Judging from the tweets today the showcase routine is in the final.

However at the moment unless the pros are doubling up on routines Beth appears to have been somewhat short changed.

Luke has tweeted about skating with Jenna (obv) MIchael, Andy, Robin, and Vicky and Matt has tweeted about skating with Brianne, Matt E, Mark, Maria, and Olga both having 5 pro skaters in each routine that by my calculations leaves Beth with Dan and only getting Sylvain for her showcase routine

Now how on earth can that be fairly judged when two of the celebs are being given more pro skaters to work with which gives them more scope to have a more flamboyent routine and hide any errors more easily.

As I say unless they have some pro skaters doubling up to do 2 showcases but if not very unfair towards Beth IMO.

I have to ask why?

I've always wanted a spin off programme where the public have the opportunity to put judges and producers on the spot by questioning some of their more contentious comments, marks and decisions.

Why the determination to handicap Beth?

surely they must be doubling up

Well we shall see what the routine is like on Sunday but I have to say that I am not too concerned if there aren't too many other pros involved or perhaps they aren't involved too much.

For me the best showcase routine has undoubtedly been Matthew & Nina's last year & a big part of that was the fact it did what it was supposed to do i.e. showcase Matthew's talents. Other pros were involved but they didn't crowd the routine or take over. Sometimes I think they veer towards being a group routine & for the female celebs they have often been packed with too many lifts & tricks and not enough skating, definitely not something we want for Beth.

Thats the only thing I could see or to be fair not use all the pros so there was an equal number anyway.

However unless they take pros from both of the other celebs to share i.e 2 pros from each of Matt and Luke which would then give Beth 5 as well one of them along with Beth could be disadvantaged to a degree and I can pretty much guess who would be the disadvantaged one.

If they only shared say Lukes pros with Beth then they are both going to have restricted time training with them whereas Matt would then get undivided training time with his pros although I guess it could work the other way and they make Matt share.

Even so it seems a rather silly system altogether and at least in previous years all the couples in the final have had a specific set of pros to work with and not had to share (if that is what is going to happen)

I appreciate your points and agree with you to a certain extent but how can they do a showcase routine with only 3 people? I appreciate wanting to showcase the celeb and I do want Beth showcased as well as possible but I think you need slightly more than 2 pros to have some impact especially to appease the performance judges otherwise it will be accused of being boring not enough going on etc.

Its not even the lack of pros she potentially has its the fact that if she only has Dan and Sylvain that it is not technically a level playing field which is what I have more of the issue with.

But we don't know what the situation is yet & until we see the routine we can't really judge. All I'm saying is I don't think we need to worry about things yet as she may have fewer pros involved or they may be involved less throughout her routine but that might actually be better overall.

perhaps Beth's got Jayne, Chris, Karen and Robin .... and Sylvain (with Samia clamped to his leg)

Just watched Mathew and Nina's showcase performance............. absolutely incredible - that's gonna be hard to beat.

Completely agree. I just had another look, it was amazing

https://twitter.com/luke11campbell/s...780032/photo/1

Perhaps Beth will have a showdance in this sort of style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WHFJPsPBCo
They wouldn't need loads of pros and it would certainly showcase her well.

Andrei Lipanov has tweeted:

"Was nice to see old and meet new @dancingonice gang today "

Wonder if they'd get him back if they're short on pros?

(Could of course be wishful thinking on my part )

I guess its possible but it might even be for opening number etc as thinking back T&D have had lots of pros involved for those before in the final.

Also though Andrei seems to have been helping with Luke's training as there has been some tweets back and forth there so could even have been brought in to help with training this week.

It will probably all work out and be fine but it just seems strange when they could have just given them all 3 pro's to work with but guess we will find out more if Beth or Dan tweet or in the show I guess.

unless he's doing the pro tour

Why did they drop Andrei? He was one of the better male pros.

Maybe he wasn't dropped and didn't actually want to do the show anymore?

I spoke to him on the tour one year and he was missing being away from home so much so I think it was his choice rather than being dropped.

I asked Michael on twitter if the pros were doubling up and his response was

Michael ZENEZINI‏@mzenezini
I can't say, that is the surprise for Sunday ! X

so he's no help ... lol

guess like Tiggergirl says we'll just have to wait for Beth or Dan to tweet

Oh God that would make me so happy. Fingers crossed!

That's Michael for you! He loves to tease

He had a couple of duffers and was first out a couple of series and then was brought in as a reserve last year when Sylvian got injured (I think it was Sylvian).

I guess the showcase routine is when we will see four 10's rolled out for Matt

No-one expected that did they

Can you tell me where you watch it please - I cant see it on the itv site.

It's so unfair how some pros get good partners each year (no names mentioned) and the others gets a never ending stream of badones. At least on Strictly they try and give all the pros a chance.

Here you go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4pZBR5BTGE

I know some people think that Jorgie was 'robbed' or that Matthew only won because he's an ITV soap hunk but I thought he was a superior performer than her and his showcase routine was so much better than hers. He deserved to win imo.