Didn't he just....I noticed that his shirt was the same colour as the silks as soon as he appeared on screen!

Is it just me or is the show getting slightly better...?

Or at least slightly less awful.

I've only seen a few and this one was equally as crap as the others. Can't bear Jason, he is just an awful man. Liked Emma on it though. I'm sure this show would be better without Colleen on it.

Agree, Coleen laughs unconvincingly and still hasn't come to grips with the autocue, all in all as you say crap.

I watch it to get a glimpse behind the scenes, I especially enjoyed last night's bit with Stephen Adnitt from the costume department, I try to ignore Coleen!

I try to ignore Colleen too, and just watch it for the couples and the behind the scenes stuff!

What Chris said about the jumps, is exactly what would be said about competitive jumping but on a more simplistic level - i.e. the takeoff, the position in the air, and the manner of the landing, all need to be appropriate to the jump in question and each of those aspects should be marked.

I agree! I hope the ones who actually jump rather than "step" are marked better on that element.

How will we ever know what's marked? It's not like the scoring system used in the Olympics where it's all set out for all the relevant aspects and a commentator (Robin, for example) can say someone got a lower mark that it had seemed they would.

At most we'll get some judge saying they marked down, or gave a good mark, because of some aspect of it.

Besides, there are other things in the routines. A defect in the jump might be balanced by something else that was unusually good, so that there's no net change in the overall mark.

What would you see as the key difference? Both feet off the ice for some part of the move, or something more? (Just wondering.)

A required element is in a routine for a reason. If you get it wrong, you should be marked down, simple as. That's the same in any competition. Whether or not your performance and the rest of the routine is still good enough to earn you high marks is another question.

I couldn't agree more. I hope those who make the effort to do proper jumps get that recognised by the judges. There are one or two who I suspect might try to get away with barely even leaving the ice, let alone trying something ambitious or tricky...

A jump is both feet leaving the ice and you actually pushing down through your knee to gain height, not just a step across, which would last for much less time. (dependent on what jump you're doing of course. But whichever, you're still required to push down through your knee's for leaverage [sp?] into the jump).
I realise for some judges and viewers, they won't necessarily know the technicalities of the jumps they may see, but they should be able to tell the difference between a jump and a step.

Its the sort of thing that Robin would pick up on....is he back this week?

Yep, he is.

I would hope that the other judges would explain to the likes of Emma what to look for in the jump anyway, and how comparatively difficult the various jumps being attempted are. But maybe that's hoping too much...

Even Emma should be hopefully able to tell the difference between someone who jumps and someone who hops. But still, I agree, I hope she's done her homework. There are some great videos on the BBC website in the figure skating section which explain the different jumps very well, breaking it down to be able to recognise a jump based on entry, rotations and exits (for anyone who's interested and secretly hoping Bunton does too!).
Actually leaving the ice unassisted is the key and I think the gap in people's skating talents will really show tomorrow night because of this.

Thank goodness Robin's back! Brings some sense back to the panel! And some skating knowledge! Just in time.

I wonder who Jason will get his claws into now Sharron's gone....my guess is Emily!

But the judges' marks up to 6.0 are just saying who is better than who. If A is better, overall, than B, then A should get a higher mark, even if A made a mistake on a required element.

That's not saying the mistake in the required element is ignored, just that what's lost there might be made up somewhere else.

Even in the system used in the Olympics, sure, you get something taken away for a mistake, but you can still get a higher total than someone who didn't make a mistake there.

Oh for sure, especially with her being required to jump unassisted!

I sort of hope not - I want Emily to go, so I don't want her getting the anti-Jason vote really!

It sort of depends on the mistake, really. A little stumble on landing shouldn't be fatal to the routine, obviously, especially where it results from a more ambitious jump, but if you fail even to properly jump in the first place, given that's the required element of the week, I would have though that should significantly limit the mark you can get.

That's basically what I said yes. You should be marked down for an incorrect required element. However if you're performance overall is much better then you may finish higher (see Olympic thread for Lysacek vs. Plushenko debate!).
However of course on a show like this, doing a required element incorrectly won't affect the scores as much as in amateur competition. With performance-specific judges there's always going to be inconsistencies. That's what makes it interesting viewing.
In Olympic competition if you get your twizzles wrong, you get marked down harshly. On a TV show like this, it's not going to affect the marks as much.

What you say makes sense, but ... Try to do a step that has both feet off the ground without any push down through your knee. I tried it just now (on the floor beside me) and couldn't do it. I suppose that, theoretically, someone might be able to do it by maybe throwing up their arms really hard, or using their ankle, but it seems pretty unlikely that anyone in DOI would manage to do it that way.

So couldn't it be that if they manage to get both feet off the ice, that's good enough evidence that they did a jump, even if perhaps a very wimpy one?

May well be so as Jason has already said he thinks Emily should go this week (seems a bit premature IMHO)..

As to the marking of the jumps, on DOI they are using a version of the old competitive marking system where they used to get
marked out of six twice, for both artistic and technical, whereas on DOI it is just the one mark.

I can't recall the exact detail of how it worked (e.g. .5 off for a fall or whatever?) but I do remember that they could and did mark skaters down on artistic impression as well as technical merit if they messed up on jumps, etc. because it spoilt the overall look of the routine.

Well, I think they should definitely suffer in the marks if all they attempt is a very wimpy jump, even if it is still technically a jump...

I mean we're not in week one now, these 7 are all supposed to be relatively decent now! It would be pretty unfair if certain skaters could get away with just playing it really safe.