Dancing On Ice / Chicken Dinner / 18 February 2008 /

The blades are being sharpened for Greg, say Chickendinner

Greg Rusedski's appalling score of 16 on Sunday night would have seen him bundled through the door marked "get out" as early as week four last year, and yet he plunders his way into week seven. He has the public's campaign to 'get rid of Backley' to thank. Odds of [150.0] to win on Betfair represent the size of the task in front of Greg.

Zaraah Abraham's [22.0] price has moved out considerably ([13.0] last week) due to her mildly shocking inclusion in the bottom two. Unfortunately Zaraah is from the same school of first names as Leee John from the camp 80s soul group Imagination, who also insisted on extra vowels. But apart from that and her non-household name status; she's great - an elegant dancer, a Coronation Street alumni and a judge's favourite. Those that backed Zaraah can at least hang on to this morsel of information: in last year's show, eventual runner-up Clare Buckfield suffered the humiliation of the skate-off twice, yet still made it to the final.

At this point, the skaters should be scoring in the 20s, Rusedski isn't and he is next to go. The other skater in trouble is Linda Lusardi [80.0] - who scored 19 at the weekend. If either of these two are up against Zaraah, they will not be saved. In a Lusardi/Rusedski smackdown, the judges would favour her brand of feisty buxom ice interpretation to another painful week of his careering about on their immaculate surface with his enormous grinning head.

But the real story is the make-up of the top three - which looks to anyone but a blind man to be Gareth Gates, Suzanne Shaw and Chris Fountain. Both series so far have featured a final night gender mix (series one: Gaynor Faye, Stefan Booth, Bonnie Langford; series two: Kyran Bracken, Clare Buckfield, Duncan James), with the majority gender winning on each occasion. That looks like bad news for Suzanne Shaw [5.6] - who splits the judge's opinion and has drifted from likeability little by little each week.

Her biggest problem is that she has been painted as overly determined and could come across as a little bit too bitchy for the Sunday teatime audience. Remember, these are the same people who found Gabby Logan far too competitive to stomach on Strictly Come Dancing, and she has something of the "smiling through gritted teeth" quality that made Bonnie Langford so easy to hate in series one (FYI she came third).

So the big question is whether Gates catch Fountain, who is undoubtedly the best skater? Stranger things have happened in reality TV (Leon taking down operatic egomaniac Rhydian in X Factor) but not many.

Punters wanting more excitement than a pony on Fountain [1.59] can take heart that Gates [5.0] is improving, this week clocking a personal best of 23 - just 1.5 points behind Fountain, who had his shoddiest week since week three. Should Fountain accelerate into his slight downward spiral, young Gates could pip him as the favourite, thanks to coming across as less cocksure and probably more appealing to watching gay men/teenage girls. Plus he has already proved himself as a force to be reckoned with on big reality television shows by coming a very close second on Pop Idol. His fanbase remains considerable.

The Chickendinner predictor trundles on with our usual prediction since the show opener: Fountain and Gates will battle for the final; the oldies are the next to go, and that, of course, means you Rusedski.

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