Originally Posted by yohinnchild:
“In series 1, the front runners were John Barrowmen and Bonnie Langford; one was eliminated in Week 4, the other came 3rd.
Gaynor who was in the dance off week 1 + won the thing
In Series 2, whilst Kryan was always considered good, she turned good into excellent to snatch the win from the early leader Clare
In Series 3, Chris and to a certain extent Gareth were the front runners, Suzanne was almost an underdog to win until she got to two 30's.
My point is that the early faves rarely win these shows. I would say the winner would more likely be someone like Zoe, Ellery or at an extreme long shot Melinda.
I don't think you can say for certain after seeing them perform just once”
Bonnie and John are both regarded as annoying though -Bonnie wasn't beaten on ability - the winner had less. Its possible this series might revert to that model but the front runners are not that annoying (though some people have a problem with Ray)
Clare could never catch Kyran with a hunk body and a hunk into dancer story even if she did out dance him in the final.It was a two horse race though. They shared weeks with the top mark over the series as the ability gap wasn't that great and Kyran looked either a credible second or someone who had taken over the lead well before the final. I don't see anyone but Jessica and Ray in those two roles. Ellery isn't that close and doesn't look as if he can close. Ray doesn't have the story but has other strengths Kyran lacked and Jessica isn't as good as Clare but their opposition may be weaker too.
People assumed Gareth had a vote but series three was always between Chris and Suzanne and it was clear from the start what they were each good at and likely to compete on. She would be daring and might give better dancing performances, he was the faster skater who might do more tricks. He had enough weaknesses and she had enough daring to make it turn out much as it did if she could pull it out.
The obvious one this series who might push the two front runners out of the way on daring do or get close to Jessica is Zoe. Zoe though is going to have to find a way to impress like Suzanne and Claire when the exciting lifts will be more difficult because of her height. If she pulls it off or finds a way to win without doing the same lifts she will deserve to win. Not sure what there is she can do though. Melinda may have potential too but she has an even bigger gap to close.
IT looks like a predictable outcome (Ray over Jessica) to me unless Zoe can find a style that suits her build and can still win people over or someone else makes big leaps or someone wins for not skating that well but being popular. There's some potential for something novel there, much for something predictable and rather too much for someone winning with dire or unexciting skating.
Agree its early too tell on many issues (Zoe in a bigger lift? Ray in an overhead lift?) but on the other hand I don't remember watching the start of series two or three and thinking how few people were any good after 4-5 weeks.
), and a good female in Jessica who already look like being shoo ins for the final and two good second placers in Ellery and Zoe - the rest are just cannon fodder for the panel to pick off one by one. It remains to be seen how they get on when competing against each other in a mixed group, and how the public take to them.
