I found him to be foul mouthed and rude. I will miss him like a hole in the head.

To the person who said that not many will know who Katarina Witt is - I would say in return a lotof people on here watch figure skating and a lot of skating fans watch DOI - Katarina is up there with Robin. Her name sells itself and goes towards proper judging and credibilty- not relying on dodgy pop records

I would say a lot of people won't know who she is by name alone, but that as soon as people see her CV, they'll all agree she deserves to be there. Obviously, serious skating fans will know who she is, and older people who followed skating will know who she is. But there is no escaping from the fact that the general public are much more familiar with Emma Bunton. Nevertheless, Katerina is a much better booking and as someone who likes Emma, I'm glad she's gone. She was dreadful and being famous, or nice, didn't save her from being out of her depth.

All you need to know about Fraulein Witt

http://www.itv.com/dancingonice/judges

I think her credentioals speak for themselves - I am sure people will know her instantly on reading these details

I'll miss Holly!

And Artem.

Yes, I liked Jason and can't stand Karen. I'm not sure if I'll be watching it this year, it all depends if anything else is on I'd rather watch.

Well without "mealy mouthed Karen" there would be even less of a show - her role and involvement as Head Coach means that she is FAR more important to the show in that she spends her time teaching the celebs their routines and building their confidence up.
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Jason simply sat and watched the performances then ripped them aprt - making Karen's and the pro skater's first priority rebuilding the celeb's shattered confidence - rather than letting them get stuck in to their next performance!

I know who was far more important to the show as a whole - AND whose opinion mattered more - and it wasn't Jason!

I don't think so. I'd rather not hear her comments, she's not a judge. And she's very biased.

Nothing against her but she never really has anything of any interest to stay and is always defensive. Bit suburban housewifey for me. Even with the makoever.

I like Karen and I think she is looking fabulous since she lost weight and changed her hair and style of dress, but I could never understand why she was ever on the Judging panel, she works closely with the celebs and is bound to be protective of them. She is a very important part of the show but the role she played last year didn't seem to work very well as half the time you couldn't hear her.

I wasn't talking about her role as a judge.... I was talking about her position as Head Coach!

I entirely agree that she was a bit of a waste of space on the panel - being reluctant to say anything too adverse (so I fully understand the mealy mouthed comment) about the routines (but on the other hand - she did counter Jason's more spiteful remarks in that regard) as she was far too involved with the training to be entirely objective. That said - she usually MARKED fairly - but didn't have the heart to say what she really thought about the performances.

However - in her teaching role she is a vital part of the team and she is far more important to the sucess of the show than any of the judging panel are (or were). She is responsible for getting the celebs onto the ice capable of delivering some sort of routine week after week - the judges spend a few hours doing their stuff!

If the auditioning rumours we read in the papers have any truth in them - it also looks like Karen is also responsible for deciding who will actually get on the show

Karen is definitely heavily involved with the audition process. She is a big part of the show, but it makes sense she's not trying to be judge and coach. She couldn't resist sticking up for the celebs that had "had a bad week" or whatever, which is nice, but inappropriate for a judge. I don't think she helped to balance out "nasty judging". If anything, her defensive comments spurred on some of the "home truths". Last year's set up didn't help either, because they just used her as a foil to go to when something nasty was said.

She should have a time and a place to have her say, and it shouldn't just be to argue with harsh judging.

I liked Jason in the first two or three years of DOI but in the last few years he went too far with his comments. I wouldn't have objected if he'd been back this year because he's been part of DOI since the beginning but I think that a shakeup of the judges' panel is a good thing. Having both Robin and Katarina on the judges' panel is a great move on DOI's part.

A lot of the time I agreed with Jason, I just disliked his delivery of his opinions which could be nasty. I doubt I'll miss him but there's something fishy about the fact that the two people Dean's girlfriend didn't get on with are no longer part of the show. Now I really don't like that.

Not sure I'll miss him, but I cannot stand Louis Spence.

Chris Dean's party (show) - he can invite who he likes to be in it!

But - believe it or not - I too actually agrreed with a lot of what Jason said - it was the way he chose to say it which offended me. No one expects a judge to have nothing but good things to say - especially to rookie skaters - but there is such a thing as CONSTUCTIVE criticism, which Jason seems to never have heard of..

Its fine to tell somebody what they did was wrong (in a pleasant way) - but it should be tempered with suggestions for how to improve the negative aspect, or to also note what was done well. Jason never seemed to do that - and he clearly disliked sports people! He gave Kelly Holmes/ Lee Sharp/ Greg Rusedski/ Steve Backley/ Sharron Davies etc etc a hard time no matter what they did - be it good bad or indifferent, whilst praising the likes of Bonnie "barely put a foot on the ice" Langford, or Zoe "crap but had a nice smile" Salmon to the skies.

Emma Bunton was just as bad

You can rest assured that Katarina will not cut anyone any favours. She'll treat them all exactly the same

Definitely not. Hopefully I'll be able to watch without feeling like putting my foot through my TV. I'll save my rage for the adverts instead

I couldn't stand Jason and I'm so glad he's gone, however Louis Spence is an awful replacement, I don't like him much either.

I don't miss that spiteful mean vain weasel faced nasty 'see you next tuesday'. No I really don't.

Actually weasels have got beautiful faces. Jasons is pulled and sour.

[Craig, apparently once away from the judges desk is funny and generally likeable - as well as being a great singer as well as a dancer and actor (just been to see him and Widdy in panto this week), he has a very successful career in choreography and stage production - Jason seems to be trying to do the same - but without the friendliness and basic talent.[/quote]



Saw Jason in Panto over xmas and he was absolutely brilliant in Aladdin as the villain Abanazer. Not a fan of his on DOI, but have to give credit where it's due, along with some brilliant special effects he made the show.

I seriously disliked Jason last season, so much so I gave up watching as he irritated me beyond beleif, so I am absolutely thrilled he has gone.

I liek Louie as long as he doesn't try make it all about him. So far so good.

Yes!!

considering that jason is very fashion conscious its strange that he completely missed the memo that "mean and nasty judges" went out of fashion a long time ago

Both Simon Cowell and Craig were very mean and nasty up until a couple of years ago.

Then for what ever reason, they started being more positive and stopped destroying people.

Jason on the other hand was just an assh*le. He seemed like a decent guy on pineapple dance studios, so I think his DOI role was just an act.

But its an act that has no place on tv nowadays, and I hope we never go back to "mean tv"