If Todd's competitors and the judges continue to snipe at our Todd, they will just be shooting themselves in the foot.


The Great British Public will get behind Todd, and pledge him their support all the way to the final, and then on to take the crown.

the attacks on Todd started week 1 when he got through

It could be because no one likes being told how to vote or what to think. There is a slew of posts and threads on here saying how Todd is the best thing since - oh wait - not sliced bread, but John Sargent!! Not everyone agrees and the more it's forced down their throats the more anti they become.

Nothing wrong with backing your boy incidently, I've enjoyed watching him too, but to go from zero to hero ( in skating terms ) *just* because he's the underdog is as unlikely as Todd escaping negative comments on these threads I'm afraid AJ.

Drumming up a groundswell of support is one thing; but the second the backlash starts does *not* mean everyone in the world is against your favourite; it just means that others have a different pov, and you need to accept that.

He is not the underdog.

People voted for him because that routine was absolutely hilarious and right up there joint top of the leaderboard for entertainment value (albeit unintentional).

If those who really don't like him could manage to keep their vitriolic thoughts to themselves, he will never be "The Underdog", he will just be another celebrity who can't skate and gets voted off because he's not as good as the others.

I don't think the Dancing on Ice judges would even remotely consider the kind of demeaning behaviour that resulted in the mess over on SCD so the situation is not the same. I just hope that the other competitors don't come over all bitchy in public and get people's backs up.

SilverofDiamond

whoa, hang on a minute! I'm not putting a downer on Todd!
I have got no problem with him a) being in the show b) staying in the show as long as the public want to keep him there.
But suggesting people keep their opinions to themselves, afterall opinion is just opinion IF it means saying something about Todd you don't like is somewhat unrealistic and unfair. There's an old quote about not agreeing with what you say, but defending your right to say it...

And as far as SCD goes, I also take your point about the judges, but my comment was actually about JS's own behaviour. I would agree that the judges were perhaps a little un-necessarily personal though; but I still don't have to like JS because they were being uncalled for.

As for your last point, again I would agree, but unfortunately I think M. Underwood has scotched that plan from what I see this morning. Shame. ( no sarcasm )

peace out

Why would the GBP do that?


If people do the opposite of what they're "told" to do, they're still being driven by what they're "told" to do.

And why would opposing the judges and co be the most important thing to them? I'll vote for ones I want to stay in because I want to see more of their skating, not to support someone just because some irritating people dislike them or "snipe" at them.

Yep, not disagreeing with that either ! However, not everyone will apply the same level of logic or common sense, Veri.

He is the "underdog" in terms of the judges' marks, though, and the "sniping" that's being complained about.

Different people had different reasons for voting for him. We don't know how much was because they genuinely enjoyed his performance vs how much was for other reasons, but a fair amount of it clearly is for other reasons.

Now, why would bitchiness about Todd in particular get people's backs up -- one of the "other reasons", btw -- so that they vote to keep him in? Bitchiness about other celebs doesn't seem to do that.

Some on both "sides" are already seeing him as another John Sergeant. People who are interested in the ice dancing are worried that he'll get the same sort of support as JS and so stay and stay and stay while better skaters go out. And people who want to "show" or wind up the judges (or the viewers who support the better skaters), or to get rid of celebs who "take it too seriously", or have any of a number of other "anti" reasons, are seeing Todd as another opportunity.

The Sergeant affair changed the rules, so to speak.

For example, before JS, this forum, and the SCD one, were generally in favour of getting rid of the poor skaters / dancers and were annoyed when they kept being saved. There was speculation that there was an anti-judge vote, but most the vote might just have been people supporting their favourite when their favourite was most in danger.

With JS, the balance of opinion changed, to the point where those who want to keep the better skaters / dancers over the poorer ones may even be a minority; and there clearly is an "anti" vote, and it's a strong one too.

John Sergeant played to the "anti" vote, which helped increase it; but now that the idea is in people's minds, Todd doesn't have to play to that vote, because he'll get it automatically.

Of course he's the underdog because he's really not very good at staying.

If the GBP choose to vote for him as their favourite he's still the underdog as far as the show is concerned, the public just have the opportunity to allow said doggy to win

It is also worth remembering, that John Sergeants faithful army of fans, have still not fully recovered from their previous wounds, and could well be in the process of regrouping to stage another campaign with Todd as their figurehead.

This is only an observation, and may well be wide of the mark, but somehow I have a feeling that the Great British Public are in a mood to flex their muscles, and any attacks on our Todd by either the other competitors or the judges, will only serve to antagonize the Great British Public, and strengthen their resolve.

It will be very interesting to see how it pans out tonight if Todd decides to perform his,

latest ' Swimming on Ice' routine.

Good luck Todd we are all looking forward to it.

Because he seems to be a really nice guy, he's very very well known, has an army of fans who have loved him from his Grange Hill days, and people do not like to see others being nasty to nice people they already like.


