Anti-climatic series with an anti-climatic ending

Looking over the comments on DS this season, the opinion of this once loved show has seen a bit of an awkward fall (Andi Peters style) but while the show has attempted to recover their revamp by a variety of meddling and on occasion clever twists, the series has still been a bit of an anti-climax for me.

The series started to the slow and tentative start, similar to many of the 16 starters before the show cut 4 and then started the actually competition. The waffle and pointlessness of the first two shows were a talking topic for a few days after but the competition did hot up eventually.

We've had thrills and spills aplenty and that is a certainty in the reality show which does push its contestants and include an element of real danger! But there have been moments of fantastic skating and behind-the-cushion viewing.

This year's mix of contestants has been very interesting too. Adding our first non-celebrity into the mix has proved interesting, especially with him staying so far in the competition despite not being a confident skater. For me, his journey was very inspirational to watch and well done ITV for making a good alteration to the template.

However, we did have our usual good skater in the mix and unfortunately, they ended up taking the title. This series has reminded me a bit of Series 4 and Ray Quinn. Looking like a slightly grown up version of the former winner, Sam had the same unlikeable qualities to me, with the added PR of that faux romance.

Press has played a big part this year too. If we weren't opening papers to stories about Kerry Katona and her inclusion in the show then it was about the select relationships in this series from both the contestants and crew. And of course, to cap it all off, if you pardon the pun, Mr Gardiner once again caused headlines to turn their heads to him, be it for his recovering hairline or his sharp tongued comments to contestant and colleague alike.

So all in all, 2011 has been a different year in terms of the icy show and I hope that next year, we gain some of the warmth that made the show such a family winner.

However, it has had entertainment and it is kept me watching every now and then. I do not look forward to boring Sunday nights.

Watched the first three or four shows, The celebrities were laughable i.e non entities.

First series I have never really watched. Other series watched religiously throughout. Need to do better in 2012 if I am to tune in

Load 'a' rubbish.

Too much filler...

Too much fiddlin', messin' and twists...aka Big Brother stylee...

Too much 'off ice' drama and hype...not necessary for a show supposed to be about celebs learning to ice skate...

Too much of the excitable, unbearable and arrogant Phil & Jason

Too much of the empty head that is Willowtree

I will no longer watch Dancing On Ice

Too many twists. Very messy.

ITV produce cheap, substance-less, hype driven 'entertainment'. My wish is this...that the GBP stop watching and supporting this rubbish. When will they realise that all involved are only in it to make money and to raise profiles...that is it. Dancing On Ice, Britain's Got Talent and The Shit Factor are all guilty of this. They are all rubbish, rubbish, rubbish.

I liked the contestants this year, and even though the early favourite won, it wasn't so obvious as the final was approaching. However, I agree that the production has been a bit of a mess.

The 3 judges doesn't do it for me especially since 2 are non skaters. Also, I do miss the required element, although I enjoyed the solo skate and the group skate was ok.

We got to see the lovely Sylvan

For next years competition I'd say less couples and more judges to get the ratings up.

Feel this year although ratings have been high there has been far too many gimmicks and faffing about.

Absolutely.

The only one on the panel with cred is Robyn. For me, that is a major problem with show.

Time for the BBC to do a proper version...Strictly Come Ice Skating!

Lol, love it.

Come on Beeb...steel ITV's thunder. There would be no ads either...total bonus. Hate ITV because of all the ads every ten minutes.

Judges - Get Bunton OFF that panel ASAP and get someone in who actually knows what they are talking about

All for shock results, but when the likes of Vanilla Ice and Jennifer were leaving before the likes of Carry Katona, Denise and Johnson....

Shame we didn't get a shock result in terms of the winner but the history books will show Sam and Brianne the fake couple won but the title was there to be won by all 3 finalists this year and anyone could have taken it

No twists next year please, it just got too Big Brother-esque with the constant screwing around with the format this year.

Qualifiers and Ice Pick fell flat on their faces and even though the team challenge luckily got the right 2 in the skate off, it didn't really work out in the long term

Shame they had to rely on Jason's two spats, a fauxmance or two and Carry to keep the show in the papers

Hope next year the show is in the paper for the right reasons and not just because Jason has had another staged ruck or one or more of the skaters are tabloid junkies. To that end I really hope the Price monster doesn't get on the show next year, that is asking for trouble

Too many changes to a successful format. An anticlimactic final with the winner known from the first week, despite a late surge from Laura and Chloe.

For next year's series, I'd suggest...

