Whatever was the matter with Daniel O'Donnell tonight? He was like a zombie and why the judges gave him fairly high marks is beyond me.

Probably because they expected him to be a lot worse than he was! He was a bit wooden but his footwork was actually OK.

He was better than I expected.

I think he was just really concentrating. I thought he was ok.

I like Daniel, I thought he did OK too

He needs to lay off the fillers. They make his face look as blank as the Rachelbot's

It doesn't look like he wears a lot of make up to me.

His dance reminded me of the waltz Kristina did with John Sergeant - and it all went downhill from there. In fairness to DD, though, I have to say his footwork was probably better than Kristina's.

He's like a corpse without the embalming fluid

I thought Daniel did ok a bit wooden I agree but in fairness Daniel had been talking about being nervous in the newspapaers, he was by no means the worse that was Carol in my opinion any way.

I thought he did quite well. He's going to be around for quite a while

He didn't do too badly I thought last night. He will survive in the competition down to his large fanbase.

Daniel is a Zombie, he has no personality, his face is expressionless & IMO an average singer.
Gawd knows why on earth he has a huge following, I've been completely puzzled for years over his popularity

He did better than I was expecting - I thought he was OK to be honest. He was obviously very nervous which is understandable. I am happy to make allowances for all of them the first day. His problem will come with the Latin dances, can't see him being comfortable with those.

Don't suppose you have ever been to one of his sell-out shows then?
And how on earth can you assume that he has no personality simply after watching him dance a single waltz?

I have seen many of his shows on TV and I find him bland and lacking charisma

At first look, he does appear to be bland and even 'lacking in charisma', but his wit and humility combine to make him quite endearing (I say this as someone who's observed him on Irish TV over the years, and gone from thinking 'yuk!' to 'ah, there's our Daniel'). His musical style would be way too middle-of-the-road for me.

I do fear that his humour might not come across on Strictly, though. Would love to see him loosen up a bit and surprise us all!

He didn't do bad for the first attempt, but he did look rather stiff/staid. Imo he dances how he speaks... laid back ( irritating) I don't think Kristine will have much fun with Daniel....

Actually, if I had to describe him (from what I've seen and heard over the years) in a handful of words I'd choose....kind, generous, earnest, self-deprecating, measured, SUBTLE, and fun.

But on these shows, contestants have to let the public see their personality - that's possibly going to be a big challenge for DOD.

He was better than I expected.

Compared to some of the people who have been on Strictly before who were expected to be rubbish e.g. Ann Widdecombe / John Sergeant types . He actually danced some steps for the entire song, instead of faffing around for half the song with his partner dancing round him.

You are right I haven't seen him live, but I have seen him perform lots of times on tv and watched a few youtube vids. I still stand by my opinion

Because technically it was actually a decent waltz. There was good content and his footwork was ok. He was a bit flat footed but doing heel leads (unlike Helen who was on her toes throughout from what I could see).

I thought Daniel went completely wrong last night. I'm surprised nobody picked up on it. He started off really well and then halfway through something went wrong and he lost it. It seemed clear to me that Kristina had to improvise for the last part of the dance, and judging from her reaction and comments afterwards it seemed like he'd messed up.

I've just watched it again. Can't see where you thought he went "completely wrong". It was a pretty decent effort for a first attempt at a waltz as far as I could tell and I didn't see any glaring errors. That said, I am not a ballroom dancer myself so I can only gauge it from how it looked to me. I suspect that most viewers are not experts either but the judges are. Only Craig referred to any significant error - a wrong hand grip, I think it was.

What did you see that you thought was so obvious?

On the evidence of last night, I would have to agree.
But it's weird, he is regarded as a cultural icon in Ireland. His Wiki entry says he is known for his "charismatic and engaging stage presence". Presumably there must be something to the guy that we haven't seen yet ?

Maybe they haven't updated his wiki since the lobotomy?