Why is it that Chico is the one who has had to start the show first the most frequently. The schedulers seem to put the person least favoured by the judges first, particularly in the latter stages.

What is the betting he won't be going last in the Final? He certainly deserves to be the person to dance last, but if as we suspect the programme wants a Matt or Jorgie winner, expect to see Chico dance first (or at best second) next week in the final.

Whilst I agree that the starting order has an impact earlier on in the series when there are more couples I think in the latter stages it's fairly irrelevant. Next week they have to do 2 routines which makes it even more irrelevant.

And if the judges so favour Jorgie & Matthew why was Chico at the top of the leaderboard last night after the first skate and still ahead of Jorgie at the end? Matt was only half a point ahead of Chico & if he'd made any mistakes in the skills test then Chico would have gone through automatically.

Jorgie should be sandwiched between the two men as she is the only female.

i dont think it matters who skates first in the final, by this time people already know who there winner is anyway.

Matthew will go first

Don't think it matters much in the latter stages of a competition due to there not been many other competitors so no one is really forgotten about like if there are 10 competitors and someone goes first it's quite likely that the audience may forget their performance.
Take SCD, Harry Judd danced first on both semi-final and finals night and still won it.

Looking back over the series, Chico has been first 4 times (weeks 3, 4, 7 and 11) Matthew has been first twice (weeks 6 and 8) and Jorgie has been first once (week 9) So really for fairness the order should be Jorgie, Matt and Chico last. But Chico will probably be made to go first again which would be a shame!

Didn't seem to make much difference last night, great performance.
Another way of looking at going first, is that you don't have all that time to worry, so maybe not such a bad thing after all.
Also, IMO the opening routine, is the one you remember the best.

The order tends to be a good but not the best act first and the best acts later. Mathew and Jorgie are far better far than Chico so you would expect Chico to come first a lot and them last. Its no coincidence that was Saturday's order.

In the final, they seem to either mix the sexes - so it will be b g b with probably Chico first - or they go on the votes in the SF - in which case it may be Jorgie first because somehow Chico got more votes this week. If Jorgie is tthrown on first it makes it more likely Mathew will win as he will very very probably be last.

Are they?

I think Chico has overtaken Jorgie, and has almost caught up with Matthew (in terms of ability) and matches him in terms of performance.

Last series Sam skated first, Laura second and Chloe third..

Sam won
Laura finished runner up
Chloe took 3rd

i don't think the running order in the final really makes much difference

I would agree with this. I also think that Chico should go last in the final.

My thoughts too, the order will be interesting.

when do the phone lines open etc .... and are they skating 2 routines? ...if so last place is often a disadvantage as the lines are closed shortly after the last person's done their 2nd skate

Chico is doing things they had done by mid series. He still can't act or dance as well - its all very ham and imprecise - though thats not surprising as the other two are trained as actors and dancers. His advantage is that he has some big lifts, that he's repeatng, that look as good as Mathew's. Meanwhile, Mathew hasn't had a really good routine and hasn't had a role to play like Chico's cheeky, if annoying, chappy. The differential in scores last week I thought was between Chico doing a routine worth 9 well, and getting 9.5 for it and the other two trying a 10 routine and getting 9. Actually as no one had tried Jorgie or Mathew's move before at that level of difficulty they were doing a 10+ routine. Just imgine Mathew doing Chicos routine or Matt and Jorgie doing it and then imagine Chico doing their routines.

I think you are being unfair to Chico there, Chico showed he could dance weeks ago - Chris Dean made reference to that fact

Well he hasn't done the drape lift or the banana lift previously so there's no repeating there.

Jorgie is repeating lifts and Robin said in one of the first VTs that she hadn't improved much since week 4.

Matt can dance and is a good skater - but I don't feel he has much chemistry with Nina - and he isn't as careful making sure she's landed properly after the lifts as Chico (as last night's headbanger attempt proved)

the only difference in difficulty between Matthew and Jorgie's routines and Chico's was the headbanger ...... Mathew's routine had very little actual skating skills ...he was just throwing himself around the ice rolling on the floor, toe pick dancing or skating forwards and bopping along ... chico's routine involved far more technical skating where he had to do more precise "skating" moves in time with his partner and his lifts (especially the shoulder press lift) required a lot of skill and strength) ...

Jorgie's routine contained more skating than Matthews but it was also full of a lot of moves where she was basically being carried around and flung about by Matt

Who knows whether Chico could have done the headbanger, he wasn't given one so we'll never know, personally this week I'd like to see Matthew and Nina actually skate together in a slow, more balletic routine rather than the upbeat dancy stuff they seem to have done every week

I also disagree about Chico not being able to dance ... he may not have the training but he certainly has the moves

Chico's lift work has certainly increased in difficulty. I'm inclined to trust Robin & Katarina when they say he's improved. After all, they know a thing or two about skating

And we've seen different sides to Chico over the course of the series. Yes some performances have called for him to be cheeky, but he can do soft and tender and passionate too.

So I'm sticking to my guns. I still think he's just ahead of Jorgie and just behind Matt

I've noticed this aswell,i've also noticed that Matthew has been on last four times.

This should be the time slot for the final if they're being fair.

1st performing - Matthew
2nd performing - Jorgie
3rd performing - Chico