There is a lot of comments about how the competation is over and Ray has "won" it....... well I would keep watching as the chosen one has only actually one once......

Series one, bonnie was third Faye came from behind to get the public vote

Series two Kyran..... because he had both the skill and the personality he won..... the best ever so far....

Series three Chris Fountain.... lost to Suzanne Shaw

I love watching for both the entertainment factor and the ice skating skill .... but more to do with seeing the stars fall on their butt during the rehearsals ...

NB Go Todd ....

Difference is chris and suzanne were very close throughout the series, it was a real tussle between the two of them as to who was gonna be top each week, there was never more than 3 points in it. Anytime he threatened to pull away she went top of the leaderboard or got within a point of him. In week one there was only a point between them and in week 2 she was top... Ray is already miles ahead on his won at this point and itd be a massive shock if he doesnt come top every week.
And Kyran the choosen one? He was tailing Claire alot of the way through the series, fair enough it wasnt by much but he was... The gap was never as big as it is this series though, 4.5 at this stage is massive...
I jus think they got the balance of people completely wrong this year which means it isnt as exciting for me personally to watch as the two last series were, they were brilliant. This series Ray is gonna be outstanding but its only him, theres no real competition, the general standard of the other skaters is very poor compared to other years. They all pushed each other on to do spectacular things esp chris and suzi, there nobody there to push ray.

Personally i'm enjoying this series alot more than last series...

Last series for me was a bit disappointing; the judes/ Pip/ Chris and Jane etc all kept saying the standard was high - it wasn't as all, barring Chris, Suzanne and Zaarah and Gareth (trailing). The others weren't that good.

IMO the standard is quite high this year and whilst Ray is topping at the moment, he has no story to him.

If anything I think Todd is more of a certainty to win than Ray would be,

Ray may be a sure thing for the final, but not for the win

Todd is also a very likeable chap, which won't harm his cause at all!

And below the top two the standard is higher this year than last??? peronally natalie and samantha could wipe the floor with all the girls bar jessica this year, and gareth would beat all the boys very easily bar Ray.
I find this year of a very poor overall standard, I'm very dissppointed, there one brilliant and then a poor chasing pack and as you said an entertaining guy who can hardly stand is the best thing about it. Todd doing well is one thing, and I like Todd but him winning would kill the show, I think he himself would be embarrassed if he did.

Sam and Natalie weren't very good at all - it was all very tentative - Zoe, Melinda and Jessica are all better than them + Coleen's personality wins over them as well. Both Sam and Natalie were completey dull.

Todd is improving though; at the moment saying him winning would be a disaster, but unlike Mr Sergeant, he is kinda improving all the time

I would consider both to be far better skaters technically than zoe, melinda and gemma, I'm talking about the overall standard of skating not personality. Gemma was completely wooden and how zoe and melinda arent tenative i have no idea, melinda wont let go of freds hand... natalies about you now for her first week was about the standard of this years week 3 routines, and i dont like samantha mumba at all but there is no comparison skating wise between her will you still love me tomorrow routine with pavel and what we are seeinfg from the girls.Last year we had a decent overall field, with 2 very good ie zaraah and gareth and two extremely good, chris and suzanne... This year we have Ray who is brilliant, and jessica who is good... and well nobody else at this point, the only other person is Todd! what does that say about the skating, that people are bored with the others and jessica doesnt have a hope at this point either.
I think series 2 and 3 crew would easily beat this year overall as regards a skating contest out on the rink, easily... and they were both actual competitions.
They've got the balance wrong this year... theres no depth, esp amongst the boys.

I'm not so sure about Ray being a sure thing. Whilst he's undoubtably excellent, I think given that he's so good so soon could count against him in the long run on a few counts -

1 - there's no denying the British public love the underdog who doesn't take himself too seriously - could there possibly be a pro-Todd (or someone else) backlash in the wings for Ray?

2 - Jessica is very good; as Jason keeps saying, she needs to let go and allow the emotion in. Similar to Rachel in SCD this year; and there's no way I would have had her rachel placed 2nd overall based on her first few weeks.

3 - the old 'Ray's safe so I'll vote for someone else' scenarion could land him in the skate off. All it takes is one stumble there and you're out!