-No gimmicks/twists.
-Bringing back the required element each week.
-Cutting the number of total contestants down to 12 from the beginning.
-Axe Emma Bunton and put a qualified skating judge in her place.
-Only pick celebrities who have NO previous ice skating experience.

It was all about the twists really:

Judging panel - move from 3:2 to 1:2 skating to non skating judges was a bit of a 'dumbing down' for me. I would rather they had gone to 3:0 personally as the skating judges were all perfectly capable of commenting on both skating and performance so what do we need performance judges who know nothing about skating for.
Weeks 1 & 2 - judges vote doesn't count (absolutely dreadful twist that almost cost us one of the finalists, whoever thought that one up should be sacked)
Week 4 - the 'ice pick' - total waste of space, added nothing as the contestants know only marginally more about skating then Emma Bunton but at least it didn't result in some farcical travesty
Weeks 5 - 7 - the ultimate skills test - not really fussed, it isn't that much different to the 'required element' of previous years
Week 8 - the group dance - absolute nonsense, why should someone who had the best performance be shunted down the leaderboard based on an arbitrary group performance. It made a mockery of the purpose of the judges leaderboard i.e. to make it a mixture of skill and popularity contest
Semi-Final - solo skate. This one was really good so would like to see that one stay
Final - show dance. Good in principal but I did sense an inequality based on the music choices and the skills of the supporting skaters allocated to each contestant.

Agree, agree, agree...but ITV won't listen I am afraid.

I thought it was fairly entertaining. Nothing else worth watching at that time so it was enough. I think people have a tendency to overanalyse and nitpick at what is simply an entertainment show. Nothing more, nothing less.

First year that hasn't inspired me to vote for anyone at all.

The pre-comp elimination bit was a waste of time and the fact that it nearly saw the end of Laura who proved to be a good and entertaining contestant shows it was a mistake.

Is this also the first year that the appreciation threads never made it out of the main forum as there were so few posts so it would seem that this years celebs pretty much failed to ignite any real excitement for anyone.

I didnt' mind the ice pick and the team challenge was OK though it was a risky move to have it double the scores of the winning team which seemed very unfair - although it ended up with the right result but maybe more by accident.

Liked the solo skate but it did show up that they simply don't have the skating skills to make a solo routine very exciting and most people don't know enough about the technicalities of skating to judge it on anything more than showmanship really.

Thought the showcases were a good idea but they needed more help to make them a success.

The fact that Colin struggled to choreograph a Bolero explains why they don't get the pros to choreograph the routines. Most skaters don't do their own choreography for routines (either their coach or a specialist choreographer will do it for them) so those whose previous experience was in shows etc could be at a huge disadvantage to those pros who are older and more experienced or have coached themselves so they would have more choreographic experience.

It was good to have 3 finalists any one of whom could have won but because there were things I liked about all of them there was no point in voting as I really would have been hard pressed to choose.

On the night I think I preferred Laura's show dance (but maybe it was all the topless men) and Sam's riverdance routine to Laura's routine. Chloe did some great skating in her routine but overall didn't bring so much of the showmanship.

I much preferred it to last year's dullfest.

The panel didn't work with having Robin outnumbered in the skating stakes, and that lead to unsavory and unnecessary scenes between Karen and Jason.

The preliminary rounds were ok but I wouldn't want them back next year. The ice pick was an atrocious twist that shouldn't have seen the light of day. The team challenge was a good idea but badly executed - they shouldn't have simply doubled the winning teams votes. Then again, it did get a good result.

I loved the solo skate and the final was much better without the flying, which always suits those of a smaller frame and has nothing to do with dancing on ice.

So overall, I think over eagerness to drawn in viewers cost the show slightly this year, but some of the changes did work, or at least to an extent.

I know some have complained about this year's show but surely it's better than last year's snoozeathon.

Panel really needs to be changed next year to have the skating experts in the majority.

I do think 16 contestants was too many - better off keeping it at 12/14, save the salaries of the dross like Elen & get some better celebs overall (though I'm not expecting A listers).

Ice Pick was silly. Even if a good celeb had ended up in the bottom 2, the others were never going to vote for them as they'd be signing their own death warrant on the show.

Ultimate skills was good & a nice twist on the required elements with specific marks being given to all the skills.

Team Challenge was fun & really entertaining - i really enjoyed it & would definitely like to see it again.

Solo routines were also good & done at the right time (shouldn't be done any earlier than the semis).

Showcase routines also a great idea & much better than the flying.

Overall it has been a very good series. Probably not quite up there with series 2 & 3 (probably when DOI was at it's best) but great & perhaps best of all we had a genuinely competitive final which any of them could have won.

