When have the judges ever inflated Jade's marks? She's been scored joint 5th (with Natalie) before, 6th on a jive is hardly a stretch, especially as they routinely slam tall people for it every time they get it regardless of how good it is.

Apologies - what I was driving at was what happened last year when the judges really overmarked Lisa despite plenty of mistakes- she got something like 34- that is what I meant- overmarked because of being a favourite

I hate it when they say tall people can't jive.

Matthew is the King of jive and disproves their theory every year.

I'm not sure Phil's Rumba could be any worse than Craig's Cha Cha (worked out by process of elimination).

I dont think that Jade IS one of their favourites is she she hasnt been raved about like some....however with the loss of Zoe I suppose she might get a promotion .....one that she doesnt need as she is doing quite nicely thanks without the judges ovremarking her.

I think it will be. They are not comfortable with each other physically - as witnessed when they are saved and they hug keeping as much distance as possible between them and give a little pat on the shoulder.

I don't think either of them are going to be comfortable with the dance of love. Can't wait to see it

One thing is apparent - the judges have got to start treating all the celebs the same- I wouldn't be aat all suprised if they had a little pecking order worked out in their heads as to place everyone.

Ali's paso last week was overmarked - she should have been behind Laila who did a better dance- but it seemed as if reputations were counting for a lot

Chris' cha cha was overmarked. He did extremely basic choreography and made many basic technical errors (splayed hands, poor hip action, counting the rhythm out loud) that have been pointed out to him many many times before. And yet he almost got 30, a score which people have struggled for weeks to get.

Overmarking by no means only gets meted out to those couples at the top of the table.

Yes I agree.......interesting that James said on ITT that they can pretty much work out where they are going to be on the leaderboard.

So why do the judges keep on doing it - because all that happens is that their favs end up in the dance off

I really like Chris but I did agree on Sat I thought 29 was generous as there didn't seem to be much content and I thought Ola did a lot of the work This week with the foxtrot he should do much better I should think.

Especially if James is helping too

I love Chris & Ola off the floor, but you have to wonder what the motivation is to try harder when they're (alledgedly) topping the public vote and getting decent judges scores for dances that don't meet even 30% of the potential he showed in week 1.

Pleased someone else thinks he was overmarked !

In addition plenty of people think that Natalie's jive was scored too highly, Ricky G's rumba never deserved an 8, Phil's tango was barely even a tango because of the rise and fall and Katya did most of the work etc etc.

And yet I'm sure by the end of the series it will become solid forums fact that these people were constantly undermined by the judges and Ali & Jade were always overmarked (when just a few weeks ago the general consensus was that Ali was undermarked for her salsa compared to Ricky Ws, as was Jade). It always does.

Completely agree. But it's also position on the leaderboard that add to the feeling that someone got an easy time or not. The judges are using so few of their paddles by now that the difference between a 7 and an 8 from Len or Alesha can feel huge in the heat of the moment. (I'd had a fair bit of wine when I was watching it on Saturday and can remember declaring loudly to the people I was with that Ali could now sit on the stairs for the whole dance and get 8s. And it's not that I dislike Ali and Brian, that was just how I felt about their scores after she'd - to me - smiled through it all and not acted it, which bugged me more than her lines, hands, etc.) If someone ends up in the lower half of the board it's hard to feel they've been overmarked, even if they have.

(I'm not saying I was right to feel that about Ali, perhaps she wasn't smiling perhaps it was pain, but that was simply how I felt in the 15 minutes when I could have been voting and wasn't.)

That sounds about right. In the early part of the last series, Rachel wasn't particularly a favourite (although her undoubted technique meant she received solid marks throughout). I remember Len being particularly harsh (imo) about her jive which I thought was quite impressive. However, from rumba week onwards, she suddenly seemed to click with the performance and the judges rewarded her accordingly. Unfortunately, that was also the week immediately after she was first in the bottom two which prompted many to conclude that she was being deliberately overmarked in order to keep her in.

Ali may well pull out a "Rachel Rumba" performance with her Viennese Waltz, get similar scores and a similar "artificially marked highly to keep her safe" tirade of comments.

I agree regarding Rachel.

The difference with Ali, though, is that there have been a couple of occasions where she's made glaring mistakes in her dances that have been overlooked when it came to her marks.

Rachel rarely made any errors.

Let's share the Rachel love.

After recent posts I think I'm in need of a fluffy thread - but I don't think this it the one.

mwaah - mwaah.

xxx

Ahhh I can now go to bed happy/horny! x x x

I agree with that too. However, I still think that Ali could dance a beautiful VW on Saturday (surely, if the VW doesn't suit her perfectly nothing will?) get some quite justified high scores and we'll still get a mass of "She was deliberately overmarked to keep her in" comments that completely disregard the actual dance.

Little Boy Blue..............

You're probably right tabitha.

I don't have much time for Ali & Brian generally, but their Ballroom is a strength. I even thought their American Smooth deserved another 10.

I'm sure they will do a wonderful VW.

But their Latin is totally unconvincing and that's where they've been too generously marked.

Less of the little

I'm not a huge fan of Ali's Latin either. In fact I'm a bit disappointed all round this year. Those with ability have the personality of an unpainted garden gnome and those with personality aren't really good enough. I'm throwing my support behind Jade. She's the only one who seems to tick both boxes.