4 - there's plenty of dark horses still in the competition. I think Zoe, Rozanne, and possibly even Ellery could pull something out of the bag and shock us all.

I think it would take something absolutely massive to happen for Ray not to win, which was never the case in previous series so made them far more interesting...
even if he ends up in the skate off he would have to spend the whole time on his backside for him to go out... Him winning is not an absolute certainty, but it almost is and thats not good for the show, miracles could happen and someone could challenge, but a competition is supposed to be far more open than that and not rely on miracles, like the previous years...
As you said a vote against Ray for Todd would be a backlash, which doesnt suggest much for the standard of the others does it? and it also suggested people would be frustrated with the lack of the competitiveness of the show and werent wowed by the skating, so said sod it i'll vote for todd, that usually stops in series when we are left with 3 to 4 good ones but we're only gonna be left with pretty much one this year so todd could go all the way. Which again doesnt say much for the general standard...
thats the only way i think that he mightnt win. But that means ray wouldnt win because ITV as I said got the balance completely wrong and people just got got hacked off with that or thought that todd was the only entertaining alternative cos all the other skaters underwhelmed and bored them.
This competition seems to be between Ray and Todd, last year it was between Suzanne and Chris and the year before Kyran and Claire, thats enough said about this year really isnt it... no competition unless people decide to mess around.

The competition isn't over and Ray hasn't won.

There's no question that he's the best contestant this year by far and if it was dependent solely on judges' votes then they might as well give him the trophy now.

But there's also the very unpredictable public vote to take into account. After all, the final is based on the public vote only.

It's highly probable he'll be in the final. It's not guaranteed he'll win.

I've got my fingers crossed that there is an upset in the later stages.

I find Ray unbearable and predictable winners make for an anti-climax during the finale.

Come on Jessica, Melinda and Tucker!

They make for an anti climatic series which is poor compared to previous years. The competition isnt completely over but its certainly a way way way poorer one...

In your opinion off course

Of course but I'm not in the minority... the amount of people arguing whether the result is forgone conclusion since week 1, everyone is in agreement that technically he is streaks ahead, and people crossing fingers for an upset or a challanger and the amount of support for todd seems to conclude they dont think its very competitive or a two horse race between two very good skaters at this point either...
The view is that maybe just maybe someone will beat him due to public vote, not by skating better... doesnt speak wonders in terms of getting a good skating contest between a few top class contestants (which we dont have this year) does it? i think the amount of threads on the topic speak for themselves... that best that people can argue is that ray is not absolutely definite, not very open that...

Hello Sid - sad to say we're on different sides.

I love Ray - to me he's just an enthusiastic, excited young man: learning something new and discovering he's very good at it.

The competition will never be predictable whilst the public have the final say - but I do hope there isn't a groundswell of anti Ray feeling to scuttle his chances.

I like Jessica and last night, I finally saw the reason for Coleen's popularity. Todd bless him will be in for a while based on the humourous factor and the sympathy vote. If that's the case good luck to him!

I though Zoe was OK last night - but I'll be surprised if she makes it to the latter stages.

btw went to the SCD tour at the MEN at the weekend - loved it. The perfect package, Rachel and Vincent, were fantastic, as were Jill and Darren and Gethin with his new partner Flavia. Julian danced with Lilia - he was an absolute hoot.

There is no denying that Ray is ahead of thr others in ability. However it is not a certainty that he will win - the public like a story and a journey. Ray started too high to win IMO, bit like Bonnie - the public dont get behind someone who is constantly good all the time, they go for the underdog or the one that needs the help most.

Personally I think The standard is higher this year. Barring Todd. Last year, Aggie and Sarah were bad. Sarah and Samantha lacked any form of attack and didn't gain nowhere near the scores of some of the female celebs this year. Even the men weren't that great last year barring Gareth and Chris. Tim was very bad, Steve and Greg weren't great and Michael broke his ankle. This year whilst the males only have Ray as the one to beat, Ellery and Donal have shown that they have alot of potential when they can get it right.

However thats just my opinion

Yes I think there is zero competition with Ray, unless someone somehow catches up, and yes of course he might not win or there might be an upset, but it surely won't be one based on talent, more a general dislike to him, or people not bothering to vote.

