The Dancing On Ice judge gives his verdict on the final
After weeks of dangerous lifts, twirls and jumps, the Dancing On Ice final is here!
And with X Factor's Jake Quickenden, Coronation Street star Brooke Vincent and rugby professional Max Evans all battling it out to be crowned 2018 skating champ, it looks to be a very exciting one.
But speaking ahead of the tense finale show on Sunday evening (March 11), judge Jason Gardiner has now revealed why he thinks it's going to even closer than we think.
While pop star Jake became an early favourite with viewers after topping the show leaderboard and even earning the first 40 of the series last week, Jason doesn’t believe he's got it in the bag just yet.
"Even if I just look at my own points, there’s literally one point between them", he told Metro.co.uk.
"There’s one point, one point five difference between them in the scores last week. That’s really close."
Speaking about Max - who scored his highest score of 37.5 in the semi final - Jason continued: "So [Jake] is not the clear frontrunner because you’ve got Max who can do some of the most impressive strong lifts that Jake can’t. He’s got a lot of power, a lot of competitiveness in him."
The 46-year-old then revealed why Corrie actress Brooke has a real shot at glory despite earning herself lower scores, as he explained: "Brooke is a wild card as I didn’t think anything of her and Matej over six weeks, and then week seven they did Sing Sing Sing and I was completely blown away.
"I couldn’t believe it was the same couple that I had literally pulled apart the week before."
Hinting that Brooke's popularity with viewers could see her do well, Jason finally added: "There's a competition based on what they can do and how good they are but it's also a popularity test.
"She's never been in a skate off, she's never been in the bottom two so she's clearly very popular. Her fans are behind her. She's got more followers than the two boys, so all they have to do is vote for her and she could win it. Purely and simply on being popular."
It comes after head judges Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean also teased that I'm A Celebrity's Jake isn't necessarily set for the prize, as they recently revealed: "It’s anybody’s to win!"
We can't WAIT to find out over on ITV at 6pm tonight (March 11).
