Dancing on Ice has had it’s day and it is time that the ITV show finally skates away for good after ratings slump

DANCING On Ice first made its debut on TV nearly 20 years ago.

Since then we have seen a whole host of dramas, meltdowns, spats and stunts on the long-running celebrity competition.

ITV

Dancing On Ice used to be watched by over 11 million viewers during its peak in the noughties[/caption]

Rex Features

Rex

These days, even the casting seems more low rent (Ferne McCann pictured)[/caption]

But the ITV show is struggling to maintain the audience it once had as millions switched off.

In an age where Netflix and Prime rule supreme, can Dancing on Ice survive the test of time?

The Sun’s TV experts Joshua Rom and Jake Penkethman battle it out over the very future of the show.

TIME TO SKATE AWAY

By Joshua Rom

When it first launched in 2006, Dancing On Ice was nothing short of a complete television sensation.

Almost 10 million viewers tuned in to watch the series debut and by the finale in March that year, nearly 2 million more had tuned in.

The peak of the series arguably came two years later, when over 12 million viewers watched former Hear’Say star Suzanne Shaw skate to victory.

When the first run of the series ended in 2014 with the highly-anticipated All Star edition, nearly seven million viewers tuned in for the finale.

A respectable number watched as Pop Idol supremo Ray Quinn and Corrie’s Hayley Tamaddon fought for the winner of all winners title.

But we are living in very different times, where linear channels like ITV are fighting to stay relevant in the digital and streaming age.

Broadcasters need to be bold with their formats to capture the attention of viewers, but the good news is that it can still be done.

The Traitors is an excellent example of how a clever new format can capture the imagination, attention of viewers and firmly insert itself into the Zeitgeist of British television.

Claudia Winkleman has become utterly iconic for her signature style of presentation of the show, that is blunt and almost delightfully sinister.

The format allows the contestants to do all the work by turning on each other, whilst the high drama and camp setting heightens any small moment into something that is utterly glorious to watch.

The result? An average of seven million live viewers for the BBC, with undoubtedly more when the on-demand and streaming figures are consolidated.

The bad news is, Dancing On Ice is now a show that could only dream of hitting those sorts of figures because as a format, it’s clear the show is old, tired and stale.

And we can see that in the casting as this year we had not one but TWO stars connected with Towie to sign up to the show which included scandal-ridden Ferne McCann.

Simply put, it’s giving low rent

We could usually expect a little bit of soap representation amongst the roster of talent, this year we had representation from Corrie, EastEnders AND Hollyoaks.

Combined, a whopping seven out of eleven contestants are either soap actors or former reality TV stars. Simply put, it’s giving low rent.

Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern try their best with her jaw-dropping looks and his slapstick jokes to keep the show afloat.

But like This Morning, the presenting team is almost haunted by the ghost of the career of Phillip Schofield.

Holly is still a wonderful presenter for shows, but the public view her completely differently.

She’s now seen as a savvy and sometimes cutthroat lady of business where the show seems more like a job which she has simply outgrown rather than a passion project.

With hardly a third of the audience still tuning in, a low rent cast, and presenters whose hearts are not fully invested, it’s time for Dancing on Ice to gracefully skate away.

GREATEST SHOW ON ICE

By Jake Penkethman

Whilst there is no denying that the ratings for Dancing on Ice have decreased in recent times, there is also no denying it is still a thoroughly enjoyable TV show.

And haven’t all the TV juggernauts’ lost ratings over the years anyway?

Love Island’s current series is its least watched ever since the first series in 2015, BGT has haemorrhaged over five million viewers in the last five years and even Strictly has seen at least two million people turn off amid it’s never-ending list of scandals tarnishing its once squeaky-clean image.

But Dancing on Ice, for the most-part, is often scandal-free and has the focus on the best parts of the show.

Simply put, it is about the skating and the performances each week and nothing else.

With a much lesser focus on the pro partners, fans actually get to tune in and watch how the celebrities are progressing and achieving rather than keeping an eye out for the dirty look between the two pro’s who have had a backstage rift or look for tension between the warring ex’s who just so happen to be on the same cast.

Whilst we know very little about the DOI pros in comparison to its BBC rival, I actually think this has helped the show to stay on the straight and narrow.

Now, I would also go on to argue that Dancing on Ice actually manages to scrape out a much stronger cast than its BBC rival year-on-year.

Not only do ITV have hundreds of thousands more to play with but the endless list of possible entertainment programmes that the stars can align themselves with afterwards is much stronger.

ITV

The old studio layout was far better for audience participation[/caption]

ITV

12 million viewers watched Suzanne Shaw skate to victory[/caption]

Take 2020 for example.

Strictly secured political Jacqui Smith, American Football player Jason Bell, Invictus Games medalist JJ Chalmers, little-known YouTube singer HRVY and BBC Radio One host Clara Amfo among it’s line-up.

I think it’s all a bit meh if you ask me when their biggest draw that year was comedian Bill Bailey and Tiffany Butcher from EastEnders aka Maisie Smith.

However, just weeks after that series of Strictly wrapped, a furore of household names and unavoidable celebs were skating around the DOI rink like there was no tomorrow!

TV icons like Denise Van Outen and Jason Donovan headed up the cast alongside Hear’Say legend and all-round household name, Myleene Klass.

Olympic heroes Colin Jackson and Graham Bell competed alongside one of the most discussed women in the media of the last decade, Rebekah Vardy.

It made for a much more impressive line-up reveal than the dribs and drabs of little-known BBC employed talent that were wheeled out for a Waltz.

Plus, let’s remember – Dancing on Ice is far more nail-biting viewing.

Whilst we might not quite want to admit it, the thought of a bit of danger and the chance of something going rather awry on live TV is much more exciting – and will be much-more talked about – than a minor BBC TV star making a dog’s dinner of a Cha-Cha-Cha to a badly performed cover of a 2000s pop hit.

There’s a thrill in the danger and the chance for more viral moments than ever before – something key for ITV in the current TikTok demographic.

Gemma Collins’ perfectly-timed face-plant during her routine to Celine Dion’s It’s All Coming Back To Me Now is one for the TV history books (as is her whole stint on the show, let’s be honest!)

And who can forget when Todd Carty lost control that much that he actually spun off the ice and straight back down the entrance tunnel leaving his poor skating partner to fend for herself on live TV.

Just last year, Ryan Thomas hit the deck TWICE in one live routine.

You just don’t get scenes like that anywhere else!

Whilst it is always going to be the inferior of the two biggest dancing shows on the box – they always say, it is the quietest ones that surprise you the most!

Skate On!

ITV

Dancing on Ice has been on the box since 2006[/caption]

Rex

Holly has continued to host the show[/caption]