I always see articles on it on here and I'm just thinking Is it still on? It just doesn't seem to captivate people like other reality shows why?

It's because it's an old, stale, boring format. There's no freshness to the show and therefore people cant get excited by it or create a buzz around it. All these skating routines are very similar to each other and dont have the variety that a dancing show like Strictly has. Therefore 8 series on, people are bored and frustrated by seeing all these similar kind of routines. It doesn't get the pulse racing like the early years when things were new. Such as the Headbanger, when that was shown for the first couple times, there was a lot of buzz around it because it was something new, daring and dangerous. Now that viewers have seen the Headbanger done more than a dozen times, it just doesnt have the same effect, its not a big deal anymore and people just dont care. It's the same with the whole romance thing. When there was a romance in the first few series between a pro and celeb, the newspapers would love it, report a lot about it and there would be some kind of buzz surrounding it. Nowadays, who cares if there's an on screen romance? The newspapers barely report it and the viewing public dont care. Seen that, done that. It just is such a boring, long, ad filled program which is difficult to get excited about.

Many reality shows are heading the same way as Dancing on ice. XFactor will be like DoI within 3 years, with there being little buzz about it. Already last year, the amount of newspaper and media coverage it got was much less than 2009/10. And if you admitted yourself as being an XF viewer last series, people ridiculed you and laughed because it's a show "past its best" and viewers mock it these days for being the manipulative, fixed show it is. Within a couple years, people wont even care enough to mock it or talk about how crap it is, because it'll be at the point in which there'll be hardly any buzz due to the format being so old and exhausted, people wont even care.

Because its the usual tacky itv crap.
They're lucky the BBC didn't sue for blatantly obvious plagiarism.

What? Like the BBC ripped of Popstars and Big Brother with Fame Academy and Castaway, and X Factor and The Voice? Want me to go on?

How can you compare Big Brother and Castaway. On the original Castaway whole families were living on a remote island for a year. They weren't made to do stupid things they just had to get on with life with what they had.

Nah, DOI is a complete mirror image of SCD except on ice.

Every aspect was a blatant rip-off.

Castaway is an older format than Big Brother and was announced even before the original dutch Big Brother
Anyway they are nothing alike.

Star/fame Academy is nothing like PopStars. Fame academy was a totally live show with public eliminations and no auditions.The original Popstars was a total reality show with no live shows or public eliminations. Star/fame academy aired internationally even before Pop Idol.

Ha ha at THE X factor which stole from every show from Pop Idol to Popstars to Fame academy. Even the judges mentoring acts was stolen.

Need I go on?

Thick tights and prosthetic feet.

For starters..the low calibre of "celebrities", dull judging panel, only about ten minutes of skating, with the rest just "filler" or adverts.
Strictly survives because it has found the perfect formula. It's polished and looks great. They manage to attract some "names" every year..or at least some celebrities most people have heard of previously, and the Strictly judges are amusing..well, sort of.

I don't know why it went so wrong with DOI, it started off ok and was very popular. I think they just fiddled around with it too much, Strictly isn't too much different from when it started..if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

DOI used to be one of the big reality shows even as recently as two years ago, some years it actually beat Strictly. It's very peculiar to see it fall as far as it has, the results barely scrape 5m viewers now. It is unthinkable that Strictly or X Factor could go that low.

This years DOI line up was pretty good and certainly no better or worse than Strictly whist the panel should've been great on paper, yet for the second year running it has failed to connect with viewers like it has in previous years. It used to be a very magical show with a lot of charm around it, now its just same old same old, yet other similar shows haven't tired themselves out anywhere near as quickly. DOI has also reinvented itself a few times, yet it still feels extremely stale.

To be honest for next year they should just get back some of the best and worst skaters from over the years for a final series and call it a day. There is nothing more they can do and if they continue to plough on it will just become a liability like Big Brother on Channel 4 did.

Most people and celebrities can dance to some degree.
So Strictly is an ok watch.
Ice skating has a danger of slashing with them sharp blades.
So its endless weeks of watching people tip towing about because its too dangeous to do without years of practice.

The only time I have seen anything vaguely interesting was when David Seaman (I think) bashed his partners head on the floor.

Theres nothing wrong with the concept and the casting is actually very similar to SCD. There's no real telling how well SCD is doing in comparison either - because its been up agaainst a travesty of X Factor for the last couple of years - where the good singers never get to the final. SCD is aiming at a different audience by throwing on more boyband and young males rto win . SCD has become totally predicatable, but DOI could probably find some boyband stars again too if it really wants to up the ratings.

Both shows though have the same problems. They are both extremely predicatable, neither show has had memorable performances for a couple of years, and both have underused some talented people.

DOI's problem is that its lost its excitement factor and hasn't matched some very able dancers and skaters with routines to match. It relies more on good routines and excitement because SCD has a built in structure with new dances every week, which look different - however badly choregraphed they are. Taking out the weekly skills test has removed the can they do it drama every week from DOI . Its also made things far more dependant on the routines which haven't been good or different enough.. In the really successful DOI series, the lead switched as people got really good routines and proved up to them and the skills tests demonstrated how close or otherwise the competion was. . At present there is no race as no one gets to do anything really good and lthere's less to compare.

