Dancing on Ice star Matt Evers has questioned the final of this year's show and whether it was 'fair' that all three contestants were trained dancers.
After its return to screens in January, the ITV show came to an end on Sunday night, with Regan Gascoigne and Karina Manta the winners this year. They defeated Brendan Cole and Vanessa Bauer and K imberly Wyatt and her pro partner Mark Hanretty in the finale, after a three way perfect score tie on the leaderboard.
In the lead up to Sunday's show and during it, social media was littered with posts about the finalists having an 'unfair advantage' over their rivals this year, given their dance backgrounds. Brendan is a former Strictly Come Dancing pro; Kimberly is famous for being in Pussycat Dolls and Regan is also a trained dancer, who has performed in pantomimes across the country.
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While some Dancing on Ice viewers argued that the trio's skills helped give the show its 'best final ever,' with a tremendous standard of performance, others said it wasn't fair that they had a 'head start' over other competitors. And now Matt, who partnered Coronation Street actress Sally Dynevor in the new series, has had his say.
Speaking to Vicky Pattison on her Secrets To podcast, Matt addressed the comments and said: "Is it fair that we have three professional dancers in this year’s final? Hmm… not necessarily.
"That’s a big question mark, right? But yeah, we’re in an interesting situation right now that the standard of the show has gotten so high."
Matt also told former I'm A Celebrity winner Vicky that he hoped the dance backgrounds of this year's finalists and their apparent advantage wouldn't put off nom-dancers from taking part. He added: "I pray that this doesn't affect future casts, or someone like yourself who’s like, ‘I would love to do Dancing On Ice but I’m never going to win because I’m not a professional dancer’."
