Since Dancing on Ice returned to our television screens earlier this year, the ITV series has been dominating headlines. Much to everyone's delight, Jason Gardiner came back to the hit show as one of the judges alongside Ashley Banjo and skating supremes Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. But here's everything you need to know about Jason, the judge every contestant fears due to his cutting remarks...
Who is Jason Gardiner?
Jason Gardiner was born 6 November 1971, and is an Australian choreographer and singer as well as a theatre producer. However, he is best known for his role as the controversial judge on ITV shows Dancing on Ice, Born to Shine and Stepping Out.
The TV star was also a judge on the first series of the BBC talent show Strictly Dance Fever in 2005. Then the following year, Jason became one of the original judges on Dancing on Ice. He did this for five years before he returned to skating show for its eighth series in 2013. After the series was cancelled after its ninth series in 2014, Jason once again made a sensational return as a judge on the show in 2018. Meanwhile, in 2006, Jason was one of the judges invited to take part in Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice, an Australian version of Dancing on Ice which aired on the Nine Network.
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Jason's return to Dancing on Ice
In 2018, ITV viewers were delighted with the news that Dancing on Ice was set to make a comeback along with original hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield. Speaking about his comeback, Jason told chat show host Lorraine Kelly: "I'm not going in with preconceived ideas of how I'm going to be, you have to be there and assess it that moment." He added. "I think it's only fair to the contestants to go in there open and ready to give them the critique. But at the end of the day I have to judge and being a judge is not necessarily who I am but it's a role that I have to do in order to get my point across. So ultimately it benefits the show and the contestants."
Revealing whether or not he was excited to be back, back in 2017 he said: "Yes, of course. It came out of black field really. When I got the call I didn't think they were serious. I was like 'are you serious? Is this a prank call?' And when they asked me to come in to talk to them about it I thought it was going to be about a new project but it was about this!" Although the star was clearly happy about the return of the hit skate show, it wasn't a 'yes' straight away. "I had to think about it because I have an award-winning production company so my time requires a lot of troubling to see if we could make it work. Thank god we managed to. We got there in the end."
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What is Jason's most controversial outburst?
In 2019, during one of Sunday's live results show, Jason was left stunned after TOWIE star Gemma Collins accused him not to "sell stories" about her. After her performance Gemma revealed that she had a "hell of a week," admitting: "It's really knocked my confidence, I haven't been able to get much done as I've been so upset." Jason had given Gemma three points for her Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend routine. "There wasn't any elegance," he said." Marilyn Monroe was a woman in control of her femininity. You were all over the place still and there was not enough skating content." However, Gemma quickly remarked: "Maybe if you didn't sell stories on me I wouldn't have been so much upset this week." To which, Jason quipped: "This doesn't help your cause. It shows you're just a brat. Listen to what we're saying."
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