The guy it seems just hasn't got a clue what it's like to even skate, or keep your balance on an Ice Rink . To hear him and Ashley talking about the amateurs performing in week 1, shows they both haven't a clue what it's like on an Ice Rink.

Actually your wrong there is footage on I think the first tour DVD that shows him on the ice in the studio and he was doing pretty well considering.

Obviously he is not a professionally trained skater but being a dancer and choreographer he does have some clue about balance etc.

Yes one of the earlier tour DVD's has 'extras' including backstage footage and it does show Jason on the ice

The latest tour dvd's don't have any extra's

Do we have evidence that it was actually Jason rather than a stunt double

Well, the show is called Dancing on Ice, so it makes sense that there are two skater judges and two dancer/choreographer judges.

It doesn't make that much sense. All of the judges of the ice dancing at the winter Olympics, for example, will be ice dance judges rather than dancers/choreographers. Karen is the only ice dancer on the panel and look at the stick she gets on here.

But the thing is the skating judges are perfectly capable of judging dance/performance whereas those who have no experience in skating can't judge that properly . I certainly don't think we need an even number of skaters/dancers - at most 1 is enough.

If we must have 1 then Ashley gets my vote if we get a choice between the 2

Well I suggest you go and buy the DVD and judge for yourself

What does that mean, he was able to keep his balance or put on a performance

Yes he was able to keep his balance and IIRC he was skating backwards at one point but I am not going hunting out my copy of the DVD to double check.

Given that most of his words come out of his arse, that is probably going forwards for him

Erm...Olympic Medallist Robin Cousins is on the panel too?

Karen competed as one half of an ice dance pair. Robin was a solo skater

Ice dance and solo skating are not the same thing. Robin was a solo skater, not an ice dancer....but he will still know a hell of a lot more about what is required of an ice dancer than Jason will ever know. That being so, the only judges I pay any attention to are Karen and Robin. Jason I would like to ignore completely but he is like an itch that won't go away....or a piece of faecal matter that won't flush to use his termnology.

DOI isn't pure ice dance anyway, and while Karen might be able to make interesting comments on the skating, she rarely does. I used to really like her, but she's become more and more insipid as the series progress. I was almost embarrassed for her when instead of giving her own feedback about Beth, she kept harping back to not understanding the score from the end of the panel, and how she was going to drop the very thing she kept on bringing up.

On the other hand, Robin has worked extensively doing choreography for big ice dance shows and really knows what he's talking about. His actual experience puts him ahead of Karen, and more to the point, he seems capable of putting together a coherent critique about the skaters. Even more impressive, he is able to agree and disagree with the other judges in a professional manner.

I'd have loved it if Katerina had come back, but sadly that wasn't to be for whatever reason.

I was surprised at how good Kimberley was. I didn't know much about her, so had no real expectations, but worried she'd be another Emma Bunton. She gave good, constructive feedback and didn't over-mark. Time will tell if she can remain interesting week after week or if she comes out with the same plaudits, but so far, so good.

I did understand why Jason left, and tried to warm to Louie, but having Jason back again reminded me just how much better he is. He didn't say anything out of order this week, so no excuses for anyone complaining. Marking low is irrelevant. In fact, I hate over-marking in these shows week one. It would be my only criticism of Robin. I could soon grow bored if ITV continue to push the rivalry with Karen. I hope that he resists the temptation to say anything controversial for the sake of it, but some people have no listening comprehension skills, so leap to conclusions. The booing of reasonable comments from the audience was almost as tedious as Pip's "do not cross" tape.

Jason seems to have come back with Louie's problem. He doesn't know what he's marking. His role ought to be to mark the overall entertainment value, the dance moves and the dance technique with which they are presented. But Ashley's a dancer and she's doing that - albeit with a tiny range of too low marks. Jason seems to be trying to mark the acting - which he can't do because he's not qualified - and because the music, and choregraphy, and teaching, often dictate whats there. Its quite ridiculous for him to be giving such different levels of content, wow factor, difficulty in the moves, fluidity, ranges of moves and perfromance skills executing them the same 3.5 mark. He ends up just not being impressed by anyone's acting skills -and his view on that is as relevant as anyone's.

Having been one of the audience booing his so called 'reasonable' comments, I would beg to differ. "Bored to Beth" was neither reasonable or constructive.

I don't have a problem with scoring low. What I do have a problem with is scoring everyone the same score regardless of performance - the idea is that they are supposed to be creating a leaderboard showing how the skaters rank comparatively to each other. According to Jason, 4 of them were exactly the same which is complete nonsense. Thankfully Robin and Karen had more sense...perhaps because they know what they are doing!

Does anyone else really miss Nicky?

Yes, I do. I thought he was a great judge. Pity we can't have him back instead of the poisonous Jason.

I liked Nicky - his marks occasionally were a bit random but I swear he only used to do that so they would ask for his opinion (when the panel was 5 judges Jason hoovered up a lot of the comments/airtime ). And whether you agreed with him or not his comments nearly always made sense. I also liked that he was never afraid to go against what all the other judges felt.

He was never afraid to point out a few home truths either e.g that female celebrities especially in the early weeks can hide behind their partner to disguise a lack of talent on the ice but the men always have nowhere to hide.

I miss Nicky too, he gave good comments when he was given chance, which sadly wasn't that often. This year I have gone back to recording the show and fast forwarding through all Jason's comments.

Agreed. DOI isn't about ice dance, it's about performance skating, which draws from all the skating disciplines. Karen's knowledge of performance skating is not nearly as great as Robin's, as her career has focused more on coaching amateur, competitive skaters, rather than working with professional, performance skaters. As Sparkle has pointed out, Robin has extensive experience choreographing and directing big ice shows, so his knowledge is more relevant that Karen's. Not that Karen's knowledge and experience is irrelevant but she doesn't demonstrate that in her comments. Her marking is fine (it's usually more or less the same as Robin's) but she needs to start having more substance in her comments.

I suspect that too - even Robin used to get ignored.

I remember one time Holly went to Nicky for comments and he seemed taken aback/not ready so shocked was he to be asked to comment. Took him a few seconds to compose himself before he ventured his opinion.