He doesn't seem to have the same enthusiasm that Mark has, which is why I believe that Mark has suddenly become the dark horse of this series.

I agree - I feel no connection to his dancing.

I think that in order for Jake to "catch up" with Mark He needs to cry every week after each dance and not wait for the results show.

I really believe Mark works hard. I like him. Jake IMO is not very likeable. If he dances like he did tonight there is no chance.

I believe that Mark's popularity has shot up because he showed genuine emotion last week. His enthusiasm is endearing, and he is obviously loving every minute of it.

I predicted from Week one that he was the dark horse, and he has shown this week that he is a serious contender for the finals.

I agree

Well for a start Mark danced the legs off Jake tonight. Mark was fabulous, while Jake was weirdly very very poor. I don't know where that awful performance came from ! he was stomping and stamping all the way through !
The only think I can think of is that Janette's astonishing body is distracting him !

It pains me to say it- but I agree. I've been rooting for Jake since week 1, but his QS and now his paso just left me feeling "meh".
Whereas Mark was someone who, until last week's Samba, I'd dismissed as a pretty-boy mid-tabler whom I'd never miss once he'd gone in November. But for two weeks now, I've voted for him because he conveys joy in his dancing as well as showing improvement.

How saddening your cynicism is. I bet you probably dhow some emotion sometimes, just as Mark is perfectly entitled to do!

Yeah we all show emotion sometimes......but forgive us if some of us think bawling your eyes out over being saved on a reality tv show is a tad OTT!

Mark knows exactly the right things to do or say in order to do well on reality tv - it's what he's done for most of his 'career'. Not all of us have to be impressed with the 'comeback' storyline that producers have so obviously given him.

As for Mark 'working hard' as another poster said......well most of the contestants are working hard and that includes Jake.......I suspect Mark has more time to train than some since he doesn't have much in the way of a 'day job'.......still maybe appearing on strictly will boost his floundering tv presenting 'career'......if not I suppose he can always continue with pushing buttons part time on Heart, courting tabloid publicity, posing for Ok, Heat etc or move on to his next 'reality tv' project.

Jake, Caroline or Sunetra for the win. Not interested in the trained dancer from the manufactured girl group or the other stage school dancer with no personalities

Rubbish! he did not bawl his eyes out, he got emotional, but you had to exaggerate that out of all proportion because you just don't like him.

I agree. IMO I cant believe that some people are taken in by that pathetic nonsense he needs to grow a pair.

I thought Caroline had previous training I am sorry if I am wrong.

So what if I don't like him! It doesn't make my opinion any less valid than any of his supporters - he did go overboard with the waterworks! Mark is 'reality tv' veteran - he knows all the stunts to pull.

Anyway I've seen you being quite scathing and cynical about contestants and 'celebs' you don't like so you're one to talk!

Caroline is a presenter now. The other two dance and sing(try to) regularly

She did take part in 'Dancing with wheels' though as someone pointed out earlier, which she won and even entered another competition with her parter she won with to represent the UK. She learned some of the 10 dance styles there - ok it's significantly different dancing with someone whose wheelchair bound where there would be limitations as to what you can do, than with a pro dancer, but I still think learning and training for that show would come in handy for strictly. I have to say even when I saw her in 'Dancing with wheels' she didn't look like a novice dancer to me. I'm not knocking her by the way because I like her and she's with my favourite male pro Pasha but I only think it's fair to point out since you've pointed out Frankie and Pixie's training that Caroline is dance trained too.

Jake is a brilliant dancer but I just can't warm to him. It also seems like he doesn't want to be there.

Jake is on very shaky ground at the moment. Apart from his Salsa (and Jive to a lesser extent), his dances have not impressed me (and a lot of other people).

The top 3 women are all very good at both dancing styles, while Jake is probably only really good at the latin dances (basically, like all the other mid-tablers; only really good in one style).

If in the future he gets a ballroom dance and does find himself in the dance-off then he might go out against most of the remaining celebs (assuming the 3 worst dancers all get eliminated from now on). At least, if the judges decide based on the performance that night.

He really needs to get his mojo back, meaning a Cha Cha Cha or a Samba (though he is likely back in ballroom next week). Just to maintain his status as latin party god, as Mark seems to have surpassed him a bit in that the last two weeks.

Oh good grief, he cried once on TV, not every single week. No wonder people get annoyed at the negative reaction against him given he's being so attacked for crying ONCE!

And there's no need to get so defensive about Jake, I like him just as much as I like Mark, I just think the hysteria about Mark being a bit emotional one week is frankly just a bit ridiculous. I think it's great that he's so involved in the show.

Jake peaked too soon...but that didn't stop Sophie Ellis Bextor from reaching the final.
He also seems to be out of favour with the judges and that seems to have happened overnight. I thought they were too critical of him with his Quickstep...when he couldn't set a foot wrong in the weeks before. His waltz was awful and yet they didn't make a fuss about it.

Mark is the shiny new thing, there's a good balance going on with him helping himself by improving in the latin dances and the producers lending him a serious helping hand (major PR spin about his panic attacks and the emphasis on how emotional he got last week)...along with the better slots on the show and OTT praise/overmarking.

I still don't think his public vote is up to much at all...but it can be solidified by giving him another fast dance.. I think ballroom dances are his demon.

All I said was Jake was working hard too and I made that point because others keep banging on about Mark 'working hard' and his 'enthusiasm'. That's hardly being overly 'defensive' and a bit rich coming from Mark supporters who are laying into posters just because we don't feel Mark's OTT display of emotion last week was entirely genuine!

Another thing he has in common with Sophie then





Assume you are talking about Mark? He has had a very strange mix of dances (4 latin and 2 ballroom), which leaves him only with the Salsa and Rumba (+ Charleston) as pure latin dances this series. Just like Alison, the party dances are running on empty for him (ironically, Simon has all the party latin still left.......but will he get a chance to perform it?).

Jake is reminding me a lot of Louis Smith (quiet, not caught up in the hyper showbizzyness of it all). They both started off very favourably with public and judges, but then the judges turned on him and Louis couldn't catch a break, week in week out, til his Charleston. The cynic in me wonders if the judges are being told to knock him down. why? I don't know. Perhaps so it isn't a dead cert to everyone that he makes the final. I don't know how popular Jake is with the outside world, but he seems to always have top likes on FB and glowing comments. Reading Mark's, it's definitely more of a mixed bag....But then he has a Towie history to contend with, whereas Jake remains a dark horse, other than he is a devoted family man.

Don't try and talk sense into him, Topaz - the chances are he'll make up another excuse about why he likes Caroline and hates the dirty stage-school ringer brats, even though she technically is one too.