Given that the nature of these shows is 'unfair' in the sense that the non-expert public get to choose their personal favourites over the people the experts have deemed the best skaters each week, it seems a bit daft to add another layer of unfairness by introducing the duel. Why reward the person who has managed to reach fifth place in the competition over the person who is sitting in second place? Seems bonkers to me.

Hmm, if that's the case then I'm expecting these pairings:
Ray vs Sam
Hayley vs Beth
Kyran vs Gareth
Suzanne vs Bonnie

In that case I'd expect Sam, Beth, Gareth and Bonnie up for the vote. If Beth really is that popular, then Gareth or Bonnie would definitely be in the SO, although it is pretty likely that Sam would end up there as well in that scenario.

Bonnie was bottom of the leaderboard this week, and managed to get through, so we could end up with Gareth v Sam - in which case, Gareth would be out. It would be a knock for Sam's confidence though, being in another skate off

I actually think the judges might save Beth over Hayley, depending on the routine - Beth is more flexible and a better skater

I really hate the duels. I don't see the point in them at all, it just spoils the overall outcome.
The level of competition is so high, it seems even more horrible to lose a good skater at the expense of a poor one.

They didn't do that last year did they? Pretty sure we had some boy v girl (Luke v Samia)So not sure why they would change it. The fairest way would be going by leader board, unless they really are trying to manipulate the vote

Jeff Brazier is an idiot though.

If it really is Boy vs Boy, etc, then aren't the producers lucky that it ended up as 4 Boys and 4 Girls? What would they have done if it had been 5 and 3. Wonder if they've all run out to buy a lottery ticket.

Or could it be - surely not - that they make up the rules as they go?

I hope it's not sorted by gender. Unless they give us the hilarity of Ray "vs" Gareth, three of the four duels are going to be a foregone conclusion. Ray beats any of the men, any of the men beat Gareth, and any of the women beat Bonnie. Something like :

Ray vs Suzanne
Beth vs Hayley
Kyran vs Sam
Bonnie vs Gareth

would be far more exciting IMO.

I must say that I did wonder when Zaraah went last week instead of Kyran whether they wanted to get rid of a girl. At the time I couldn't really understand why but now . . .

I'm pretty sure that that's what they've done in the past.

Jeff Brazier actually said that he wanted to see boy v boy rather than having any inside info. He also thought that that is what happened in previous years which we know is wrong.

So basically he was talking bull so until we hear anything official to the contrary I will assume it's as previous years and the pairings will be based on the leaderboard.

He always talks rubbish, and he can barely string a sentence together, but at least it's better than when he and Kerry were fighting for attention. He seems marginally more thoughtful than in the past, but not much. It did him no favours when he admitted that he'd never watched the show before he was in it.

A couple of the TV guides say that the celebs will be paired based on skating ability which is what they have done in previous years.

Nothing confirmed so it could be anything!

Yes but pretty pointless as Bonnie would go if Gareth gets the judges nod, , or ruinous as one of the top 3 of both sexes ccould go if Gareth retains a vote.

Still pretty silly any way they do it. If they base it on last week's placings its going to be Ray v Hayley which is a no brainer. Beth v Sam which is a no brainer - but the judges have been overmarking Sam. Suzanne v Kyran which again is a no brainer - but could allow the skating judges to push Kyran through, and Gareth v Bonnie which should eb a win for Bonnie as Gareth is the one with a vote they need to get rid of and Gareth is weaker on almost any routine. .

However if you then give the public a voting choice of Hayley, Sam, Kyran/Suzanne and Gareth its perfectly possible that the Gareth vote will hold and dump two winners into the skate off.

If they do have a skate, and then do the duel at the end for immunity, with the pairings decided by the first routine, its going to pay anyone not to be second...... The judges can make sure the order produces whatever pairings they want to. And if the scores for the first performance count with the public vote, the judges have even more input into who gets to the bottom two.

The judges could end up controlling everything - except the one crucial thing which is how many people vote for Gareth - who is the one who needs to go......

