Did anyone else feel that the judges' marks were just a touch peculiar this week?

I've have marked Gavin and Paul higher, as both showed evidence of trying to do the dance the way they were supposed to, and both were slated for not making it romantic enough (particularly odd for Paul as (as he pointed out) his wasn't supposed to be a romantic rumba). They both looked a lot better to me than the clunky Michelle. Jimi, too, I felt was a little bit done down - I couldn't see the overstraining the judges mentioned.

There was overmarking in evidence too, though; I mean, Scott was OK, but better than Kara and Matt? I dunno about that. And as for Peter's quickstep - I was cursing the telly all the way round.

I did wonder if some of the marking was to do with order - would Kara have got 31, and Pamela 35, if their running order positions had been reversed?

Or have I just missed a whole load of points?

I didn't notice them being more peculiar than they usually are. The only things I thought stood out were the slight overscoring of both Felicity and Pamela (which is often the case when they have one discipline which the majority of people suck at - they need to praise somebody for it. It was the same with the jives last year. If Tina had been fit, I think the marks might have shook out a bit differently), and the over-scoring of Peter (which is pretty much de rigeur post bottom two behaviour from the judges - most couples are overscores the week after bottom two-ing - bet Michelle is next week).

I missed Paul so cant comment on him, but Gavin was marked rightly. He wsent that good at all. if anyhting I thought Michelle and Bredan was good and was undermarked. I mena a 4 from craig?

Peter did a good job this weekend, I agree with his mark, not the best, but was good enough.

I missed Matt and Kara so cant comment on them.

Scott made me fall asleep so he was overmarked.

The marking has been very random this year, mostly with some horrible overmarking by individual judges (Michelle getting a 7 for the Rumba? Really? )

It would help if the judges other than Craig used the paddles less than 5 more often at the start - it would spread the scores out, and actually allow them to indicate progression over the weeks.

I think the scores are all over the place this year too. It seems common sense to score each couple based on what you have seen (except for the first couple obviously).

If you look at post #17 on Fudd's excellent thread here, a lot of the scores are simply ridiculous when you see how each judge grouped the couples!

I'd say this year the scoring by the judges makes a good case for not bothering at all with paddles and for each judge to simply present their own leaderboard once every couple has danced - a bit like Eurovision.

I looked at that post and my immediate thought was that Craig's spread of marks, as usual, hit the nail on the head.

I suggest a red button add-on to ITT, in which one other judge each week tries to prove to Craig that he scored one or two people too harshly, and both can use video to defend their point. I bet eagle-eyed Craig would win nearly every time.

Where they are still only doing one of two dances you might think there'd be more consistency because they can compare like with like on the same night,but I suppose it depends whether you expect their relative placings to match, or be pretty close to it. However this might depend on what individuals are looking for.....

In DWTS last week they gave both a technical mark and a performance mark; I wonder could we expect the judges to vary more in such responses, again because they are looking for/have the training to look for different things.
I haven't analysed the DWTS scores, the only common factors with SCD being Len and Bruno, there is only one other judge and of course all the couples are different.

I think that the dances are not all that influences their marking. We've been told that it's also an entertainment show. I find some of the marking to be peculiar but I never expect it, to be completely dance based.

That's really interesting, Craig really is the most consistent judge. I can't understand how Alesha marked Gavin's rhumba higher than Jimi's, or how she gave Felicity an 8 (not that I disliked Felicity's dance I just didn't feel it was an 8).

Good work Fudd btw!

It's the same old problem though - Craig is the only one that regularly uses all of his paddles, so the others tend to bunch too much.

TBH I now try to ignore the scores and concentrate on the leaderboard as that is what affects the outcome anyway. This week I thought that Kara should have been higher and not equal with Matt (she may have suffered by going 1st) and Felicity was too high for me, I thought she was on a par with Patsy & Michelle.

If anything, I thought Gavin was over-marked. His movements were rigid and his dance was devoid of emotion.

I find him to be quite a likable guy but he seems to be just going through the motions when he dances.

And as much as Peter improved, I thought the judges were overly generous with their marks for his Quickstep. It wasn't worthy of 7's in my opinion.

Craig had everyone in the right place (again), whereas Alesha and Bruno were the worst scorers this weekend.

I thought the 7 from Bruno for Kara was on the stingy side. No way was her Quickstep inferior to Scott's by 2 points.

I disagree about Felicity though. I thought she showed more flexibility and hip action in her Rhumba than Michelle did in hers.

Len showed himself up by giving Matt a 7 for the QS.

Felicity showed she was flexible but I just saw a lot of posing & posturing.

Which is needed in Rhumba! Flexibility, Romance, Slower Movement. Felicity was much better than Michelle who looked like a dying stick insect in some of her poses and def. wasnt fluid~!

What's with the epidemic of rhumba instead of rumba?

Too many holidays in France, perhaps?

¡escriben la ortografía correcta en español, por favor!

To me Len appears to be scoring on his expectations of the celebs.
He seems to mark them down when he thinks they are capable of much more and marks less abled celebs up when they show even a little bit of improvement.