Fantastic point Sid!

Matthew reminds of how Jade Goody's ex was last year...euuthusiasm wise!! But Matt's a better skater!! No he wasn't overmarked, Corey was, more stiffer than cardboard!! And if it is him and Rosemmary in the skate off, On paper, Rosemary should stay.....the judges gave her more marks!!

Well we know why that is, don't we?

Definitely not overmarked - brilliant performance I thought and I can't wait to see more of Matthew & Nina. I'm especially pleased that Nina has such a great partner after getting a dud in her first year on the series.

Not overmarked. If the judges think he was better than Jorgie then they had to mark accordingly. I don't understand the comments about nowhere to go marks wise - I have always felt that the judges hold back a bit in the early weeks of DOI now.

No way was Matthew overmarked. He earnt his marks!

No?

I thought he was good - and deserved to be top of the leaderboard... but I did think the 7s were a bit high... he only needed 19 or 19.5 to win...

I'd hate for him to be seen as the judge's pet this early, but I can't wait to see how he gets on when he only has a week to perfect his new routines from now on.... All of them should have been good this week as they have (mostly) had lots of time to practice their first routine the truth will out when the training time gets shorter (not that i think Matthew will really have any problem there - but a lot of the others will!)

I thought he was good but not jaw droppingly so. I preferred Chico's routine. I thought Nina was an incredible performer, so am excited to see what they can do in the future.

Technically and in terms of performance I see him as one of a bunch of contenders including a couple of skaters from last week and two or three from this. One critique I would have is that he seems to turn his feet in a bit and scratch/catch the ice in consequence. It would be interesting to see the relative markings if he had been up against, say, Jorgie from last week - different styles but in terms of technique and performance I'd put them almost on a par.

Yeah, made up for Nina - I love that very Eastern European style that adds an extra grace to moves even when she's skating at max power. The routines should be something quite special as the weeks move on.

I think the routine'c choreography was the problem for me - it was very well executed but I didn't really enjoy it in the same way I enjoyed Jorgie's, Sam's, Sebastian's, Chico's, Andy's etc.etc.etc. This is important because in a series where there are a LOT of potential finalists, likeability is going to play a crucial role in who makes it.

He was sure footed on the ice, executed his skating well and his artistry was also very good. If he was over marked it wasn't by much. There was clearly much more skating content in his routine on comparison with Jorgie's, as good as she was, she spent half her routine with feet off the ice.

Perhaps a slight overmarking - but very slight and even it 'twere so it made no difference to the leaderboard.

I don't watch soaps so I get my info on soap actors from wiki. A few comments were about Matthew's gymnastic training but I had realised that he is a former member of the British gymnastics team - which would explain in part his strength, balance and ease of movement.

Jennifer's dance training led me to believe that she would be the one to catch - but seemingly Matthew and Chico didn't read the script.

I don't think they overmarked him as such but they had to give him more marks than any other contestant as he was so obviously superior to them so had no choice - if he had gone on first then he probably wouldn't have had such high marks and everyone else would have been marked down accordingly!

Well he knows how to ramp up the marks From Kati W - jeans and a white shirt - so let's see what he has on next week!

He was a tad overmarked, but not by much he was definately the best, but considering Jorgies score I found them both about as good

Matthew reminds me of Chris Fountain

Or viewed from the other angle his routine had less content - other than him skating around quite speedily in large circles.

Its inherent in the nature of the show that the males will spend more time with their feet on the ice. The only alternative would be no lifts, or the female celebs lifting the male pros.The comparison is between the time the female celebs and pros spend off ice - and even there the female pros may also spend more time off the ice or doing tricks to hide their pros weakness, or less lifts if they are too weak to lift at all.

The judges shouldn't be marking the routine on skating skills over the other skills, and Jason is meant to be marking the dancing finesse - where Jorgie and Jennifer looked better and Chico looked more like Andy A. I think Mathew was overmarked on both counts. It didn't help that Katerina and Louie both undermined their own credibility by saying they were voting on attraction. It made it look like the Harry situation on DOI again - with 10 marks for limited routines and more comments about chests and looks than content.

They also probably got their relative marks out of sync by marking the first show low- as they didn't know where things would go. In the second show, the pattern was set as soon as Jennifer started with higher marks than Heidi, and, once Chico had been marked even higher , there was nowhere to go with Matt, other than to create a clear gap over Chico.

lol no way. matthew is so much better than him!

I looked at Matthew again and I still cannot see what was so wonderful about him.

He sure is!

Matthew is the best of the boys but IMO only just and think Chico is up there with him as well with Matthew maybe just edging it slightly.

I think he was a tad overmarked not by much but again would maybe have had it as 19.5 rather than the 20.5. I think there is a lot of flash to the routine and that wowed the judges not helped by the voting because they look good thing. I thought that would stop when they got rid of Emma.

I'm not 100% convinced about Matthew at the moment yes he is a good skater and performer but I find the extreme competitveness he has a little bit off putting I know everyone wants to win the show and do their best (well most of them anyway) but he comes across as just a little too desperate to be the absolute star. I believe this comes from him having had the accident and having to give up gymnastics but while I want the celebs to actually want to compete and give 100% I don't like the I must be the best.

Chico had the best approach IMO he wants to do his best but still has fun doing it. He got things wrong he fell over but he laughed it off and got on with trying again. Matthews training clips with the berating himself for not doing it right just seem kind of sad that you can't accept oops it went wrong lets try again but be basically beating yourself up over it constantly.


I hope we will see a lot more from Jennifer in the coming weeks. I think her score suffered a little from being on first as first couple always does get marked a bit lower and the judges work from that and obviously there was still the worry over Dan's injury and I felt that was part of the reason for the tension in her performance. Hopefully over the next weeks she will progress much in the way Chloe did last year.

Thats exactly what I said to my partner when I was watching it last night. I liked him and he was good and theres nothing wrong with being into it and wanting to do well but the over bearing competitiveness in contestants put me off, like Ray Quinn and Sam Attwater. But hopefully he wont be like that. Its good to want to do your best and try hard, but when the ONLY thing on your mind is making sure you crucify all the other celebs routines it becomes a little irritating to watch

I agree, he was good but I'd say Jorgie was better. Tbh I think the judges undermark every contestant compared to how they did in earlier series, but I don't think Matthew should have got 2 marks higher than Jorgie.

He was rightfully top - and they overmarked everyone else!