There will not be an anti-judge vote on this series, because the judges are patently fair and nice. Even Jason is not going to risk another debacle like SCD, he made some nasty comments, and apparently got roundly told off for them, he's been much more constructive since. They are not going to be going to every tabloid they can find slagging anyone off, or getting speechless with anger because the public vote has got it wrong. I think what happened in SCD is a clear warning to judges that the programme is not about them and their egos. Their opinion counts (obviously) but they do only provide 50% of the marks.


He won't get that vote automatically if he doesn't get unfairly pilloried. I don't think anyone with half a brain is going to pick someone like Todd over someone like Ray, unless those who love ice dancing come over all precious and start slagging Todd off, whereupon the GBP is likely to turn on them bigtime, which is what happened on SCD.

JS would never have been able to harness that vote if the judges and other competitors hadn't been so nasty, he would have just been voted off in the normal way, as all the other endearingly hopeless competitors have been. I don't understand why the DOI ice dance fans can't see that, and are continuing to make a huge thing of it.

i don't understand the attacks on todd.
it's not his fault he's a porr skater but gets saved by the public !! it's like when john sergeant got abuse from the public on strictly even though none of it was his fault.

Only some people are attacking him.

Personally, I think he's reached his sell-by date on DOI but if the public chooses to keep voting him through, then so be it. I certainly don't think he's not making an effort or trying the manipulate the vote.

Besides, Chris and Jayne are supposed to be very hard taskmasters and I don't see them letting Todd get away with not making an effort.

What are they campaigning for? People everywhere who are crap at something? Are they trying to prove that being good at something isn't the done thing? Are they trying to justify their own inadequacies?

You seem to want to push an agenda that this is some sort of noble campaign. In reality most people voted for Todd because they thought it was funny (they were laughing at him) or because they felt sorry for him (pity).

And that's all well and good but I don't see the obsession with trying to make his presence in the competition something its not.

(looks around to see where the noise came from of the nail being hit on the head)

Well said Claire2281; am not anti Todd by any chalk, but putting this poor bloke on a pedestal can only mean one thing - and you don't bounce on ice ( well not much )

And if anyone starts banging on about Todd being *forced* off the show, I will know that we have finally dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.

Give him kudos for going out and having a go. Give him the credit for giving everyone a good laugh last weekend, and certainly for putting in the training this week.

But the need to turn a guy who is clearly a very nice chap, out to earn a crust, and raise his public persona, into a national 'champion of the people' is just not on.

I dont think all Todd supporters are campaigning as such,In fact I think its just the one.I myself believe in the power of the vote and if Todd stays then its all good and if not then I'll not worry too much,I think his prescence on the show has certainly made it more watchable for a lot of people so that should not be underestimated,however I do think that the more people protest the more supporters he will gain.

Exactly.

How are they having a go at him? They have basically said he is pretty useless at skating which is a fact. He is way below the standard of any of the others.

Vote for who you like for whatever reason you like.

I think Todd belongs in an Xfactor type audition failures show. He is comical but fundermentally DOI is a competition and it turns into a farce if when people are kept in just because they are funny particularly as a lot of the others clearly put a lot of time and effort into the training

If you enter a competition and do your best then you don't deserve to have people telling you to pull out etc. I despised that in the John Sargeant saga and was disappointed when he actually did, although it was his own decision.

IMO it makes more of a mockery of a competition when people are dictated to about how to vote, rather than people voting for who entertains them the most.

Well said muppeteer....I just want to see everyone doing their best and entertaining the public, however they feel they have to do that.

I'd use some exclamation marks but they seem to be all used up.

I don't think anyone was dictating how to vote in SCD though. Saying that people should vote for the best dancer, or asking them to, is not dictating how to vote.

It's always possible I missed something, but I paid fairly close attention to what the judges said, and I don't think they ever told people how to vote.

He's been getting it since the start. The point is that he doesn't have to play for the "anti" vote in what John Sergeant did, now that John has paved the way.


Then the GBP is oddly selective, since many celebs are slagged far worse than Todd (or John) without exciting the "anti" vote in the way John did and Todd now seems to be doing.

It's not the slagging that gets it going so much as it's seeing an opportunity to stick it to the judges, the producers, the celebs who "take it too seriously", or the viewers who are interested in dancing / skating, by voting for a contestant who's making a joke of the show.

It also seems to help if the contestant in the John / Todd role is male.

The SCD judges were just behaving as they normally did. But John skillfully played the situation, for instance by pointing out that what he was doing wasn't against the rules, as if merely staying within the formal rules was all that could reasonably be desired of any competitor, and as if that had been the issue.

The difference in John's case, compared to poor dancers in the past, was not that the judges had changed their behaviour but that John responsed in a way that no one had before.

I disagree with much of your post here Veri, but in particular the statements highlighted. I do not recall the SCD judges ever 'slagging' off any celebrity before on radio shows, in the newspapers and other TV shows in the way they did last year about John Sergeant. They were outraged at the public for voting to keep John safe and made their feelings very clear on several occasions. It didn't help when James added his voice on SCD either, I suspect many viewers saw that as being told that voting for John was wrong. In effect, telling people who not to vote for.

IMO If they had stuck to airing their comments on the actual show and about John or his dancing only, I suspect that public support would have waned eventually. Unfortunately they didn't.