Sexiest male in soap, though. It's a genre not exactly awash with handsome.

And definately not in this case eh!......

Chris got to the final as much based on his comedy though which had nothing to do with his popularity on Eastenders.

I think Matt looks like the hot favourite at the moment. He seemed to have natural elegance and flair in his dancing, and seems very likeable and charming. He also seemed to have a great sense of humour and the ability to laugh at himself.

I've never seen him before because I don't watch his show, but he looks to have all the makings of a winner to me. I might go check out his odds.

If Matt is good at ballroom as he is at latin he could win it. However for some reason I cant see the public voting for him... dont ask, and I can tell the judges will be nice to him and loads of threads will be started slating him for being good. (Lets be honest, where british we need something to complian about )

On the subject of Scott, I have that sad feeling he will win.... tbh he bores me to death. :yawn:

Matt is bland and I think he's a bit irritating. However, I really think he's going to win.

Also Natalie is not everyone's cup of tea either. She has already wound up a certain group with her comments about getting to the final again and getting her hands on the glitterball

She damaged Ricky's chances with some people last year with her uber competitive attitude and it looks like she is going the same way again

It didn't bother me per se - but what did bother me was the fact that Ricky was the judges pet and wasn't picked up for his gurning when Chris Hollins was!

Ricky was a very good dancer. Chris was mediocre at best and his gurning was atrocious. I'm not sure if Natalie did damage his chances. I just think the public preferred the "journey" storyline.

well we know GBP does love a good journey Ricky lacked the J factor because he was good from the beginning and fatally failed to invoke the nan factor. His dad was lovely but sadly brought in too late to save him.

matt may suffer form the good from the begining factor - but tbh no-one expecetd him to be any good, I thought he'd be awkward dad at the wedding rather than coming across as if he'd been waiting for this moment his whole life

You're absolutely right, there was a lot of negativity about Natalie on the Strictly boards last year, many people didn't like her. Therefore Scott's popularity could be tempered by her unpopularity.

I think she's a marvellous dancer, and usually does interesting choreography. People don't like her because of her competitiveness. I didn't like their waltz, ruined by the groping at the beginning - the waltz should be romantic not sexed up for effect.

I quite liked their Waltz. I'm like Craig in that i like abit of raunch and i think that is what Natalie is very good at, it was just unusual to see this in a Waltz.
If things are gonna get more sexy from now on then bring it on but i agree that it was Natalie's partnership with Ricky that i didn't like, can't stand him, couldn't stand him and will never be able to stand him!

I knew who he was from The Bill but I don't watch any soaps so wouldn't have known whether he had a big fan base or not. I was delighted when he left The Bill as I think he is a terrible actor.

I agree with those saying if anybody is a foregone conclusion, then it is Matt. He's going to be very hard to beat.

Well if the last two series winners are anything to go by, you're probably right.

Got it in one.

I was actually convinced that Chris was winning much sooner than that.

What made my mind up? The huge support I witnessed on here along with the "anti" Ali and Ricky posts. Very passionate if I remember correctly.

I would like to think that people would give the celebs some time to show off their dancing skills and their personalities before banding around foregone conclusions and predictions. I know thats part of the fun but judgements on five minute clips and one dance is just a bit too soon isn't it?

What I really enjoyed about the first two shows was that no-one was as I expected them to be both on and off the dance floor.

I don't think there's much doubt that Chris was the most popular celeb with the voting public last year but it is still quite possible that he would have been in the dance off in the semi final and therefore been voted out. Once the BBC decided to scrap the dance off I think it was almost inevitable that he would win. Perhaps that was what Mystical meant.

There was a leak mid-series saying Chris was topping the vote. That's when I bet on him, silly bookies still had him at 16/1.

I wasn't disagreeing with her, just pointing out I was convinced much sooner than. I felt it in my gut.

Of course the rule change made the difference.

I think he would definitely have been in the dance off & gone if they hadn't scrapped it. It does prove that it was right to scrap the dance off at the semis last year though & I say that as a huge Ricky & Natalie fan.

Yes, it was what I meant, thank you I personally thought Chris and Ola had it in the bag after Charleston week, but I knew that nothing's guaranteed

There's a post from me someone on the Non-Appreciation thread from when we found out that Chris was doing Charleston that "Chris will win, and the Charleston will be the dance used to justify it". I had him down as the obvious winner from foxtrot onwards, with a brief wobble because I wasn't sure how they'd handle things after Jade dropped out.

I don't. I actually think Matt may have peaked too early to win.

Ironically, because she scored the same as Matt, anyway, if I were to predict anyone winning (which I would only do with a pinch of salt before week 2 anyway!), I'd put my mney on Pamela.

Unlike most of them - criticised for being too good, or previous dance training, or not being good enough etc - I feel the general consensus is that she's been quite a surprise to an extent where people are actually rooting for her. She seemed to get a good reaction tonight just for a fe second clip of her training.

I can see the judges going crazy for Matt, Kara & possibly Tina (Particularly Bruno, for some reason) and then Pamela will, over the remainder of the series, slip into the "underdog" position and eventually triumph. Probably against somebody like Jimi, who again I think would be quite unexpected.

I wouldn't even dream of predicting a solid winner at this stage, because the contestants popularity still has a chance to grow yet, but I certainly wouldn't be putting my money on Matt. (Although I thought he was great!)