Originally Posted by Paace:
“3 judges work perfectly well on DWTS so I can't see why the same format should not work on SCD.
Of course all 3 judges should be capable of spotting any footwork mistakes.”
3 on DWTS are there to make the comments simpler and more anodyn for a US audience. 4 allows a greater range of comment from a better range of perspectives and characters. Footwork is onlyone factor and the least important in deciding the voting.
You need people who can comment ,and disagree sometimes, on the dramatic impact (Bruno and Craig) people to deal with the minor details that add to or substract from the total (Bruno and Craig) and people who are a comedy character in their own right (Bruno and Craig) On top of that you need someone less flamboyant who knows something about technique (Len) as an older voice of wisdom. When the older voice of wisdom has no impact when he tells people to vote on the dancing not for anything but, you need a younger, popular, fourth judge to try and coax the voters into more rational voting. She's currently called Alesha and she was introduced to replace Arlene who was too much like a cross between Craig and Len and was pushing voters in the wrong direction to vote against her. .
The US show has less of a problem with its voters, identifies with Bruno as nearly being a familiar US character himself and thinks Len is quaint and English and does a better accent than Dick van Dyke. They wouldn't like Craig's un PC comments. They then just add a standard looking and sounding US TV show female character to make it look more familiar.