Im not a Hayley fan, but I dont mind her winning or being top on the night if it has been deserved. There have been a few weeks when she hasnt been the best but has stolen an unassailable lead at the top, 5, or 6 ,pts ahead of her nearest ruval. She may have the best that night, but never has she been that much better than them, last year Ray was head and shoulderts ahead of the field (and much better than her) yet never had that lead.

Phil was that shocked that he never mentionned it, they clearly take it for granted. Hayley's face as she received negative criticism was also fab, as her smile became more unnatural. Clearly those on the show (cast and crew) though she only had to turn uo to top the board.

She was deservedly not top and daniella was the best. However Kieron was also better than her and I though had been fairly marked until the last 2 danced. How could she possibly be ahead of him?, and don't even get me started on Dannyboy.

Thankfully the right decision was made in the skate-off, its just a pity that Kieron had to be in it , there were other more deserving candidates.

Personally I' have loved Hayley to have been there as it would have sent out a message that not all the viewers will be manipulated to vote for who the judges think we should. We will vote for who we wish, whether that be Gary (bottom), Daniella(top) or Hayley who was described in the weeks buildup, in the aftermath of Jai Ho as the best they'd ever had.

Prepare to duck from the Hayley fans who will tell I'm wrong to say what I just have.

you are entitled to your opinion as much as the next person. you're opening few words say it all really.

i am a hayley fan but that doesn't make me dislike the others. i thought daniella deserved to be at the top of the leader board last night with hayley a close second. that's the thing with the hayley fans, we're all as nice as her and take nothing for granted.

I think I agree with the OP, that Hayley not being top is a good thing (plus she didn't deserve to be top, as she didn't produce the best routine - however I don't think Daniella deserved to be either).

In any competition, it's always better if the front runner has some competition or has to fight for their top spot. I assume that Hayley will try to produce a top performance next week, and that the others will try to catch up with her and take the top spot from her (or now Daniella). To a certain degree it's a shame that Danny isn't there anymore, this week showed that he can perform, skate, lift and deal with a difficult prop.

It's made the competition more interesting and has probably taken some of the pressure away from Hayley. However, I don't think the OP agrees with my last point, as their last sentence was clearly intended as a wind up.

ROTFL.

Let's look at this hypothetical situation.

Skater A is one of the judges' favourites and is consistently near the top.

Skater A is in the skate-off two weeks running because the public don't want her.

Next week Skater A comes out and does a routine with only nine and a half seconds of skating in it, something that usually would have got her crucified, but the judges inexplicably mark her top of the leaderboard so that she is able to progress to next week without being in the skate-off.

Are we seeing any manipulation yet? Because I am, and it doesn't involve Hayley.

Why would the judges "manipulate" the scores?
Perhaps they happened to prefer one routine over the other. They all gave both contestants similar scores. Why would it be in the interests of the show to safeguard an unpopular contestant and endanger a popular one?

I would never say you were wrong to say what you have, but as someone who isn't a particular fan of Hayley....I don't agree with what you say, in my opinion, Danniella wasn't the best. It also seems a little mean spirited to take pleasure in someone else's disappointment.

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Because they have an obvious winner and they need to pretend its a competition. More so when it happened last year too. Give Hayley a dull routine and dull marks and put someone else just ahead and you create a competition for anyone who believes Daniella did a 27 routine. Give Hayley Daniella's routine and add some bigger lifts , spins and more athletic moves, as they added for Clare and Suzanne, and you have another 30 for the second week in a row.

The interesting question is why give Daniella the decent routine and the marks and not a male. Possibly because none of the males are going to look credible as top, possibly as its too obvious Daniella has had some weak go home routines recently, possibly to even up the sexes left, possibly because they were just hoping and Hayley having a 27 routine not a 30 achieved the main objective anyway.

Hayley doing Daniella's routine would have been hilarious! And not in a good way. It would have been a total disaster - Hayley doing sexy really wouldn't work at all.

I wasn't a massive fan of Daniella's routine because of the lack of skating, but the performance aspect of it was impeccable, and Hayley could never have given a performance like that in a million years.

Whether you like Daniella or not, Hayley really wasn't the best last night. She was outperformed by Daniella, outskated by Kieron, and outclassed in terms of use of the prop by Danny. She's benefitted from massively superior choreography in past weeks, so its a bit rich her fans moaning that she didn't get given the same advantage this time round. She did okay, but others were better.