IMO, Bonnie has been weaker for the past two weeks. The judges marked her lower this week, and the skating judges marked her lower the week before, and she'd probably have been bottom if Jason hadn't under-marked Gareth so heavily.

I accept that Bonnie fans will push for the idea that Gareth needs to go, but in all honesty, no-one can complain about him needing to go so long as she's still there. She's a much weaker skater, and hasn't progressed.

Looks like Bonnie v Gareth is one pairing as they were all training together with Karen yesterday.

Yes I saw that on Twitter. Mentioned it in another thread yesterday but it does seem from that they are going on the leaderboard. So at least one of Bonnie and Gareth will live to skate another week and a good/better skater or possibly two will be in the skate off! Madness!

As manipulative as it is haven't these duels been successful before in getting rid of a lesser skater as they usually go against someone strong in the skate off?

It's playing with fire though and could backfire massively

So basically this could be the week one of the stronger pairs are eliminated.

I just watched Beth duel with Oona last year on YT and what a waste of time. I thought each pair would be skating the same choreography.

If I had to choose who I would not miss at this stage in the competition it would be someone from this list (not in any particular order) -

Kyran
Bonnie
Sam
Gareth
and possibly Suzanne.

As long as Ray, Beth and Hayley get through I will be happy.

The duel can only have a few purposes (if it has any) One is to provide drama by dumping top performers into danger - thats silly as you can lose one and invalidate the whole competition. Another is to contrive a situation that gets rid of someone weaker with a big vote - who is at risk of staying on past their use by date and taking down contenders. Historically, its played the second role, if any, on the show - its made people choose between risking a real contender and continuing supporting someone weaker, and because the situation is stark, its brought out the contender's vote to send the weaker person home. Bonnie poses no such vote problem. If they ever give her a decent routine and she does it well, she may stay a bit longer on merit, but her vote probably isn't that large from what we saw of it earlier on. Gareth, unlike Bonnie, has kept out of the bottom two and had a large vote in series 3 - which suggests he may still have it. If they want to set things up to remove the one of the weaker contestants who has a big vote, this may be the best chance to do it. Gareth may not be the weaker of the two on some grounds, but he may be the one you want to get rid of at the first opportunity - in case another one chance doesn't turn up for a while.

The problem is it may not work. Even if it works in a normal series when there's someone truly bad who wouldn't other wise be in the bottom two - there's no one that truly bad this series - and a couple of relatively good people have already hit the bottom two. Its runs a big risk of just making some of the weaker contestants safe, while one of the past winner's is sent home by Gareth's vote holding up..

Not 100% clear how it works yet but if the 4 losers of the Duels then skate again with that routine scored & the judges scores are combined with viewer votes, I think it will be extremely difficult for Gareth/Bonnie to avoid the skate off.

If we assume (fairly safe assumption) that they are bottom of that 4 way judges leaderboard they would need to finish top of the votes to stand any chance of avoiding the skate off & even then they could end up there depending on how the votes go elsewhere.

It would be very dangerous to attempt to ditch anyone who they think has public support by having the judges under-mark them, or controversially save their opponent, because that's bound to encourage more voting than they'd normally get.

Kyran and Zaraah were 3rd and 4th bottom in the judges scores, so them being in the bottom two shouldn't have been a big shock. They weren't even close to being the best according to the "experts", so while their fans might be alarmed, there's no need to presume that the true contenders were ever in danger.

I think the duel is a load of old bull.

But there never is a 2nd place or 5th place because it changes week to week.

On that thinking it should be aggregated.

Not sure if this link will work but on this article and pictures the duel would be:

RAY/SUZANNE

BONNIE/GARETH

KYRAN/SAM

HAYLEY/BETH

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...-training.html

I may be being cynical but if this is true it looks like a way of ensuring at least one of each sex is in the skate off and if as is likely Ray beats Suzanne and Bonnie beats Gareth they would have two of each which would be convenient!