Gave up after first couple of shows, and haven't really missed the show. Says it all really.

Would say overall that I have enjoyed this years series, but I would like the changes I mentioned in my previous post on here. The 3 judge panel made the show lose it's sparkle a bit and yes Emma Bunton looked seriously out of depth as judge.

Not doing flying in the final was a relief to my mind as what has flying got to do with DOI? nothing at all IMHO.

The team challenge and skills weeks were brilliant as it gave indications where the celebs stood. Didn't really matter if Laura didn't win tonight as she won the team challenge.

The celebs that should've stayed longer in the competition were Vanilla Ice and Jennifer. In complete contrast Denise, Kerry and Comedy Dave stayed in longer than they should.

Would suggest to the GBP to make their votes more constructive and meaningful rather than the garnered
sympathy votes or votes to keep someone in for a laugh. That to me was quite sinister that they did that whereas others may look at it differently.

All in all this series has probably been one of the best if not the best with good celebs that had good personalities. Roll on DOI2012 for more fun and games on the ice. Off topic I am going to enjoy SYTYCD to help with withdrawal symptoms.

They will listen if you write to them, besides we have plenty of time for the next season, so we'd better get in our complaints/suggestions in thick and fast. If we don't ITV will think DOI is in the comfort zone, which it isn't at all. Remember true fans tell the firm what's wrong rather than the submissive types.

The prelim round was a mistake - we lost people we should have seen next year if not this and we almost lost the runner up.

Sam was too good a skater to start with - there's degrees of advantage and his was too big.

The big controversial name ploy with Kerry and the Loose women ploy again plus Johnson's journey helped us lose Jennifer and Vanilla early when either might have been a decent finalist.

The voting is still atrocious. The vote ignored the skating and the judges for a majority of the series and then followed the judges to the opposite extreme. Its the same as if a significant minority of anarchists voting anti-judge is replaced by a authoritarians who do as they are told. Its true more poeple vote later on and more vote on the skating but its a bit late then when the competition has left early and all your finalists have hit the bottom 2. There still seems to be a real problem getting people to support someone new to them . Not sure if the randomness of the voting doesn't affect what we see on the ice -it hardly creates confidence or rewards effort.

The twists were banal. The celeb vote was pointless, the skills test didn't matter, the team task worked by sheer luck and the team task marking was arbitary.

The solo skate was dull and the show dance in the final was impossible to mark fairly and needed much more work.

Most seriously they failed to bring the best out of their best group of 3 finalists ever.

Thats largely down to the uninspired choregraphy. Its interesting that Riverdance which was one of this series few highlights and Jai Ho last series both came with a firm style and steps - without that things got very random as moves looked a if they were chucked in to fill the time. Who got anything half decent determined the outcome at times. Who got a good song and idea seems crucial and fewer great songs seem to be turning up - look at what Daniella could do with a great song and routine and then give it to tonights finalists.

Part of that is nothing seems to develop that much. Some people got help on weaknesses - others didn't. No one seemed to get that much. They started this year at a higher level but no one really ironed out the issues. Sam had 3 goes at getting his headbanger right - but thats not the same progression we say from suzanne who made hers progressively more difficult. Tricks seem either to come and go now, or they are repeated but without being developed. Thats odd because this year they seem to have opened up the trick bag more than they allowed in series 4 and 5, and they had some very able people. It looks like lazy choregraphy

People seem to have too little time to do everything from doing better choregraphy to the training to the extra lessons that might help. Has something changed, or are they more worn out after being at it longer?

They also seem to have the same specific time problem as SCD with the final week. The series gets longer, people get more tired and more injured, they do more and more media events late on and they put more and more tasks into the final, The result is that they can't possibly perform 3 dances to a high level and they can't really develop anything new properly. That I think explains why I come away from recent finals thinking thats not that great or at least that could have been better. Not sure whats changed with DOI from series 2-4, but there just doesn't seem to be enough time or energy left now for anyone to outperform themselves.

I absolutely loved the show this year, I liked most of the celebs, I liked most of the twists, having sky+ helped in my enjoyment as I didn't have to watch the long drawn out needless fillers. But best of all and imho the best skater won. Well done Sam....

I thought it was a good series only spoiled by Jason's unnecessary cruel comments at times.
I voted for Laura because I thought she skated marginally better than Sam in the final performance.
However much as I also liked Chloe, I do think that there was only a hair's breadth inbetween Sam and Laura on who should win.
Chloe, although brilliant too, was fairly placed in third position.
Well done Sam and Brianne.