But I don't think Scott necessarily has to act as the benchmark.

Relative to Patsy who was neat, clean, precise and had intensity (not enough but it was there), Pamela was scored too highly.

I wasn't using Scott as a benchmark, the thread is about Scott and Pamela had been mentioned, so the comparison was already being made.

I said relative to everyone else. And for my part I thought Patsy's AT was stiff, limp and lacked any kind of expression at all, and was overmarked considerably. But we all have different opinions, and mine is that Pamela was better than everyone else, and I stand by that

Where had Alesha & Bruno to go after marking Scott 9's each.

I was steaming that Matt got an 8 from Alesha and a 9 from Bruno. Therefore by rights both Matt and Pamela deserved 10's. That's the problem with sympathy marks so high you have nowhere to go if someone actually gets it right.

I like Scott but the blatent overmarking made me shout at the TV - seriously 9's for that?? Then I just didn't want to watch anymore even though I love Strictly. But then it got worse with Matt only getting 8's and Pamela's messy dance getting 10's - I am left feeling pretty peeved. Alesha and Bruno were both out of line tonight, and Len last week - leaving Craig as the only judge in whom I have any sort of trust. His 1 for Anne was fair.

Everyone seemed really poor tonight. Scott is probably my favourite celeb. However I do agree that Scott messed up and so it was surprising he was marked so highly. Don't know why Len (?) referred to the Three Step as if it was an advanced foxtrot step either when it is a basic part of the foxtrot (admittedly not an easy step for a basic one). .

The marking was all over the shop tonight, apart from Craig's marking. Scott was overmarked, Pamela was overmarked, Patsy definitely didn't deserve a mark as high as she got.. Anne was overmarked again.
Yes, I know it's not a dance competition, it's an entertainment programme with dance as its theme, but a bit of consistency in marking by the so-called experts would not go amiss.

i couldnt believe those last 2 scores, im a fan of Scott but really he needs to say to Eastenders i need a break! and devote a bit more time to dancing, totally overmarked i dont understand it

Quote Erin Boag on twitter

I am steaming! Open your eyes judges.
20 minutes ago via Twitterrific .

If they give this dance less than Scott then I will have to vent more steam!
21 minutes ago via Twitterrific

The scoring tonight has been the worst of this series so far. As soon as they gave Kara 9's for a rather lackluster jive there was no room for manouver.

I'm also throughly fed up with being told every five minutes (on SCD and ITT) how tired Scott is due to work, are we meant to believe he didn't know how much of his life SCD was going to take over before he signed up, we are in series 8 after all. Unless he had to do the show at the behest of his employers then why sign up just to moan about not having enought time!!!!!

I felt so sorry for Matt, he looked so confused at the judges comments and quite rightly too because so am I.

If Matt had any nads he would pull out of the show.

Okay, I'm going into conspiracy overload here, but rumours abound on this forum (from reliable sources, as the saying goes), that Matt leads the public vote, with Scott second, Ann third, then Gavin, with Pamela, Patsy and Kara all fairly evenly matched behind these four in terms of public support. So, by manipulating the leader-board in the way the judges have tonight and IF (a big if) the supposition about the public support is correct, the scores could be:

Pamela 7 + 3 = 10
Kara 6 + 2 = 8
Matt 5 + 7 = 12
Scott 4 + 6 = 10
Patsy 3 + 1 = 4
Gavin 2 + 4 = 6
Ann 1 + 5 = 6

Even if Patsy does better with the public vote than Pamela or Kara, she would still be in the bottom two with Gavin and be going home. But this can only be achieved by ensuring that Pamela and Kara top the judges' scoring.

There's nothing they can do about Widdy this week if her public vote holds up, so this is the only way they can ensure Pamela and Kara's safety for a while longer.

I know it doesn't explain why Scott was marked so highly for his cock-up, but Natalie said their dress rehearsal had been great. If that was the case, then the judges would have been expecting to mark it highly, and could have worried that not giving him high marks would upset their carefully planned result.

It wasn't just the scores which annoyed me, it was the judges' comments. Matt danced fairly well and must have felt completely deflated by all the negativity coming his way afterwards. Gavin danced badly and got some rather caustic comments. Scott forgot the routine and sleepwalked his way through most of the dance and they practically leant over the desk and tickled him under the chin.

Agree. They seem to be fawning over Scott even when he is obviously dancing less well than Matt.

Does Scott have photos of the judging panel in compromising positions?

but why??

I don't understand.
He sleepwalked his way through that, he should have had 28 max, 4 x 7

Do they know something we don't?

I love that idea - it would explain a lot!!

I do agree completely that Scott was overscored tonight, absolutely and it's ridiculous that he got 9s for that routine when he messed up not once, not twice but a multitude of times. However, the sections that he did dance well, he danced very well and scoring aside, I think that's what the judges were trying to get across to him. Plus it was another great routine from Natalie.

With Matt, he didn't mess up as much as Scott, nowhere near it, but he also didn't dance as well in the sections he did get right. And Aliona's routine was woefully bad I think that's why he was marked 8s. However, I'm glad Matt was above Scott in the leader board because Scott did mess up an embarrassing amount of times.

Scott was disgustingly over-marked tonight, it is actually outrageous. He is so tired.. blar blar blar! Yes well why commit to doing a show when you have a full time busy job where you know you work 12 hour days filming then moan on about it at every opportune moment!

I like the way you think.

You mean Alesha and Bruno are handing them out like sweeties.

And sorry hun, I disagree, she didn't have the double bounce or swivel that is key ingredient of the dance. Look at how the other couples are taken apart for their lack of basic execution of a dance, their hips or their heel leads.

For me, the standout charleston has been Kara and Artem's and they got 4 8s, that marking of Pamela and James was ridiculous. She slipped and missed a few steps but got 10s when Kara was perfect and got 8s.


And don't get me started on Scott!

It was a total contradiction after the judges comments to gives 9's, makes a joke of the scoring really.

yep completely agree. he was doddering around completely confused where he should be next and it was bliddy obvious to anyone watching that he was completely lost at times. They slagged matt off for getting a couple of his steps but forgave scott cos he is "tired" I have no sympathy. he shouldn't have agreed to do it - he knew his EE schedule.

Oh I agree it wasn't the best Charleston of the series, I'd be with you on that one, but I'm not judging solely on technique, I'm looking at overall performance, and Pamela was the only one who acted with any kind of conviction tonight. That pushed her above Matt and Kara in my ranking. They all made mistakes, so I have to separate on performance. If Pamela had done the Charleston on the same night as Kara she probably wouldn't have scored higher, but she didn't, so she had to be marked relative to the rest of tonight's poor offerings.

Course, but point is Scott couldn't even do his moves yet got 9s. Alesha gave him a 9, yet Matt an 8

Fair enough hun! It's just so flipping frustrating that that Charleston will be held up as the outstanding Charleston of this series when it so patently wasn't.

I wonder if Kara gets to final/semi, they'll let her redo the Charleston and get more than that!