Dancing On Ice viewers slam ‘abysmal’ scoring from the judges as they complain Corrie star Sam Aston’s routine was overmarked

Dancing On Ice viewers were quick to share their frustration at this year’s scoring, complaining that Sam Aston had been overmarked just minutes into Sunday’s launch. 

Fans have branded judges, Oti Mabuse, Olympic skating champions Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and Diversity dancer Ashley Banjo, ‘woke‘ after they dished out sevens after the first  performance of the series. 

Sam, who plays Chesney Brown on Coronation Street, and his dancing professional Molly Lanaghan, whose debut is this year, appeared in colourful neon outfits and danced to That’s Not My Name by The Ting Tings.

And the funky choice paid off as the judges had very high praise, while they were scored the skate a total of 27 – Ashley, 6.5; Oti, 6.5; Jane, 7; Chris, 7.

But viewers were not impressed to see such high scores on the first episode of the show as they branded the move ‘abysmal’.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, posts included: ‘Totally overmarked’ 

‘ON WHAT WORLD WAS THAT WORTH A 7?!?! HE HELD ONTO HER FOR MOST OF IT WTF’

‘He was terrible. Why give him such high scores?’

‘7? yer woke’

‘Judges over marking already. It was ok but a 5 at best especially as first skate, they have nowhere to go now…’

‘A7 for not letting go of her hand?!?’

‘7’s?? Abysmal’ 

The scoring comes after it was revealed that Sam is the most likely contestant to win the ITV show, according to new data analysis.

Ahead of the first episode, odds experts at Slotozilla have analysed data from the show’s previous winners to reveal what makes a winning contestant. 

The research which uses 15 years worth of data analysed a range of factors including the contestant’s profession, hometown, age, gender and more.

Their research showed that almost three quarters of the previous winners were men.

Those aged between 26 and 35 were also most likely to win and contestants from North West regions like Manchester, Liverpool and Yorkshire also lead the way to success.

With these statistics in mind, the experts predict that Sam is most likely to win.

The actor, who is best known for his role of Chesney Brown on Coronation Street, would not be the first winner from a soap as he follows in the footsteps of the 2024 champion and Coronation street co-star, Ryan Thomas.

While Sam fits four of the five main criteria, in second place is Manchester-bred comedian Josh, who with three points also fits into the winning age bracket at 32.

Anton Ferdinand, Dan Edgar and Chris Taylor all come in third most likely, scoring only two of the four winning criteria, while Chelsee is the only woman to secure more than one point in the ranking.

Commenting on the findings, Marie Toland, Senior Editor from Slotozilla said: ‘Dancing on Ice is a firm favourite in the British TV calendar and is one of the shows Brits most look forward to liven up the New Year.

Analysing the historical data of past winners we think there’s a strong chance that Sam Aston is the most likely contestant to win, although that all depends on how he performs out on the ice of course!’

Now it is believed that the stars will simply have to just relearn what they performed for the main competition as it is said the duty of care is ‘paramount’ to ITV bosses.

A source told the publication: ‘On Dancing on Ice, in the past all the couples had to prepare a special skate-off dance which would be ready in case they were voted into the bottom two.

‘But that meant on top of learning their main routine, any group dances – and sometimes more – the pairs were in most cases having to learn a dance that went to waste.

‘Bosses have rethought the plan moving forwards and couples in the bottom two will now be asked to simply repeat the same dance that they performed on the main show.’