DANCING ON ICE 2025

[Cleoriff]

ITV have started revealing the names of the candidates for Dancing On Ice 2025.

This is a show watched and commented on by myself, @sheepdog and @Mi-Amigo and others.

First candidate is

FERNE McCANN

Ferne is classed as a TV personality who appeared in TOWIE

Then we have

Mollie PEARCE

Mollie appeared in The Traitors. (I didn't watch the show so know nothing else about her)

The 3rd candidate to be revealed was:

Sir Steve Redgrave.

Steve is well known as an Olympic rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships golds. He is the most successful male rower in Olympic history, and the only man to have won gold medals at five Olympic Games in an endurance sport.

The 4th Contestant is :

Sam Aston.

Sam plays Chesney Brown in Coronation Street. He's been in the show for a long time.

Apparently all the contestants start training next week for 2 hours a day.  Steve said they are banned from the ice until they start training.

There are a total of 12 contestants.

[sheepdog]

I just wanted to get the sellotape out and fix that curl on the top of Holly's dress. 

Sam and Molly: sort of ok, good routine overall but surprised at the amount of handholding throughout. Needed more conviction with the solo skills.

Dan and Vanessa: What a week to produce your worst performance of the series. Wasn't a great routine to show off his ability and needed to get down and up through his knees more. Poor solo skills and unfortunately looked like he had reached his plateau two weeks ago.

Anton and Annette: Awful song and the MC Hammer pants didn't help for the spiral. Saying that, full of solo skating before the solo skating and obvious thinking more about the solo part so not quite seamless. Definitely more technique than Dan and Sam previous which helped his performance. 

Michaela and Mark: And you might as well kick off with the solo stuff then transition smoothly into the duets. Well done on that. Not quite sure she actually pulled off all of the solo skills as the dry ice covered a lot of it. Other than that, best of the night. 

An appearance (thankfully ITV have learnt this segment is better served by skaters rather than Bez of the week) by a up and coming skater showing how to do the solo skills. Followed by a pre-recorded segment of puddle jumping by Diversity. Perry appeared and showed us how poor the series has become since. 

Skate-off: don't think Dan has any real complaints when viewed against the others. Against anyone tonight he'd be going home anyway as his routine wasn't technical enough nor a dynamic routine to justify being saved. 

And talking of winners, it's likely to be Sam isn't it?

[Cleoriff]

@sheepdog 

I don't think Sam will win. He's certainly my favourite because he's in Corrie which I love. Also I feel he is undermarked every week by Oti. I'm very disappointed that her judging this series seems to be on her obvious love of tall 'good' looking men. Sam is a good skater and she tends to overlook that.

Having said all that, as much as I like Sam, I think Michaela overall is a better skater. I think she will win.

I forgot to mention the dry ice. Bit of a swiz how that completely covered two of her key elements.

[Mi-Amigo]

My opinion/comments

Sam and Molly

Great start to semi-final. Good to see Sam take on all 5 elements in solo. His best performance so far i.m.o.

Deserved judges scores and 9 for solo.

Dan and Vanessa

Another poor skate [can`t call his "a performance"]. Chose to do 4 elements. Judges got it right this week

with his low score.

Anton and Annette

Not bad, but clearly performance in 2 parts. Only did 4 elements in solo but scored 7 in that. Agree with

judges` score.

Michaela and Mark.

She is back - with best performance of the night and series so far!! Did all 5 elements and only dropped

one point in that; and got a well deserved 10 from each of the judges.

Diversity

Brilliant performance and great to see Perri skating again.

SKATE OFF

Anton and Dan.

Anton gave better performance. Judges finally came to the senses and voted Dan off [actually voted to save Anton but you know what I mean]...

FINALISTS

Michaela [who has been my favourite for most of series]; Sam [who has improved so much and is a worthy contender to win DOI 2025]; and Anton [who I can`t see winning against Michaela or Sam].

[Cleoriff]

@Mi-Amigo @sheepdog @RunrigForever 

A few media outlets are trying to 'confirm' this will be the last DOI.

The main reason is the viewing figures.

Apparently when the show first began, it's viewing figures exceeded 12 mill. Now they fluctuate between 2.5 and 3 million.

It's been pointed out that the cost of the presenters, judges, celebs and professional skaters has risen. The rink is purpose built and has to be maintained. The backroom people such as make-up artists, costume designers,

cameramen all have to be paid.

The most recent report of the end of DOI, comes from Entertainment Daily. (normally I wouldn't believe much of what they say, but this is the 3rd report I've read)

https://www.entertainmentdaily.com/tv/dancing-on-ice-news-axed-viewing-figures/?utm_source=facebook&... 

