Dancing On Ice 2023.

[Cleoriff]

I have all the info about the new series which starts in January 2023.

I will write about the contestants later but wanted to get the thread started.

The judges are Christopher Dean, Jayne Torvill, Oti Mabuse and Ashley Banjo.

Presenters are unchanged with Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield.

We appear to only have 11 contestants this year, unless they have another one, yet to be revealed?

Checking them over, there will many comments such as 'Who the  hell are they?'

All I will say, until my next post, we have

A Drag Artist

A The Wanted band member

A Love Island Contestant

An actress from Corrie

A retired Footballer

An Olympian

A Liberty X singer

A Comedian

A Hollyoaks actress

A Towie 'star'

An Actress ( retired) from Eastenders (now a DJ)

More to follow .... (I bet you can't wait @Mi-Amigo @sheepdog) 😂

[Mi-Amigo]

SEMI-FINAL - Sun 05 March

SOLO SKATE - best awarded 5 points, worst awarded 1 point by judges

The Vivienne falls; Joey skates backwards; Mollie skates spiral; Siva [missed anything note-worthy]

Nile skating spin and jump.

Chris announces judges` decisions/votes - no mention of individual judge`s vote or comment -

5th [1 point] - The Vivienne; 4th [2 points] - Mollie; 3rd [3 points] - Siva;

2nd [4 points] - Joey; 1st [5 points] - Nile.

I thought Mollie`s solo was better than Siva`s; but agree with scores for Nile and Joey.

Public vote opens after the break and leaderboard shown.

PAIRS SKATE - skate to song personal to celeb.

All skates were emotional performances

Nile and Olivia - inspiration - mental health issues after injury;

great skate; stag jump; told story

Score - 40. Agree with judges.

Mollie and Sylvian - inspiration - hate crime Corrie storyline; not fitting in

good, confident skate

Score - 34 - underscored

Siva and Klabera - inspiration - passing of Tom of Wanted from cancer.

good skate

Score - 36. Agree with judges

The Vivienne and Colin - inspiration - wanting to be Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, dreams coming true

nothing special, in my opinion.

Score - 39.5 [10 from each judge apart from Ashley] - vastly overscored.

Joey and Vanessa - inspiration - loss of his mother.

excellent skate

Score - 38 - underscored.

Before break, revised leader board shown.

Three pairs to be in skate off

Public vote - two pairs safe and in next week`s final

Nile and Olivia - totally agree, been consistently good throughout and deserves to be in final

The Vivienne and Colin - how could anyone think the Viv was better than Mollie or Joey ?

Skate-off - Mollie; Siva; Joey.

All four Judges` vote to save Joey.

Although Mollie gave a good performance, Joey was better and deserves to be in final.

In my opinion, the final should be Nile; Joey; Mollie; but as it is Nile; The Vivienne; and Joey, I`m backing Joey to win...

I think it is going to be a very good Final net week and am looking forward to it. 

[Cleoriff]

Thanks for write up @Mi-Amigo 

 I think the judges were determined The Vivienne would be in final so they overmarked him for the personal skate.

As much as I loved Mollie I thought she was probably the weakest link overall. Unless you watch Corrie you would have no idea about the hate crime where Mollie played the main part. Her boyfriend was killed.

Her skate was good but I could tell she still feels safer with Sylvain.

I thought all the personal skates were lovely but personally I preferred Siva's. I like The Wanted and thought Tom's wife, who was in the audience, was so brave.

Nile also told a lovely story and his skating was excellent.

Joey was also good but the Vivienne could have been telling a story about anything.

No F1 next week so I'll be able to do the write up.

Nile is my winner.

[sheepdog]

OOhh semi-final week and double elimination too. Could it be a good show? Well, lets start with the opening routine which was excellent in a Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton) style but ruined by the abysmal choice of tune.

Outfits: oooh Holly & Phil in matching complementary outfits! I tip my hat off this week to them. Also mic placement on Holly was almost non-existent but I spotted it 🙂 Ah Ashley Banjo, now I know what look you're trying for with that necklace: none other than Tutankhamun:

But no, this week you don't get the un-canny resemblance award. That goes to Moti, not once but twice. Take your pick from Medusa or my favourite, a plate of spaghetti:

Goodness knows what delights Moti's stylist will bring up next week.

Skate-a-thon:

Rather good from an entertainment perspective. More of this please next season. Agree with the judges on the rankings though even without the fall, Bo(tox) Selecta would still have been bottom in my opinion. Actually nice not to hear the judges opinion for a long while. 

The "emotional" skates. Normally I detest this segment of the series but tonight, this was rather good. 

Nile: 40's and who could have denied him. Set the bar even higher and bonus, the golden 40 lightshow was done on time! Was it right for him to go first and basically destroy any attempt of the others to impress? 

Mollie: oh dear, Sylvan resorted to skate-off manoeuvres and very little solo skating by Mollie. Saying that, she did execute the lifts rather well but the routine wasn't enough for a finalist.

Siva: another rehash of the skate-off routine. Nothing wrong with it but lacked any sort of wow. 

Bo(tox) Selecta: I thought the skate-a-thon was all arm waving and this routine just reinforced that with more arm waving. Totally forgettable more than Siva. As for the scoring, the judges obviously made up for the fall earlier because it wasn't 10's in any form. 

Joey: Good stuff but a touch rushed and hunched over. Finalist all the way....

...well, not quite. How and why the voting public thought Joey wasn't worthy of the votes is beyond me. For me, though he wasn't spectacular, Siva was more than Bo(tox) Selecta in getting his themes across. No real doubt over why Joey was saved though. 