On a personal level I'd rank him about 3rd or 4th last night, but that's because I preferred the partnership of others more and their routines. No doubt about it though he is by far the best on his own merit. I found say, Jessica's routine much more striking to watch than Ray's, despite him being the best overall. I doubt I'm alone so it offers some chance I suppose.

I've said it before but I'd be quite happy if there was no Ray and we were just left with what we have. No one outstanding, but a completely open ended contest. Looking at the leaderboard last night and I actually found it pretty exciting thinking of who could get in the final. Everyone has potential bar Todd. There really is so much scope, and I wouldn't mind so much if we had no Suzanne, Chris, Ray or Clare.

For me Ray is kind of separate at the moment - the rest of the competition is REALLY interesting. Compare this to last year when it was the same top 3 or 4 week in, week out, and in some ways it can be seen as much better.

I will politely disagree... currently in terms of skating the last few years have been two horse races, this year is one horse thats bolted and the only way someones gonna beat him isnt by having a competitive skating contest with him and pushing him, its purely by being better liked than him...
And Bonnie wa in the 1st series which wasnt the best either... last year and the year before were proper skating competitions with at least two excellent skaters, this year has one, the rest as mentioned above are all of the pretty much the same standard (which i view as a pretty one one at this point but anyway) and are fighting it out for second and third... but are not in a competition with ray. Pesonally I'm not particularly interested in who comes fourth so dont see any excitment there, i like to see a battle between a few really good people who push eachother to excel... Ray is separete and then theres the rest... if we took out ray like above it could become more interesting in terms of a contest though yes. It would be great if someone went in who was around the same level though, cos then we'd have a contest and still see great skating, cos i dont think any of the others are capable of that.

Totally agree with that, was just about to say the same.

Greg and Aggie (though amusing), Steve and Tim were pretty unwatchable. Sarah, Natalie and Samantha didn't get a chance to be fair, but it wasn't like they stood out much either. All roughly the same as Gemma Bissix if not worse, though they should have stayed over the first 4 I mentioned. This year however they would be worse than everyone left except Todd - maybe Coleen at a stretch.

I like pretty much EVERYONE left, which is a first, despite no one being brilliant bar Ray.

Todd was funny, but I hope he goes real soon. He's more unstable than Aggie was last year!

Oi Oi Ignazio!

Good to run into my bit of cyber totty again

You lucky devil going to the SCD tour! I think this year's is the best line-up yet. A perfect blend of high quality dancing and great entertainment. What does MEN stand for - I'm sure Julian was in his element

I'm sorry to hear we disagree regarding Ray Would you mind awfully if I wind you up about him all series, only you are so sexy when you get cross!! He just rubs me up the wrong way for some reason. It's a personality issue.

My personal favourites (although I'm not as into DOI as I was SCD) are Melinda, Colleen, Tucker, Zoe and that Irish reporter (Donal?) but that's mainly because of the accent.

MEN - the Manchester Evening News Arena.

Nightmare journey getting there - but well worth it in the end.

I think I've learned to cope with your wind ups - bring it on.

For me Ray, Jess, Zoe. I like Ellery and Donal they're both unassuming and endearing, and last night I found myself warming to Coleen.

Good luck to those I've missed out - they just haven't done much to enthuse me so far - although Todd is a class act for a very different reason.

It's very early days isn't it? Hard to pick favourites at this stage. I like them all apart from Jeremy and Ray (oops!) - one down, one to go!!!

I've been half watching as well, but will get into it properly next week. I like that it's on Sunday eves, which are pretty boring otherwise!

I think Ray is way ahead of all the others which does make it a pretty dull competition.

However, things change, take Austin on SCD for example.

Not a Ray fan, bit shifty for my tastes but he has definitely got hotter, when did that happen?

I guess he's growing up!

I haven't watched anything else he's been in so I didn't like or dislike him in advance but I like his attitude about DOI. My feeling is that he comes across much better than either Gemma or Jeremy did.


Quite right, too!

Link

My only complaint is that it'll take something very unexpected for him not to be in the final and at this early stage of the competition I'd like there still to be a question about who the finalists will ultimately be but I certainly don't blame him for that.