Dancing On Ice fans were left baffled after the judges were replaced by the Loose Women on tonight’s show.
Andrea McLean, Coleen Nolan and Jane Moore were sat in the usual line-up’s seats alongside fellow ITV lunchtime panellist Saira Khan, who is one of the 12 celebrities in this year’s ice-skating talent show.
Saira began her routine in Christopher Dean’s chair before leaping up and throwing away her cue card, to the apparent shock of the other Loose Women, before taking to the rink.
Omg omg! 🤩 It’s @LooseWomen on ice!#DancingOnIce @IamSairaKhan @Mark_Hanretty @janem @NolanColeen @andrea_mclean pic.twitter.com/7LqROwq3s0
— Dancing On Ice (@dancingonice) January 13, 2019
Who invited the coven? #doi #dancingonice
— ･ﾟ☆:*:･ﾟ★, :*: Kitty｡･:*★,｡･:*:☆ (@kittencaboodle) January 13, 2019
She performed to Madonna’s Express Yourself with pro-partner Mark Hanretty and received positive comments and a score of 19.5 from the real Dancing On Ice judges, who had reclaimed their places on the panel.
It was a far cry from her first moments on the ice in rehearsals, as she stepped gingerly onto the rink to the amusement of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who joked that they’d run out of time by the time she got to them.
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But after her live routine tonight, Chris told her: “The day that you stepped on the ice, I thought no way is she going to make this show, but you’ve come such a long way.
“You came out and you gave a performance.”
Saira joked: “I’ve never ice-skated in my life. I’m of Asian culture, we don’t do cold weather!”
When your parents take you ice skating for the first time 😬 #DancingOnIce @DancingOnIce @IamSairaKhan pic.twitter.com/irzSWUDPi1
— ITV (@ITV) January 13, 2019
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Even Jason Gardiner was encouraging as he told her: “What you did then was express yourself beautifully.
“I can see we have a real little performer inside you and Mark is brilliantly bringing it out of you.”
Jayne added: “I’m so impressed from where we started on that first day.
“I really was not expecting that tonight. I was impressed this evening.”
* Dancing On Ice is on ITV on Sunday evenings.
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