Hmmmm...very good question; didnt even think about it. Yes definitely. He still would have won; mostly because of his personality and because the others male contenders would have been dubbed as " arrogants " especially Danny but he wouldn't have been a runaway favorite. I liked Jay last year but he was the overwhelming favorite ( the others didnt even stand a chance ' He could have literally fall over and still won ).
Having watched this show since season 2 , I have NEVER seen a contestant gather THAT much support; even Harry Judd.

I think Jay would walk it this year too tbh for the simple reason that from very early on he made a connection with the public the like of which I've not seen before & the fact he was a pretty good dancer on top of that was a bonus for him!!
As a Georgia fan myself, obviously I would have liked to see her win but it became obvious from very early in last year's competition that we were playing for second place, and I don't mean anything bitchy or unpleasant about that as I liked Jay, but it was just a fact & I can't see it would have been any different this year personally!!

Lol!!
Me too Star!!

NO way Hosay Still did not think much of his dancing last year just a ground swell of popularity that could not be halted with passable dancing

In the end, he won through popularity. Winning doesn't require you to be the best dancer.
There are other things which people vote for.

Jay and Aliona were also a great team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E00cXloG9z0

BIB
I think that is the main reason Jay won. Whatever it is about him, it does appeal to many people. I'm an Aliona fan so inherited Jay initially, but he is very likeable - and different. I could tell very early on that he and Aliona had compatible personalities.

This video illustrates that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yxmld3aP4w

I haven't seen this one before thank you for posting, really highlights their special bond and jays growth over the weeks.

Passable dancing?? He was an excellent dancer, he made a few mistakes along the way but when he got it right he was brilliant. And was such a likeable person, he had no ego and made no excuses.

Hi Collaw good to see you & thanks for your recent PM!! Been busy recently but will try what you suggested & let you know how I get on!! Cheers!!

Ah, it's lovely seeing the Jay and Aliona clips again.

At this stage last year I knew nothing about the Wanted and I'd have said Jay was nervous and sweet and I hoped he would come out of his shell. It was his second dance that really won me over. Supporting Jay was a real series of ups and downs - it was certainly never boring. I think he is lovely, magic to watch and particularly for me there was something beautiful about the way he and Aliona danced together. Whether the partnership works is so important and it's too early to say that with this year's couples. It's very early days altogether to say how this year's lot compares.

It will sound weird but I don't think I want to like another couple the way I loved Jay and Aliona last year - it's too much. It made my support of previous favourite couples feel balanced and restrained! I'd be quite happy not to be too invested this year, much as I loved every J&A dance last year.

Their partnership was special.

I agree with you about not being as invested this year, I could not go through that again. I have my favourite couple but keeping it low key at the moment, this may change as the series goes on

I currently have around half a dozen favourites this year, which is much more relaxing.

I don't even think I will mind as they get picked off one by one, and they will all have to take their turn with my free votes.

I couldn't decide which way to vote in this poll, though - I wouldn't have minded which year Jay danced, as long as he got the same pro partner.

They would have won ANY year in my opinion, nothing to do with who was the best dancer (although I happen to think he was after he had got over his nervousness) - they were just so lovely to watch & most of the voting public agreed.
I loved him from the launch show when he looked so overawed, & I worried he'd go out in the 1st week because i didn't know how may fans he would have at that stage. To see him grow like he did was pure joy that i know we will never see again!!
Id vote for him in both years in the poll! He'd still win again! and again!

Honestly, whether you think that Jay is the best male celebs ever or just mediocre or that this year line up is more competitive in dancing abilities, the truth is many times the best dancer doesn't win but the one that captures the imaginations of the voting viewers.
It's impossible to say whether he would have been as popular with this line up, personally I am Glad he was in last year, just because this 2016 line up has other strong men. Last year would have been like 2013, with four women finalist, which was a bit uneven.

Also he didn't bemoan the fact that he had a family bereavement right in the middle of the series. This has never been referred to by Jay at all.

Other people complain when they have a cold!

Different strokes for different folks. If Peter Andre or Jamelia had stayed on having decided to put the dancing before the bereavement, they would have been castigated for being selfish and having enormous egos which even a death in the family could not challenge.

The more cynical among us could also argue that Jay had a very strong inkling (as did the majority of the Strictly audience) that he would win so made a conscious decision not to allow the death to affect his goal.

Everyone will surely come out in his defence now; but the truth is we can all speculate as much as we like...nobody but Jay knows what REALLY went on there...

I liked him on ITT. Genuinely wayward guy. His severed baby comment gave rise to the thread which is my absolute highlight on DS. All the better for being modded and closed. It was simply too good to last. You had to be there.

But I didn't especially enjoy Jay's presence on the show beyond ITT and the pleasure of waiting for his brain to throw off its glorious weirdness, so I'm rather glad he's in The Past.

Jay may well have been far & away the most popular dancer last year, but according to the leaderboard he wasn't always the best dancer each week, which made it fair on those terms. J&A only topped the leaderboard 3 times, so as far as the judges were concerned, he wasn't a racing cert; Georgia and Kellie also topped it 3x.

And it's only in hindsight that people were able to say it was "obvious" he was going to win, because I for one was pretty sure it was going to be Georgia. Ever since Abbey Clancey, Chris Hollins and Darren Gough won, I've never had any faith in the Bookies predicting correctly, so all series have been exciting in their unpredictability to me.

People soon forget the dancers incorrectly touted as "the obvious winners" and only the correct predictions get remembered or quoted.

As for how Jay would fare in series 14- it's still far too soon to tell who's caught the public imagination; Danny's clearly the best so far, but that's no guarantee of anything, and he might get scuppered by "the peoples' champion" as yet to be revealed.

Not a true statement of fact by a long chalk..

I predicted his win from the moment he danced that jive. No, it wasn't because the bookies told me so, neither did I have a crystal ball to gaze into. I predicted it because it was not only "obvious" but blatantly so (to me) from that moment on - and, at the time, I stated it loudly and clearly in these forums in 100+ different ways. It was the apparent "year of the man" and once Week 3 hit, Jay may as well have said to the others "eat my dust!"

I should have made myself clearer: there will be plenty of individuals who correctly called it for Jay, but taken as a whole there were plenty of people at the time who thought Georgia or Kellie could win it; it's those predictions which I meant got forgotten. Here on DS it was mostly for Jay, but amongst my friends and colleagues, most of them though it was going to be Georgia or Kellie. Posters on DS are only a tiny fraction of the 10m viewing public.

Jay would get his A.. kicked by Danny this year.

Exactly. I don't really agree with people saying that no contestant has ever gathered so much support etc. It may have seemed that way on here, but in the real world he didn't seem hugely more popular than loads of other winners. I felt more sure that Tom (who I couldn't stand), Darren and Chris were going to win their years than I did Jay (who I liked and did vote for some weeks).

I think it's hard to say whether Jay would've been so popular in this year's line-up. People think Jay's jive sealed his win, but if Danny had done that cha cha already, or maybe another great jive in week 3, would it have looked so impressive? Contestants are judged in comparison to those around them and might develop completely differently depending on what their competition is doing, so it's very hard to just say 'Jay would win whatever 'cos he was so popular'.

Your basing this all on one dance?

It wasn't just because he was popular on here....from the cheers he got every week he was introduced, to the youtube viewing numbers, he came out not just ahead on every possible poll, but by a huge margin. He was never in the bottom two. I was like you, I was only ever hoping for a place in the final for GG (who I supported) and I accepted that nomatter how amazing they were going to dance. In some ways it made the show a bit more boring for me, but in other ways there were no big disappointments on the night, you could just sit back and enjoy the dancing.