Wot Eejit says.

The thought of Hayley doing Danniella's routine is making me feel queasy.

Sorry, but this is not true and unfair. I haven't seen many of her fans complaining about that. Quite the contrary, a lot of her fans have admitted that Hayley's performance was not the best of the night, but no-one has stated that this was due to an unfair disadvantage. As far as I have seen on this thread, despite being controversial against Hayley, there haven't been many Hayley fans complaining. This type of overgeneralisation leads to the myth that Hayley fans always complain even if they don't.

However, I agree that Hayley might not have been able to act Daniella's routine.

What a nasty post. Can't understand people who take time to be so horrible.

Well quite. Surely Gary, who has been second quite often, would have been the more logical candidate? Or Keiron as the "amazing breakthrough" candidate?
I don't really believe in these conspiracy theories. It makes no difference to them who wins the show - the public vote for who they want. Look at SCD last year - Chris Hollins wasn't the best, but so what? Ray won by miles last year and nobody saw the need to doctor his scores. Danniella got a routine that suited her personality better than Hayley's suited hers. Last week the opposite was true - Hayley got the show stopper that emphasised her dance skills, Danniella got a pink girly routine with lots of lifts that didn't showcase her character acting skills. I think it sometimes just happens that way.

I was replying to the post above mine specifically - sorry, should have made that clearer!

Ah, now it all makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

Maybe not who wins but they are bothered about keeping the people watching. Daniella's routine in no way deserved the scores she was given, it was all about sitting on a chair and doing sexy, nothing to do with dancing on ice. I suspect it got a few more men voting

I don't have a problem with Hayley not being top, I think it's good to have a change and in fairness props week suited Daniella more than Hayley.

That said Hayley deserves to win, shes been consistent and better than the rest!

I like Danniella but thought she was way over-marked. Her performance was great but where was the skating? Think she was amazed as well.

The props are really difficult to judge one against another imo. I'd say Gary and Danny had the hardest and most droppable ones. Danny did very well in his original routine but the fact he dropped the hat second-time round sealed his fate.

I agree, it is good to have a change at the top of the leader, provided of course that the new leader really is better than the old.
There have been weeks when I have enjoyed routines of other celebs more than Hayley - in fact this week, I liked both Kieron and Gary's better. However, I do object to a change based on marking which is completely at odds to all the previous weeks.
Previously, the skating judges on the panel have actually commented on how well the contestants skated, this week, they awarded Danniella top marks whilst she did a bare 10 seconds of skating in the whole routine - that isn't solo skating, that is ANY skating at all.
It feels as if they have engineered a leader board change, by changing the criteria they are marking on.

I think it was ridiculous...and this thread is silly. Hayley completely deserved to be on top, as Daniella did a total 0 seconds unassisted skating and 6 seconds assisted skating last night (its been proven!) and I think the only reason that Hayley was not on top was to shake up the competition. Pathetic

It's a possible motive, but ...

I have a question for those who think the judges are manipulating the scores:

Do you think the judges are lying in their comments and marks -- not giving their genuine opinions of the performance?

Because that's what the talk of judges "manipulating" the scores comes down to.

Either that or the talk of "manipulation" is just bluster, noise and spin with no real content.

I think it's interesting that last week anyone who dared to question the judges' marks was ridiculed and dismissed because they were disagreeing with "experts" and Olympic skaters, yet this week we're supposed to believe the judges are cheating liars.

...

There is nothing strange or "inexplicable" about Daniella getting high marks for that routine, btw -- if you consider what Robin said about what they'd be looking for this week. Even last week, "performance" made a big difference.

There's a difference between "skating takes a back seat" and "they don't need to skate at all".

The judges don't have to lie. Unless some of them mentioned Daniella's fantastic skating content, there was no lying.

It's not even really about Hayley deserving to be on top (though she deserved to be above Daniella).

I find it comical the way that people micro anaylis the routines to try to come up with the result that want

The whole programe consists of short routines. The amount of solo ice skating, partnered ice skating & lits etc as wel as speed will depend on the routine they are given,
It is poiltless trying to analyis how much sketing they did and how fast because that is not what DOI is about

But please tell me what Daniella's performance was all about. She didn't dance, she didn't ice-skate, she sat on a chair and performed. Her partner did the performance.