Jason Gardiner: Gemma Collins unfairly overshadowing other contestants

The pair clashed on the live ITV show when the judge said the reality TV star had been channelling the late model Anna Nicole Smith instead of Marilyn Monroe, which she had been aiming for.

But Collins interrupted and accused him of selling “stories on me” and snapped: “Boring. Next.”

Discussing their run-in, Gardiner told Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine: “It was surreal, you know, because I have a bad day at the office and it’s in front of millions of people and it was an outrageous allegation.”

Asked if her accusation was true, Gardiner said: “Of course not. It’s ridiculous that it was even brought up on a family show like that, but what I will say is it’s annoying that we’ve got some amazing line-up this year and we’ve got people that are so good on the show, and yet it seems to be that all we ever talk about is this one particular contestant, who really isn’t that good on the show as a competitor, as what she’s physically able to do on the ice.”

In last week’s show, Collins took a dramatic tumble on the ice during her routine and was forced to deny faking the fall.

Discussing if the attention on Collins is overshadowing the other hopefuls, who include Pussycat Dolls star Melody Thornton, former Strictly Come Dancing professional James Jordan and Love Island’s Wes Nelson, he said: “I think yes and I think unfairly so because we know we’ve got people like Melody, we’ve got Wes, quite a few of them now that are starting to break away and really commit to it and they’re brilliant.

“I think we’re in for a very exciting series. From here on in I think we are going to have probably one of the most exciting finalists on Dancing On Ice because we will not be able to call it.

“We’ve had Melody at the top of the leaderboard, James at the top of the leaderboard and Wes at the top of the leaderboard, we’ve never had three different people so early on take top slot.”

Dancing On Ice continues on Sunday on ITV at 6pm.