At the beginning I wasn't really taken with Jodie at all; or her partnership with Ian. However over the last few weeks, she has completely turned me around and she is one of my favourite couples (Dare I say the J Word )

However sometime soon she is going to be exposed to the horrors of the Jive, Samba or Salsa - which lets face it could be very car crash TV due to her height.

Do you think Jodie has built up enough of a fanbase now in order to conquer these dances and progress far in the competition, or do you think that as soon as she hits fast latin (bit like Cherie) she will be out?

Personally I think she's going to have a bit of a tough time with it, but I think she'll be able to do it and come out somewhere near the top

I think it's going to be difficult for anyone to beat Austin. I don't necessarily agree with those who see the contest as wide open.

She's a candidate for the j-word...I'm sure the producers are busting a corset to push that storyline....but only if she can deliver competently enough across the range of dances.

Jodie wont win but has made incredible progress and even personally seems very very sweet

It'll be interesting (I hope not painful...) to see how she copes with samba, jive, salsa... I think if she can make it through to the two-dances-per-week stage then she might survive a surprising number of weeks as she might be able to make up for lacklustre Latin with good ballroom.

At this stage I think it's all to play for, and she might just manage to do better than expected in the fast Latin, if she does then I think she will win more support (as it's generally expected that she will be a bit pants at them) even if she's not excellent... she seems to have a good attitude to the show, she's working hard and she's improving even if she's not the best, so I think it's a promising show so far and she may go further than anyone would have predicted in the early stages.

I hope she has good support so as it is my favourite/most endearing partnership of the series (After frankly not being a special Ian fan and thinking that I wouldn't warm to her at all even after the preview show). That said, on present form I can't expect her to win though I hope she will last for quite some time yet.

Zoe Ball did one of the best Samba routines ever with Ian (and I wasn't a fan of hers) but was tall herself, so I don't think height has to be a problem.

In the first girl's group dance I thought Jodie looked absolutely terrible, but week by week she's really impressed me. Not only with her improvement with dancing, but her general easy going nature and relationship with Ian. She accepts criticism with grace and humour and doesn't look as desperate as others to win.

Ummm, much as I love her, I don't think she can win. I don't think she's ever going to conquer the Latin and she's running out of elegant dances to wow people with, she's done AS and waltz, so she's only got VW left I think, she's too gangly to do a Quickstep, her limbs are too long.

But I hope she gets to the final and I've really got my fingers crossed that her jive is not a car crash!

No. They have already engraved Austin's name on the glitter ball.

Of course she can win! As long as she keeps improving and performing and the judges start marking fairly

I don't know, I'm sure other tall people have managed creditable QSs.

I think if her fast Latins are OK-ish then she will probably get credit from the public who will be expecting car-crash, so I do hope she exceeds expectations. It will depend partly on choreo - Ian let Penny down a bit last year in jive and salsa (not that he choreo'd the salsa but he should have foreseen difficulties) by having routines that showed her weaknesses up too much. But he's capable on a good day of doing a great job tailoring the choreography to his celeb, and he clearly adores Jodie (bless!) so fingers crossed he will be on the ball to produce great routines that suit her.

As much as I really like Ian and Jodie has grown on me cant see her even making semi to be honest

I hope not, as we don't want any of the horsey set winning SCD do we?...................................

Denise Lewis is a good example of someone tall, with long limbs who did a good quickstep IIR

Ian is doing fab routines for her so fingers crossed she can carry on as long as possible- I'd love to see her in the final

in a word, no - although I love her and am totally bored with Austin

I'm glad she's being taken to peoples bosoms becasue I was a bit concerned that class might come into it and she might get tarred with 'posh bitch' jelousy. I think that the first dance off may have had some of that vibe but as the weeks have gone on the normal girl has been discovered. I think she is the most down to earth of all of the girls.

as for winning it all depends on Brendon! but i certainly think she might be 2nd best girl.

I thought her make up was much better this week as they have a tendancy to over do her slap.

I'm very much encouraged at this weeks top9 elimination game!

Yeah but there's tall and then there's Jodie tall - she is a quite exceptional height for a woman. She's almost as tall as Ian!


You've got to remember that this forum generally isn't that great an indication of popularity.

I really like Jodie and think she does beautiful ballroom but I suspect she might be a 'so near yet so far' person. I can't see her ever quite getting it in the latin dances that remain.

A bit much to ask for

I don't think Jodie will win, as much as I like her, but I think she could get a long way... her personality and the great partnership with Ian may carry her through when her dancing lets her down (if it does) on the latin ones.

I am looking forward to seeing her next latin one and see what improvement she has made, because I reckon it will be quite a bit and may surprise some people.

their waltz was way undermarked

Seeing as my other favourites (John, Rachel and Christine) don't seem destined to make th final, I'd love to see Jodie there alongside Austin.

Unfortunately, I think it might be Lisa instead

IMO her last 3 dances have been undermarked whilst the chosen women (Rachel and Cherie) have been overmarked

Probably not - but much depends on how she copes with the fast latin - i.e this week were she will have to do one will show us. I think she's like last year's so-called dark horse Leticia in that she'll get to the quarter (or possibly one better into the semi) but not the actual final. I'd loved to be proved wrong though as I really like her.

ditto.

She's a lovely girl, and she'll go further than she thought she would - she'll be very happy with that.

If she continues to improve, can do a convincing job in the latin dances, and has the wind behind her, she might make the semi-finals.

Nope, she has about as much chance of winning as a termite has of surviving an Aardvark convention.

I don't think she's good enough or is as consistent as some others. I expect her next fast Latin will be poor.

Agreed. I think she is terrific.
Stranger things happen though, you never know she might surprise us with her jives and things.

Austin will win :yawn:

I hear this every year and it's simply not true. The year Ramps won, he was way ahead on every week's favourite poll and Emma hardly had any votes. Sure enough, Emma went out as soon as the judges scores couldn't save her anymore, and Ramps went on to victory.

Similarly, Alesha was very popular on these boards and went on to win. Even in the BB forums, the eventual winner almost always tops their polls.

Looking at the polls this year, I'd say Tom has no chance once it comes down to the public vote, despite being quite a competant dancer.