Thats made worse by the judging. In early series the judging matched the ups and downs in the performances and a winner wasn't signalled from early on. There were two or even 3 possibles who all shared praise. In the last couple of years there's been a massive male bias in the marking and comments, with the result that its not looked like a competition. Thats apparent this series with consistently high marks and positive comments for one celebrity , consistent failure to mark the most obvious contender on content, and continuing extreme negativity from Jason about the female contenders. The result of that is that it looks like a procession, leading to a coronation, not a compettion. If you don''t provide people with memorable routines, and then tell them week after week that someone is better and the competion can't compare , there is no real reason to watch. You are left just hoping someone will do something with some wow factor or emotional value on the way to an inevitable winner.

the problems as I see them are:-
[LIST=1][*]Silly swapping around with the judges, getting rid of decent judges and having people who know jack and make pointless comments (yes YOU, Emma and Ashley). Bring back Katrina and Nick Slater[*]Karen Barber full stop[*]Too much reliance on headbangers and flying and pants choreography instead of proper skating, required elements and footwork[*]Obvious bias from the judges and inconsistent and bizarre marking[*]Not enough of the pros doing routines with the extra bit of zap that is needed to get people interested[*]Too many soap stars who get the votes regardless of their ability[*]The bolero ad nauseum![/LIST]
Oh and not forgetting the ridiculous "twists" and having two starter shows with one person going each time is grossly unfair.

They're probably still doing it night after night

Network Babe has made some really valid points.

IMO a major part of it is the endless adverts, I don't remember there being so many in the earlier series. I don't watch it live anymore, Sky+ it and start watching 30 mins behind so I can ffwd through - as do a lot of my friends who watch it.

Also changing it from a Sat night show - XF and SCD are both on on a Sat night, so why not DOI? To me that seems the natural time for an entertainment show. I often used to rewatch the repeat of the show on a Sunday afternoon while doing the ironing - gave me a chance to see some of the routines and details I may have missed first time around.

I also agree with PPs that all the twists and changes to the format have had a negative impact. Having a required element was a pretty big deal - could they do it etc? Even if they were crap at it, it was good to see them try and it did sort out those who could and those who couldn't. Especially since this year I haven't seen the 'leader' - Matt do a 1 footed spin or a proper jump (I admit I may have missed it though ). I saw him do a 2 footed jump last week but that's been it. Beth has done a couple of 1 footed spins and 3 jumps, as has Luke. But I liked seeing the pros do the elements and then see if the celebs managed it, the emphasis has gone from the actual skills to more about the tricks, as now I think about it I can't remember seeing Matt do a spiral, even an assisted one, has he? A good few drags and lifts, mohawks, 3 turns, but nor much else.

I remember people like Donal learning and becoming good at things like teapots and aquaplanes etc - great to see.

A bug bear of mine I have to admit was changing the set around from having the judges sit in the middle to being put up the other end - how can they see properly???

I still watch and am still enjoying it, but it has been a lacklustre year and am quite frustrated with the lack of emphasis being put on actual skating and just the focus on tricks.

There's not actually been many tricks. Beth's done one headbnger but that hasn't been developed (as Suzanne's was) The wirly move she did better than anyone else has. Dan hasn't done the strength lifts Matt and Andrei did though. She's done some difficult novel lifts, and incorporated some gymastics and moves from Clare and Suzanne's best routines, but the judging has ignored them so they are downplayed. As you say, she's done jumps and spins and spirals and essentially looks more like her female professional equivalents than the males look like theirs. Matt has done a few big lifts and an awful lot of breakdancing..... and hunching over

As you say though there's no structure to it all. There's not enough themed weeks, as with SCD, with suitable and music and roles to act, There's no skills tests to reveal who is better, add drama, gain skills or provide focus to a routine. And when someone does do something new the jdyges ignore it.

And as for the choregraphy, there's nothing really new or outstanding with it - even when they do a flying routine for the first time in several years Dan ends up doing with Beth much of the same choregraphy he did with Hayley. There's a problem doing so many routines for so many , very different, people, but it ought to be possible to get some help writing some? It ought to be possible too to sit down and think of some striking music and write now a dozen good routines ? The problem is deciding how to hand them out fairly, but to the people who could do them justice, if you did that? Perhaps it needs to be like Splash - you opt for the equivalent of the 30 metre board or the poolside and get marked accordingly?

Exactly!
The other examples given are similar but still different enough to offer something, well....er different.

Like you say DoI is a blatant copy of Strictly and it's un-originality shows. It's awful.

The choreography never changes. I'm bored of it. I feel like I've just watched the exact same dances being performed by different people. Like Beth's flying routine felt just liek Suzanne's, just not as good.