I must say I would have loved to have seen Dan put with Laila- it would have been funny. Actually he should have been put with Coleen Nolan in her year and Hayley could have gone to another male pro.

Dan is basically like Maria - he does get the rub of the green when it comes to allocating the celebs

I'm guessing your not a Dan fan then since you seem to want him to have the worst?. Actually Coleen wouldn't have been a bad choice as she clearly she had a large fanbase of support that got her to the semi final and and I hardly think wishing a pro has a weaker celeb is funny. All the pros are equally talented and deserve an equal chance. Dan or Matt could easily have been given Laura or Chloe last year but they went to new pros and look how well they did so I don't think Dan or Matt anyway are being favoured in regards to what celebs they get. I wouldn't say Dan has had the best of celebs yes he was lucky with Gaynor and Hayley but Emily, Linda, Roxanne and Kerry were not what you would call outstanding skaters so he has hardly had a great amount of brilliant performers whereas Maria has only once not finished within the top four and that was last year so if anyone has been lucky it has been her.

BIB - I quite agree but there has been a few who do the get the best celebs while some seem to get dud after dud. Susie was my fav lady pro- after Todd Carty you think she should have been a priority for the best male celeb,
Who does she get - Jeremy Sheffield, who Chris I think highlighted a basic flaw- he couldn't skate. What was the point in giving Susie the dud again - when he should have gone to Maria who won the previous year. Maria got Gary - guess what he was good - he should have been given to Susie

Don't forget that Gary almost left early, and on paper, Jermey should have been good, and better than Gary. It took a while for Gary to get into it, but he did, while Jermey just never lived up to his potential. He had an injury, and never quite got himself back on track, and possibly under-estimated how hard the whole experience was going to be, even with his dance training.

but isn't this what karen barber is there for - to suss out who has got potential

To a point but who has potential can change as time goes on. Jeremy Sheffield appeared to have a lot of potential and in the early training clips seemed confident and doing well but when he had the bad fall and injury and missed some training that knocked his confidence and he then subsequently gave a much poorer overall performance than was expected.

Again sometimes when you watch the training clips those that you think will be poorer turn out much better as the confidence grows and those expected to be amazing are less so. Believe it or not Kerry actually looked good on one of the training clips that was reshown during the week skating fairly strongly on her own during show and tell but then it didn't translate once the competition actually started so I suppose they can only go with how well someone performs in the initial audtion process and hope that if potential is seen that they go on to fulfil that potential.

I understand your point - it just seemed unfair that Maria tends to end up with good partners regularly

and now they do it with Artem.

[quote=penelopesimpson;55777970]and now they do it with Artem.[/
Didnt know Artem has joined dancing on ice,when did that happen?

I don't think she is the prettiest either but imo she is the most graceful and sexiest skater they've ever had.

It was a travesty for her to leave so early last year. I hope she survives a lot longer this time as she is one of the main reasons that I watch.

Totally agree. She isn't a classic beauty by any means, but she is just so sexy moving around the ice, and has a cracking pair of legs to top it off. Always look forward to seeing her,.

Well shes now been out on the 1st week 2 years in a row!

Gutted

It must have been upsetting for Anton to see his Mum and Andy go out!

Gutted as well. Hope this doesn't put her off returning next year. Can't be easy doing all that training just to go out the first week two years on the trot.

I've always wished they wouldn't vote anyone off the first week. Just let the audience see everyone skate and then the second week (well third week) let people see who is making progress.

Yes. So much for favouring her!

hasnt worked tho has it - she was first out last year with Craig from Neighbours, first out this year with Andy - who appeared to have some kind of talent.......

Shame really - wonder why she didnt get the votes

Andy was talented but black, that's why she went out. DOI is watched mainly by white people. The British public are not exactly racist, just not particularly interested in black people.

How ridiculous! Well I'm white and I voted for him.

What an extraordinary statement !

So did I, and I'm still upset by the outcome

Let me refine my statement a bit, without attempting a thesis. I don't believe the judges themselves are racially biased but consider the following history of black contestants on talent shows :

Misha B : Regularly finished in the bottom two of the XFactor despite giving the best performances

Rachel Adedeji : In the bottom two of the XFactor three times and voted out after giving one of the best performances

D.J, Spoonie : Voted out in week 4 of Strictly despite giving better performances than some of those who stayed in

Heather Small was in the dance off three times on Strictly despite not receiving the lowest marks

It’s OK to be mixed race (Leona Lewis, Alesha Dixon Rebecca Ferguson,Alexandra Burke) but being a wholly black contestant does not appear to attract viewer interest

In the “real” world, outside talent shows, black artists can be very successful (Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Gladys Knight ) as Misha B might end up being.Finally, Andy Akinwolere is, after all, a successful TV presenter.

deleted - I cant be bothered

You could also come up with a list of names of white people like that too. Just in terms of DOI Jennifer Metcalfe & John Barrowman left early despite showing lots of potential & being pretty high up on the leaderboard. Laura was in the skate off week 1 last year and Clare Buckfield & Jessica Taylor also featured in skate offs despite being very good and ended up deservedly making the final. Equally Johnson made the semis when better skaters such as Jeff & Vanilla Ice went out before him.

Maria's my favourite current skater. My favourite overall though is Kristina. <3