I think the judges bias has been painfully evident this year.

My greatest surprise was that the only bit of fair judging was done by Jason when he said he wouldn't put Matt through after he tripped in the skate off.

To be fair Matt was one of the better skaters but no better (imho) than Beth or Gareth, just different and certainly more cocky.

I am struggling to find a reason for the over marking of Matt, the under marking of Beth and also Gareth and the sheer favouritism towards Matt.

I hope the judges learn from this, if there is another series.

They weren't biased, just unanimous in their expert opinions that Matt was the best.

Is it possible it was because he's been in the skate off, knowing he wasn't as popular as Beth they tried to over-compensate and actually over did it and put me off him further? Tonight was just embarrassing.

That's an interesting opinion Cassy, he obviously wasn't that popular with the voting public.

The idea that Ashley or Jason have 'expert' opinions is amusing given that neither of them have any creditable experience of professional ice skating.

But it seems Joe Public think they know better than Robin and Karen. Joe Public = Jack of all trades, master of none.

Ashley and Jason's expertise is for the performance element and in their expert opinions on performance, they both thought Matt was the best.

Not including yourself in 'the public', I take it?

It seems you're taking a reality TV show far too seriously. Beth won, and deservedly so. The judges don't deserve to have someone they've shown favouritism against win.

The voting is structured so that the public decide the final outcome, regardless of their knowledge or lack of it.

The public obviously preferred Beth to Matt.

I have often disagreed with the final result but not tonight.

That's down to the producers, they make it a public vote. If they wanted it to be credible and adhere to expert opinion then it would just be another competition not a light entertainment programme.
The public know who they want to win better than the panel.

I agreed with the judges tonight - I couldn't find any faults in any of his performances and I thought he was more entertaining to watch the Beth.

Pot and kettle. It is unbelievable how worked up some have got over Matt and the prospect of him winning - claiming all sorts of conspiracy theories. Now that really is taking it too seriously.

Trouble is the 'public' can't be trusted to exercise good judgement - they get bogged down with who they like or fancy and who they think is most deserving ie. humble not arrogant - as opposed to who is actually the best skater.

Unfortunatley - this lovely show is getting dragged into the same direction as shows like x-factor - where skill and talent count for little.

That's my point though if the producers cared about credibility it wouldn't be a public vote. They don't, it's entertainment that's all.
Fair enough if someone like Joe or Keith had won but I think Beth had plenty of skill and talent just not as much as your favourite.

its a great question. What does he offer to ITV , or the show? There's no tour to sell and beth probably would sell more. . If he has a votes problem that needs the hype, by definition he's not popular.Is he going into Downton - I shouldn't think so? I doubt he is related to all the judges?

Jason some would suggest shows a pro male bias that was there with Louie too, and dominated in SCD too the last couple of years. Robin's been displaying this strong male skater bias for the last couple of years. Ashley and Karen may just follow. They just seemed more determined than that to get Matt to a win and ended up telling us complete nonsense to try and get him there. You would think they would be more relaxed about it, and someone in production or ITV, would have had a word and told them they looked silly?

Or acting.

If they have expertise in dancing they have said nothing about it for weeks and have ignored Matt's posture and detailed issues.

if they are there to judge entertainment factor there's not much point as all we learnt is that they like bad acting and seemingly don't even notice difficult moves at all.

Its basically not clear what they are there for.

That is where you are wrong. It isn't me that plays favourites. I had never heard of Matt before the show as never watch Eastenders - can't stand it.

He isn't really my cup of tea - but I liked to watch him skate as he had an attack and confidence about him on the ice that was nice to watch. His was the best skater. I wanted him to win as I loved watching him skate. End of.

Totally agree.

LOL Cassy. I really like your posts,

Wonder if anyone suggested to them that they might actually want to be a little gracious after the event as well rather than act like petulant children. None of the judges have come out of that looking good.

Who are they to judge for me who I find the most entertaining?

They are not experts on that!

And as shown the majority of people also didn't think Matt was the best, hence he didn't win!

Though them mucking up gives the producers a chance of 'a new broom sweeps clean' approach with the panel. Maybe they just gave the judges enough rope to hang themselves.

I don't think you understood the context of 'end of'. It simply meant no more, no less.

I agree with a lot of Tiggi's points and I hope lessons are learned by the producers and panel of judges. They need to be reminded that it is a TV show as well.
Matt was a confident skater but Beth, Gareth and some of the other contestants were just as enjoyable to watch.
The judges comments were unpleasant and often biased so I hope the next series loses Jason and Karen from the panel.
Bring back the three compulsory moves and get rid of that stupid flying gimmick which sadly saw Gareth off this series.

Strictly learned its lesson with panel favouritism eventually, and DOI need to do the same.

Judging panels should be impartial, and yes they can have personal favourites, but they should treat them any differently to the other competitors. Pamela who seemed a confident skater went out week 1 for stumbling in her skate off performance, and her stumble was cited as the reason for her departure, yet Matt who did the same in his went through against someone who delivered a faultless one. They can't have different standards for different contestants!.

As I don't watch Eastenders, I had no idea who Matt was before DOI, but I found his skating confident but aggressive. I much preferred Beth's more lyrical style, as well as her humble demeanour. She proved week after week that she was capable of doing everything thrown at her, but simply wasn't allowed the flashier stuff that Matt was given to aid the "performance" aspect.

Given the over marking for Matt by the panel this week and last, it was no surprise to see the public's sense of fair play appear and the crown go to the person who deserved it most.

And why the result was such a big surprise to the panel I don't know...... Beth was the only skater who never appeared in the dance off, so it must have been clear that she was the publics favourite.