Are 7 & 8's warrented considering its only week 1.

As much as revel Horwood is considered the baddie are his scores more applicable for week 1 performances and this early part of the competiton?.

And how early do you think the 1st 10 will appear?

The only way to solve this little problem is to give the judges 0.5 paddles so they have up to 20 different scoring choices, although I think Len would still average a severrrn

Craig is the only one who regularly used the 1-4 paddles on the weaker contestants. I prefer to focus on the leaderboard and think that that was broadly right this week - I would maybe swap Goldie & Peter around but that would be it.

Average week 1 scores :

Series 1 : 24
Series 2 : 23
Series 3 : 22
Series 4 : 23
Series 5 : 25
Series 6 : 24
Series 7 : 24
Series 8 : 24

I think it's been fairly consistent across time by the looks of it. Highest score this series was 31, which is the lowest it's been since Series 2.

Hmm. Maybe the average is average, but where do you go if you start doling out 8's in week 1???? At least DOI has the policy of low scoring to start with. Maybe SCD should do the same.

This is surprising and puts it back in perspective I think.

I too had the feeling that they were scoring higher, but I'm obviously wrong.

They tend to give big scores at the start because they compare against a lower target and then set the bar higher each week - at least that's what they say they are doing.

It could also be that they blindfold themselves before the show and throw darts at some playing cards. That would explain the evenness over the series and how they can score Ann as highly as Felicity and Goldie.

But they are all different dances and each week is a brand new start so you cant really compare one week to the next its what is delivered on the night.

The only comparisons they can make are on that night against the other contestants and not what happend 3 or 4 weeks ago

The judges can adjust their expectations as to the dance standard each week. Craig mentioned it when talking to Gavin, that he doesn't normally expect to see good rise and fall in a Waltz in week one