Now that we're nearly at the end of the series, do other people think a 10 means less than it used to.

In the first few series a 10 was really hard to come by and it was a miracle if you saw one until the last few weeks, or the dance was really exceptional, Jills jive.

Now they seem to be given at the drop of a hat. I really only consider it a worthy 10 if it comes from Craig. He is definitely the most consistant and fair judge. I don't always agree, but that's mostly when it's a fav or someone I can't stand.

The other three judges are far too quick to reach for their 10s, especially Alesha and Bruno.

Just catching up after a few days...

In actual fact the number of tens for this series is way down from the previous two series. Stat alert...

Number of tens per series

Series 1 : 1
Series 2 : 7
Series 3 : 13
Series 4 : 14
Series 5 : 37
Series 6 : 59
Series 7 : 28 (up to and including semi-final / 5 judges from quarter finals)

And here's the top ten tens per celebrity

Rachel Stevens 25
Lisa Snowdon 20
Alesha Dixon 19
Ricky Whittle 16*
Ali Bastian 12*
Matt Di Angelo 9
Austin Healy 8
Gethin Jones 7
Zoe Ball 7
Mark Ramprakash 7

* signifies receiving marks from five judges from quarter finals onwards.

Hope that helps

ETA If anyone needs any other ten info let me know

Jill Halfpenny does not even get into the top 10..unless you count Christmas specials. To me, that just shows how the marking has changed..even allowing for the fewer dances in series 2.
Jill returned and won the 2008 Christmas edition against Alesha, Rachel and Lisa. Only a one-off dance in the specials of course, but she was great.

Up until this series I'd say tens were definitely becoming devalued. They started being given out like sweets in series 5 and it got ridiculous in series 6. They seem to have reined it in a little this series although Alesha still seems a bit ten happy. However, only Ricky and Ali have had tens this series and the number has reduced so, hopefully, the judges have decided to try to put a lid on the quantity being given out.

That's not to say that a performance that truly mesmerises and is practically flawless shouldn't be given a ten but please, let us believe they really mean something! Does anyone watching really think that the likes of Jill, Denise, Zoe and Colin were really that much (or at all) inferior to those that came later? Of course not!

They are using a different range now if you look at the marks for series 1 - even in the final and SF then they were using 4 to 10. There must have been an awful lot of 5s 6s and 7s to produce the marks throughout the series they did. Now, 7s and 8s are used like confetti, so 9 and 10 have to be used more too. Thats partly perhaps because if they gave someone a 4 in the final today they would win on the audience vote and anything below 7 is seen as harsh.

Don't forget that there were 4's in the first final because of Christopher Parker, and that we haven't had anyone in the final who was anywhere near as bad since. I agree that marking has gone up over the years, but I'm not sure that the 4's given in the first final not being repeated since are an example of that.

Series 6 took the giving of a 10 to a new and completely ridiculous level. It has been less in evidence this series (apart from a couple of notable ones from Alesha) However I think that reflects the lack of really good dancers in this series rather than any change in the judging. In this series has anyone other than Ali and Ricky been given a 10 ?

It's all Chris Hollins fault

ofcourse it is.

In response to a PM here's the full list of tens for celebs...

Rachel Stevens 25
Lisa Snowdon 20
Alesha Dixon 19
Ricky Whittle 16*
Ali Bastian 12*
Matt Di Angelo 9
Austin Healy 8
Gethin Jones 7
Zoe Ball 7
Mark Ramprakash 7
Tom Chambers 6
Colin Jackson 5
Jill Halfpenny 5
Matt Dawson 3
Emma Bunton 3
Denise Lewis 2
Kelly Brook 1
Darren Gough 1
Louisa Lytton 1
John Barnes 1
Natasha Kaplinsky 1

* signifies receiving marks from five judges from quarter finals onwards

Series winners in bold.

If Chris Hollins should win, he could be the first winner to have never received a ten.

For me the only dances that deserved 10s this series are Ricky and Natalie's QS and Semi-final waltz. Lots of their 9s were also deserved.

Looking back at previous series now just upsets me.

Yes but I don't think they could give 4s now without the anti-judge vote taking him to a win. even a 6 or 7 is in danger of adding a lot of votes, Once you start giving Chris 8s and 9s and not 6s and 7s you have to give Ricky a 10.

