Dancing On Ice 2023: Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu beats John Fashanu in the dreaded skate off

Dancing On Ice 2023’s John Fashanu became the first star on the line-up to be eliminated from the ITV series on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Carley Stenson and her professional partner Mark Hanretty topped the leaderboard with the highest score of the series so far.

After the five celebrities performed during week two, it was revealed John would face Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu in the skate off, with both couples performing new routines.

Judges Ashley Banjo, Oti Mabuse, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean were all in agreement and voted for Ekin-Su to stay in the competition as she included ‘more technical skating in he routine’. 

When asked by host Holly Willoughby whether he enjoyed the experience or not, John replied: ‘Oh, it’s been great,’ before saying that it was like the FA Cup final all over again. 

Co-host Phillip Schofield then asked the ex-footballer if he’ll ‘carry on skating’, to which he replied: ‘Oh yes! I shall carry on skating and who knows, I might even start teaching people.’

John and his professional partner Alexandra Schauman scored 19 out of 40 points for their sporty performance.

Speaking about the former footballer’s routine, Chris said: ‘I think you are the most improved skater since bootcamp. You were a liability in bootcamp, but you made it, you were steady out there.’

Many viewers at home complained that John’s skate off routine was almost identical to that of his main skate. 

They took to Twitter to express their frustration to ITV at the amount of voting time that was allocated on the second week – noting that they didn’t even get a chance to get to the page before the vote closed.

Despite the glitz and glamour, it was a tough start to the series for fan favourite Love Island’s Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, who landed herself in the bottom two by receiving the least amount of public votes.

The Love Island star recreated a memorable scene from the ITV2 reality show where she crawled on the ground and prompted over 100 Ofcom complaints from viewers who thought the routine was too racy for the family friendly series.

Speaking before the skate-off she said: ‘I’m not going to lie I was really upset thinking what have I done wrong but I’m strong, I need to work hard and prove myself. ‘

The Vivienne made history on the ITV show tonight, becoming the first drag queen to perform.

The RuPaul’s Drag Race star and her pro partner Colin Grafton were thrilled as they scored a total of 28.5 out of 40, with Ashley, Oti and Jayne scoring her 7, while Chris gave a 7.5. 

Oti praised The Vivienne’s first performance: ‘If you are going to make history, this is how you make history congratulations!’

Chris appeared impressed and said: ‘A star was born on the ice tonight. Our very own diva on ice but you are our best skating by far.’ 

He then quoted Cher and said: ‘We all invent ourselves but some just have more imagination.’

The Drag Queen looked sensational in a black mesh catsuit with shimmering detail across the front, with Colin wearing a matching top and leather trousers. 

Coronation Street star Mollie Gallagher looked confident as she took to the ice with Sylvain Longchambon.

After her impressive first performance, Mollie and Sylvain were delighted as they scored 26.5 out of 40 points.

Mollie explained she felt nervous tonight but Chris quipped: ‘If you had nerves tonight it didn’t show.’

Darren Harriot and Tippy Packard were on fire and scored a massive 26.5 out of 40 points.

The comedian was over the moon with the score, with judge Ashley saying it was a ‘jam-packed performance’.  

Chris then quipped: ‘I watched you through the week, I think you had nerves, but your personality came out and it was a fast track.’ 

Carley Stenson looked elegant in a silver costume as she skated with partner Mark Hanretty.

The touching performance scored them a whopping 32 out of 40 points, the highest score of the series so far.

The judges were all in agreement, scoring the pair 8’s across the board and dubbed the performance ‘beautiful’.

Ashley then jokingly said: ‘When I put in 8 I thought I’m going to be the highest, I can’t wait to give you all the praise!’ 

The show kicked off with a performance from the professionals and an introduction to the celebrities set to skate during week 2.

Viewers were also treated to a show-stopping performance from legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. 

Host Holly Willoughby looked incredible in a glamorous blue gown as she presented alongside Phillip Schofield. 

Dancing On Ice returned for another year last Sunday evening with a start-studded launch show. 

Ekin-Su sparked controversy with her performance during Sunday evening’s launch show of the skating competition as she recreated her famous crawling scene from Love Island.

And she gave the routine 100%, with host Holly Willoughby even dubbing the routine the show’s ‘sexiest dance ever’.

But the performance didn’t quite get the reaction she was hoping for, with Ofcom receiving 112 complaints from the public following the episode.

Many were quick to hit out at Ekin-Su’s sequin-emblazoned jumpsuit, which was a recreation of the one Britney Spears wore in her Toxic music video – which the reality star was dancing to.

While the actress also crawled across the ice during the performance, an ode to the famous Love Island scene in which she crawled around the villa’s terrace to kiss fellow islander Jay Younger behind partner Davide Sanclimenti’s back.

The sultry routine also saw her lie on her back and be swept up into partner Brendyn’s arms, with a slew of animated facial expressions.

Ekin-Su and Brendyn were marked middle of the leaderboard by the judges, who gave a score of 21.5.

But while they agreed that the star certainly had sex appeal, they were hoping for a little more from the performance.

‘It was very sexy. But what I want more of is the skating,’ said judge Jayne Torvill. Ashley was in agreement as he said: ‘Skate on your own without holding on to Brendyn, show us what you can do.’

Many viewers also took to social media to brand the routine ‘not appropriate’ for the family show, which airs before the watershed.

But the performance was a hit with Ekin-Su’s boyfriend Davide, who sat in the audience and teased that he ‘couldn’t wait’ to take her home.

Dancing On Ice starts at 6:30pm every Sunday on ITV1 and ITVX.