Ah now, Zara Larsson. Another one of those pop puppets the industry wants to happen. Reminded me of something out of the 80's with excruciating autotune turned up. Talking of which, compare and contrast 80's icon(?) Sam Fox. 

Well, I'd say Nile should be the winner by a mile but you know these things, it's a popularity contest so it favours Joey. 

[Cleoriff]

It does favour Joey and it is a popularity contest @sheepdog. I will never forget Joe stupid Swash winning from Perri last season. The nearest my TV has come to being kicked into touch!

(With the exception of the EX Race Director manipulating the final F1 race in Abu Dhabi 2021 and robbing Lewis Hamilton of his 8th title and consequently ruining the remaining sporting integrity of Formula 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Yes still bitter about that one....

However back to skating.

If anyone other than Niles wins next week, it will be a fix and someone else can watch it next year, as I won't be. 🤐

It's rather weird that I have failed to build up a real infinity with any of the contestants this year (except Mollie because she's in Corrie).

When I think back over the years at Ray Quinn, Hayley Tamaddon, Suzanne Shaw, Sam Attwater, Jennifer Ellison (cut head with scorpion kick),Matthew Wolfenden, Perry Kiely, James Jordan, Kimberley Wyatt, Brendon Cole, Regan Gascoigne and Jake Quickenden. Not forgetting Joe Warren Plant, who had to leave due to Covid, there is no-one in their class in this series.

Ah Well

[Cleoriff]

THE FINAL

Just to say, there was no indication of any of the music used for the final.

(Apart from Bolero) So if I don't know it, it won't be posted 😂

I have read there will be a battle skate after all 3 couples have skated.

[pgn]

To Infinity and Beyond 🤣

[Cleoriff]

THE FINAL

All Contestants danced to a routine choreographed by Jayne and Chris

Nile and Olivia.

Skated to Pirates of the Caribbean

Absolutely superb routine. We saw parallel bars and Nile doing a headbanger. Pretty flawless tonight. Seamless and passionate. Great skating

Scored 40 (although the judges marks don't count, so we know all will be given top marks)

The Vivienne and Colin. Routine based on a Diva with her men.

Excellent skate, not as superb as Niles but pretty damn good. No mistakes and  the dance suited this couple

Scored 40

Joey and Vanessa. The routine was based on Hercules. Joey asked what was a Toga? 😂

A good routine but overmarked with a score of 40. Nothing really special.

BATTLE ROUND.

Skated to I'm a Survivor.

All very good but thought this was a bit of a filler. Skated as couples but with all the professionals. Niles edged this for me with the Vivienne 2nd. The judges actually didn't comment on this section, even though all couples stood by them waiting for someone to say something!

More filler with all the contestants back to skate a few feet on the ice. Then for some strange reason we had Regan Gasgcoine and Brendan Cole back to say a few words.

THE VOTE FROZEN.

Nile and Olivia and Joey and Vanessa through to skate Bolero.

Not shocked about Joey, just damn annoyed.

I knew he would be voted through, even though he was the worst out of the three

BOLERO

Niles and Olivia skated first. Absolutely sublime interpretation. One of the best I've seen recently. Captured the total essence of the dance. Chris was in tears. (as was I)

Joey and Vanessa. Mmmmmm. Not impressed at all. He had a few missteps, noticed by all. He has an inability to be serious and shows the wrong emotions. Nothing in that routine requires a smile or grin. 

The RESULTS.

Thankfully the public voted for the correct winner. Niles and Olivia

(Joey said he was 'pleased for Noel'. Berk!😂)

That's it for another year.

[Mi-Amigo]

Thank you for the write-up @Cleoriff 

Overall, a really good final with some great performances.

I was very impressed with Nile and Olivia`s first skate - with the parallel bars and Nile being the first male to do a headbanger.

I thought Nile and Olivia absolutely nailed it with their Bolera; and rightly deserved to win. 

[sheepdog]

Did actually watch the final but got distracted with other matters last night. So for the last time this series..Phil in a suit and tie again so bonus points. Holly in a fractured mirror dress where your reflection is but a memory fractured over time...ok, maybe "a glitter ball" dress might be more amenable 🤣 Ashley Banjo looked rather smart and of course the final uncanny resemblance has to go to Moti:

Jessica Rabbit

First skates hyped up by being done by T&D made it more interesting but had big doubts as Nile went first. Which went away very quickly with a pretty awesome routine that's up there with the best of any series. 

Second routine for The Bo(tox) Selecta had a lot to live up to but unfortunately, it didn't really go anywhere apart from circles. Opening and closing pose were the highlight. Could T&D have thrown more skaters on the ice as per Nile's routine rather than have a load of kids gyrating on some steps?

Leaving Joey to more or less to show what he could do in his own way. Mightily impressed with him throwing himself into the tricks and quite entertaining. But nowhere as fluid as he needed to be. 

Battle round - was looking forward to this but alas, it failed to live up to its potential of a decider. Or just a bit of space filler before the next ad break is what it really was.

And then came the Night of the Living Dead to remind us why they were voted off. Strictly does this part so much better. 

Bolero time and Nile's was definitely one of the best versions. Unlike Joey where it seemed Vanessa took over and did all the work. Quite likely she realised he wasn't going to be able to do it justice. Thankfully, the voting public chose the right winner this year. 

As for next series, there will be one purely on the reason that 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the Gold medal winning Bolero. So do you think we'll have contestants from the last few years battling it out or are we more likely to see ITV putting on their barrel scraping gear?