I think the judges have wised up to just making sure the couples end up in what they see as the correct order on the leader board when the series is nearly over - should be easy with just two couples!

So Lisa's cha-cha, foxtrot and QS, Rachel FT and Matt DiA's waltz were worthy?

For me, the fact that Colin Jackson doesn't top the ten top (:P) says enough.

I think in series 5-6 the 10 situation was getting out of hand. It was starting to become a devalued mark. Generally Craig is the only reliable one.

The lower numbers of 10s in this series isn't entirely indicative that they've reigned themselves in though. I think it is more to do with the fact that there just haven't been that many stand out dances this season that have nailed it in terms of both performance AND technique.

Ummm, the other - and let's face it. more likely - explanation is simply that the quality of dancing this year has been lower.

Quizmike's stats are interesting, but you've got to factor in some other facts.

For example:
[LIST][*]The increasing number of contestants: 8 in Series 1, 16 in Series 7. That along would account for a doubling in 10s.
[*]The greater length of the competition: Series 1 was over in 2 months, Series 2 is a 4-month monster. So the contestants have much longer to learn to dance, and it's therefore natural that they'd improve more.
[*]Greater experience of the pros: a lot of the pros have been doing this for 5 years or more now, so they're quite experienced in training celebrities. It'd be only natural that they're getting more out of their partners overall.
[*]Greater experience of the celebs: now that SCD is an institution, it's more clear what the learning process is, and celebs are possibly more clued-up about how to dance.[/LIST]
Those factors alone could well explain the rise in 10s - there doesn't have to be any mysterious grade inflation going on.


I think there's a natural tendency to eulogise past contestants, which is maybe overdone.

I think this series has had an absence of "journey" improvements - there've been no real zero-to-hero stories.

Oh yes, I forgot that.

While I wouldn't deny that this is the case, my point still stands. Several of the better dancers in earlier series would be able to match the quality of the more recent ones far more closely than their ten tally suggests.

Even allowing for the increase in series length, the proliferation of tens in recent series looks disproportionate.

Rachel and Lisa did 16 dances, Jill and Denise 11 and Zoe and Colin 13.

Factoring this in, Rachel got three times the number of tens that Zoe and Jill did and Lisa three times the number of tens Colin did and six times the number Denise did. Was dance talent thus proportional? Really? Even allowing for rose tinted glasses?

But there's twice as many dancers now, and they're learning and dancing for twice as long.

So in Series 1 you had a total of 50-odd dances in total. But in Series 7 we had over 50 dances by week 3 - and probably 200 or so over the series.

So with 4X the dances, it's not surprising that there are 4X as many 10s.


Maybe.

I'm not saying there's no inflation - there probably is. But there are lots of other factors at play, you know?

The numbers of dancers aren't really relevant. I'm talking about the two highest scorers. Look at their numbers. Rachel and Lisa did 16 dances. Jilll and Denise did 11. Zoe and Colin did 13. Simple arithmetic tells us that the number of tens received by the best dancers has gone up way in excess of the number of dances. The number of dancers aren't really relevant - I'm looking at the top two scorers as regards tens. The standard may have risen a bit. But not that much. The top two scorers from series 2 and 3 could hold their own with the top two from series 5 and 6.

Well, they might be, as part of the larger picture.

For example, it's pointless saying "there are 4X as many 10s, it's all Horrible Mark Inflation, Where Will It End" if there are 4X as many - for example - 7s as well.


Yes - and it's a good point. The judges may well be handing out 10s more frequently to their favourites now. For example, it's difficult to believe that Lisa (20) was better than Alesha (19).

On the other hand, I'm far from convinced that they're handing out more 10s overall, for the reasons I stated.

It probably needs a bit more detailed analysis. Light the Quizmike Signal!

Yes, it was fabulous.

It was but it wasn't better than Tom's, Alesha's, Goughie's or Jill's.

It was probably 10 worthy but not four 10's.

Yes it was. Tom's footwork was poor. I can't stand Lisa Snowdon but both she and Rachel deserved 4 10's for their Foxtrots. Beautiful hold, beautiful footwork. Their Foxtrot's were first class.

I love Jill but her Ballroom hold wasn't that great when she did the series, she improved it a lot later on though.