I see, sorry. I thought you were talking about dancing ability. No, there are some people the Strictly viewers just don't warm to for whatever reason, and Gabby and Kirsty definitely fall into that category.

It's the "presenter attitude." They are used to speaking to the public with an "air of authority," (even if it is a load of bollox on occasions), so they don't come across as particularly personable.
Maybe away from the camera they're a bit different, but unfortunately for them, on Strictly the camera is always there, so they revert to type.

Most disappointed in Iwan. He was awful in his two dances and did not come across well at all. Surprised that Jamelia and Peter, who were picked out by quite a few on the forum as talents after the first group dance, fared so poorly.

I was disappointed that Ainslie left so quickly but delighted that Jeremy stayed long enough to become a joy, so swings and roundabouts with these two.

yeah...plenty of 'runners up' for this 'award'...anthony,jamelia,helen,iwan......

Carol to some extent. I had hoped she would be more of a Pamela Stephenson type.

Also, definately Iwan. Anthony too, but he was injured and shouldn't have been taking part in the first place.

Peter Andre - by a long way but I cant help but feel he would have done better had he been with a different pro - sorry

bib: Agreed, especially Anthony.

Kirsty. In winning the Games she showed she had the ability to easily pickup and show great skill in a number of physical activities so I was surprised she found dance so difficulty. Brendan may have been to blame as he doesn't seem to show the enthusiasm he once had but I was stunned at her lack of improvement.

Overwhelmingly Anthony, especially since on the launch show I recognised him as a pleasant enough character from the Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack show years back (Memo to self: resolution for 2016 - get out more!).

After a sketchy jive to open, which at least showed Oti to be a stellar acquisition to the show, that one-armed asinine boxing-themed Paso was painful to watch. There was some appalling cack in that week two - 3 awful cha-cha's included - so I wonder if the harsh scoring (even Len only gave him a 5) was an early attempt to nudge the outcome Jameliagate style.

Gabby didn't have the same nerves Kirsty had so I don't see much comparison.

jay, without a doubt.

peaked in week three, and thereafter failed to improve or even live up to his previous performance. plus the bizarre man-child personality.

A few, Peter could have been better, had he listened or Janet focused more on technique, he was half way there to begin with, however he never changed his way of performing, which isn't ballroom or latin.

But my biggest let down is maybe a strange one for some as it's Jay.

He had the potential from his first dance to be the best dancer we've ever seen on the show, he had huge amounts of technique already, the ability to turn and good arms and feet. He came out of himself on week three, but never reached that standard again and just never got anywhere near to what his talent would have allowed.
He ended up being a more average winner whose top performance was week three. For me that's a big let down.

Mainly, Kirsty and Anthony.

With Kirsty, although the most expected her to be a contender, I did have a hunch she would be like Rachel Riley or Victoria Pendelton. She seemed very stiff, uncomfortable all the time and in her Salsa and Charleston she looked plain terrified! She did she huge potential with her Viennese Waltz, only to be let down and eliminated the next week.

Anthony did have an injury, so I was expecting him to be middle of the road. I think I'm one of the few people who enjoyed his Week 1 Jive, and I agree with Craig, he is the best boxer on the show. The injury did him in, sadly. I think leaving in Week 2 was waaaaaaay too early though, I was thinking Week 6 would be his time. Also, I loved Oti!

Then, these two were somewhat OK, but I still thought they would be better.

Jamelia looked amazing at the launch show group dance, and in pretty much every single group dance she did. I thought her Waltz was severely undermarked but her Cha Cha Cha wasn't up to par. Part of me thinks that she just wasn't paying attention in training. I think she's one of those who dances better on their own- look at her Charleston! Also Jameliawozrobbed.

Then we had Peter Andre, who the judges overmarked week after week (apart from Charleston). I don't think he was the right build, I think he was too.....manly? Just didn't have the right build for most dances, and THAT Jive (the bad one) really showed that.

Peter for me .I expected he would be really good,and the judges kept telling us how good he was,and he just wasnt .I also thought I would like him as a person,as he seemed so popular in the press,but he came across as a bit fake.

saying Peter Andre is a bit fake is like saying window dummies are not very alive or that leprosy is a bit of a drag.

No doubt it will be an unpopular theory but I tend to think that Aliona didn't make the best of him, dancewise. She choreographed to his strengths rather than getting him to do more of (and thereby improve upon) the things that he did less well (ballroom hold, for example), possibly because she likes "contempowafty" stuff, which Jay does well, and, dare I say it . his great shaping provides a rather good backdrop for his female partner ........

I voted for him, I wanted him to win, I thought he was way the best dancer (but not the best ballroom dancer) but I was left feeling that there was a whole lot of untapped potential still there.

I can understand why some people think like that. Personally, having seen what Aliona is capable of with a talented complete untrained guy like Harry, I would say that she did what she could with Jay. He is a talented natural dancer not a natural ballroom dancer like Harry, who is great on hold, not so much out of it. (I am a fan of both.) the pros can't really create anything out of nothing in 15 weeks, they just can unearth what is already there.

Also, I believe nerves and natural clumsines, not to speak of not an easy time outside of the show (bereavement, trash on the papers...) limited him more than we think throughout. By the training of the VW and what he did on the show, we know that he had the right footwork, it just went out of the window on the show. That is hardly Aliona's fault.

I sort of agree with everyone on this- I absolutely adored this partnership, was over invested in them, and followed every thread and detail - so when I saw the show dance, I was 'ooh, tango,ooh,argentine, ooh, Charleston etc' and was as gutted as them when the judges basically said 'boring, was expecting more'.
However, many of my friends,who are strictly fans, but don't spend as much time on here as I do, pretty much said the same - they loved Jay and thought he was great,and were expecting him to really cut loose in the show dance and blow their socks off, and were quite disappointed.
So I think that knowing the reasoning behind the choice of show dance and why it meant so much, affected how I saw it, compared to 'other people' who maybe didn't know the background.
Also, 'whisper' Harry was better at ballroom in hold on the show than Jay - although Jay definitely has more than the edge out of hold/freestyle/Latin.
I don't know how much it has to do with the fact that Jay actually wanted and planned to be a professional dancer originally, and so took the whole thing more seriously, and put himself under more pressure than maybe Harry did. Plus the beautiful connection between him and Aliona so the wish to do well for her sake, bereavement,press etc
So no, I wasn't disappointed really......rambling now, sorry!

I do get what you both mean, and perhaps it would be fairer to say that Aliona wasn't able to make the best of what she had through circumstance. I do hope that Jay continues to dance because I found his performances utterly mesmerising.