and I said so when Daniella did it last week.

Also, a routine could be the best tonight, or even the best so far this series, and still not merit the sort of praise that's been heaped on Hayley's tonight.


Look at the judges: straight 6s, standing ovation, etc. And there are plenty of posts giving the sort of excessive praise I'm talking about. At least 10 on the first page of this thread alone.

Grr at self. I knew that. Don't know why I said Robin.


I didn't say anything about Natalie caused any nausea re Hayley. The stuff about Natalie just meant the gushing and ott praise for Hayley didn't really surprise me.

I think this might run and run Veri - but for now g'night.:sleep:

I think that spin by Mel should have got a six-very Sonia Henje.

err do any of u remember chris fountains spin - well if ya do stop bumming offa hayley - this series is so below par in comparison with the last 2