[Cleoriff]

@sheepdog @Mi-Amigo @RunrigForever 

Week 9 Final.

Showcase Music

Sam and Molly :  Pink Panther theme by Henry Mancini

Anton and Annette :  Let's Go Crazy by Prince and the Revolution

Michaela and Mark : Don't Rain On My Parade by Barbara Streisand

[Cleoriff]

All the showcase skates were excellent. I thought Michaela and Mark just edged it though.

All three couples scored 40. No surprise.

Anton came in 3rd place so didn't get to skate the Bolero.

Very emotional last TV skate from Chris and Jayne.

The Bolero

I have to say I preferred Sam and Molly's interpretation.

Mark should have left the splits out of his routine. It was never in the original and should have been left out of M&M's.

I was shocked that Sam and Molly won even though he was my favourite.

I enjoyed the show but not sure it will be back next year.

[sheepdog]

And what do I do next week with nothing to be sarcastic about 😂 Anyway, AB turned up in last week's string vest and Oti was obviously into craft making with that cardboard dress. Or tent by the looks of things. 

Showcase scoring was ridiculous. As if T&D were going to given less than 10 in the final to a routine they came up with and taught to the celebs. Thought Anton did a good job overall even with a mistake, Sam did a lot of straight line skating for some reason and Michaela barely skated with all those lifts. On that, for showmanship I'd give it just to Michaela but for effort and skating: Anton. 

So much for the final where we just got one skate from each of them to "get your vote". Wouldn't have minded if they'd did at least one routine from the series but alas, the adverts needed showing. Thankfully no mediocre musical act graced us with an appearance, then again, how could you not be impressed with Chris Dean's pot belly 😋

Smart-Ass Smugherne pulled off the scam of the night with his skating on ice. Ha ha ha. No not really funny but the Stephen's did a good job. We got reminded why they were voted off with appearances from the rejects. For the life of me, I don't remember anybody standing out this series but perhaps we were robbed with Chris going out early.

Apparently 25 million watched T&D do the original Bolero which probably means thats more than the combined viewing figures for this series of DOI. Interesting. 

Thought Sam's interpretation was bit lacklustre in comparison to Michaela's but I suspected he'd win as the Corrie hardcore always make sure of the win. 

Anyway, I have this strange need to go and play bingo....

[Mi-Amigo]

Great opening to the final by the professionals and finalists.

SHOWCASE: Anton at least tried, but not as good as Sam or Michaela. In my opinion, Sam`s performance was his best in the series; and Michaela went for some difficult lifts - thought it would be very close between these two at this stage.

MULHERN: After all the build-up about him appearing on the ice, he just sat in a skate !!

CLASS OF 2025: Good to see some, but not others which showed why they got voted off.

TORVILLE & DEAN: Loved it - their last TV performance on ice - another clue that DOI won`t be back ???

FINAL - BOLERO: I thought Sam gave an excellent interpretation, but Michaela had just edged it with splits.

Surprised that Sam won.

In my opinion, this was not the best DOI final we`ve had - especially as it was probably the last.

Oh well have to find something else to do on Sunday -

Oh wait a minute, next Sunday there is footie and, after a certain team win, to watch again on ITV 1 + 1, and again on ITV X 😀 [apologies for taking DOI off topic].

Finally, thanks to @Cleoriff for keeping us informed of songs, info, and comments; and thanks to @sheepdog for his comments throughout on the show.

[Cleoriff]

I'd go one step further @Mi-Amigo and say I think this is the worse DOI final.

When you remember Perri, Ray Quinn, Hayley Tamaddon, Jake Quickenden, James Jordan, Brendan Cole, Regan Gascoigne, Suzanne Shaw, Beth Tweddle or last years winner, Ryan Thomas.....no-one this year was a patch on any of them.

Chris and Jayne were on GMB on Friday morning and were asked if this was the final show? 

They couldn't answer. 🙄

So we just wait and see.

I know @sheepdog and I will be watching Strictly Come Dancing from September @Mi-Amigo but you don't care for that. (Never mind, hopefully we'll all be back for DOI, if it continues) and here's hoping, they rid themselves of Mulhern!!

[Mi-Amigo]

Totally agree @Cleoriff - this was the worst DOI final - I just didn`t want to say it beforehand...

As to previous winners, I well remember those you mentioned. Of these, my favourites - in no particular order - were Ray Quinn, Perri, Suzanne Shaw, and Beth Tweddle.

I didn`t see Torville and Dean on GMB but interesting they couldn`t [i.e. not allowed to ?] mention if DOI will be back....

If DOI does come back, I hope they get rid of Mulhern. What about Ben Shepherd as co-presenter ? He is popular, like him on Tipping Point... just a suggest.