tbh I doubt it very much - the only man who could challenge her for a personality bypass is, imo, Jeremy.

Of course Todd is much worse - but he does have a likeability factor that Gemma lacks.

Why is everyone assuming that Gemma would have lasted longer had it not been for the single sex weeks? Her score was the third worst over both weeks and, let's face it, neither Todd nor Colleen were ever going to be first out.

Looking at Gemma's debut, she has little to complain about. She looked as though her legs were made of jelly whenever she was on the ice. This was probably nerves and she may well have been a better skater than she showed but the first couple of weeks of a show like this are always a bit of a lottery and if you mess up early on you often don't get a chance to show what you can really do. Tough maybe, but them's the breaks. Plus, if you're going to have a vt like Gemma did, you'd better make sure you follow up with a performance and she just didn't. I reckon she might well have been first out even if the sexes hadn't been split.

Probably because she has the sort of personality (at least in positive mode she's bubblier than anyone else there and as determined as almost anyone) that does well and had the build and physique to do well. It was also odd that they lost one of the few people who will get them taboid coverage and had a competition story running which is important when you need ratings. You would think they would have someone who was good enough to stay in that role. They have tried to sell Zoe as the Sun's totty interest but I don't see that working and no one in the media has much interest in anyone else but perhaps Roxanne.

I can see why she went out to Melinda who was also undermarked but I don't think Roxanne was better, Coleen was worse and 4 of the boys are more expendable and less able. Its a bit of a waste as it leaves only Zoe and Melinda to close the gap on Jessica and height or age are not on their side.

On another thread you said you support Colleen. These two statements are hard to justify unless you are saying you think Colleen was a good skater.

Coleen looked more comfortable on the ice than Gemma did.

I feel sorry for Andrei. Gemma was awful - bad skater and bad personality. At least that is how she came across to us.

Not in my opinion. Or indeed the judges who marked Colleen as the worst, but I guess thats all water under the bridge now.

Coleen was not that great. She has the lunchtime crowd support which is huge. I agree about about a lot of the boys being expendable.


I pesonally thought Claire came across very well, not a simpering girlie girl but a confident young woman

Just a quick query. do you always agree with the judges markings? Besides which the cumulative difference over 5 judges, between Gemma and Colleen was just half a mark, hardly a gaping chasm of difference in ability in the judges opinions. Melinda was given 2 and a half marks over Gemma by the judges so in that case, of those in the skate off, the right person went home. Even if Colleen had been in ths skate off with Gemma (the bottom two on the judges scores ) I'm not sure Gemma would have stayed.

Well I'm not arrogant enough to think I know more about skating then an olympic champion like Robin Cousins, or former British champions like Karen Barber and Nick Slater. If they say Colleen was worse then who am I to disagree?

Half a mark or half a million she was still ranked as the worst. And the judges noted that both Melinda and Gemma improved during the skate-off. I'm not sure of Colleen can improve and I'm quite confident she would have went.

My argument is that Colleen will be this series John Sergeant or Aggie McKenzie. Maybe Gemma wasn't streets ahead, but what happens when contestants who ARE streets ahead, like Roxanne or Zoe start losing out to Colleen (and we know this will happen there are so many precedents in public vote series). That when a series starts becoming farcical I'm afraid ......

see ya then.close the door behind you.

But you disagreed with them keeping Melinda and sending Gemma home - you can't have it both ways!

I can't see Colleen ever winning a judges vote over Zoe who has some pretty fine technical skating skills but unless Roxanne can up the skating content (and I'm sure she will) there's always a chance that she'll go if up against Zoe or Jessica or Melinda in a skate-off.

Sadly for you, if the majority of voters would like to see Colleen stay then she will. The alternative would be to have it on judges votes alone and then there probably wouldn't be a show (and we'd have Jason with even more power to decide things)

Bizarre. I've never thought people would actually be interested if I decided to stop watching a programme. Maybe I should announce to everyone that I've stopped watching Corrie, and BB?

I'm sure everyone will be fascinated.

I don't think Coleen was THAT bad - for me it's under-confidence (she looked OK when she was training before she had the melt-down) and I think she could surprise yet.....

Also I didn't think that Roxanne was so much farther ahead than the others. Just Zoe appeared the most natural to me.

Have to take issue with this. Where did I say this I would like you to show me. I think Melinda was superior to Gemma on both dances and deserved to stay, my problem is that she was also superior to Colleen. EVERYONE was superior to Colleen and she should have been in the skate-off. What happens there would depend on her performance.

As I have argued even if Gemma wasn't substainally better than Colleen, if the GBP continue to vote out of sympathy there will come a time when two vastly superior skaters, who have worked just as hard, will have to go into a skate off to accomodate Colleen / Todd. That is the John Sergeant situation again, it is the Emily Symons situation, it is the Aggie McKenzie situation, it is the Kate Garraway situation, the Penny Smith "joke" (Just the Two of Us), the re-emergence of Chris Parker to the final of SCD, it is border line patronising

Morning Eternal,


it's supposed to be but like all these shows people vote for theri Favourites to Win, i'm guilty of that as well i dont care if someone else is better i vote for my Favourite and i thinlk loads do as well , many vote just because they come from their area you see it all the time through the show they show masses of people just supporting the person from their area.

My apologies - maybe I mixed you up with another poster on another thread. I'm glad you agree Melinda deserved to stay.

I just think it is a little early after the very first show to assume a) that the public are only voting for Coleen out of sympathy (which I dont believe they are) and b) that they'd continue to do so.

I don't think any of the so-called 'joke' contestants (and I think Coleen was far from a joke contestant) have actually won any of these competitions have they? In the final event I think most people do vote for the best but if they want to have a bit of fun along the way and vote for whoever they most enjoy watching for whatever reason at all, then that's what will happen. Since it's by majority I don't see that changing the way these things are decided would please more people.

The alternative is to have only the judges votes counting and that's no fun and you'd probably lose a lot of the audience. It 's the fact of having that opportunity to pick your favourite and challenge the judges opinions that get's most people watching. Not me though - I watch because I'm a skating fanatic!

The European skating championships are on Eurosport this week so if you want proper competition I recommend watching them. John and Sinead Kerr are doing well for the UK.

I didn't think Gemma was a good skater at all and I didn't think any of the female celebs were 'dreadful'.

Having watched her on Good Morning after she was voted off, I suspect Gemma would got on my nerves pretty quickly tbh. I didn't take to her at all.