Which is why I started my initial post by mentioning that Scott was grossly over-marked.

I just feel Pamela was over-marked compared to Kara, Matt and Patsy as well.

i think they were making sure Scott had more votes than Widdy and was well over-marked!!!

Completely agree!! I was fuming with the judges. I have nothing against Scott, in fact I think he has done some great dances, but it seems it doesn't matter if he dances well or not. I mean two 9's for that dance? He even admitted himself it was littered with mistakes.

I know this thread is not about Matt but on the subject of marking he was seriously undermarked!! It's not the first time it has happened either in my opinion and it's getting beyond a joke.

I think the same thing happens sometimes with Kara aswell to be honest, the judges seem extra hard on her compared to Pamela. I'm no expert but I didn't feel Pamela's dance deserved those 10's. I felt Matt's was the best dance of the night.

Just want to finish of my little rant (apologies) by saying that I have nothing against any of the four dancers I have mentioned, I know they're out there doing their best. It's the judges I'm annoyed at!!

The marking by Alesha and Bruno for Scott and Pamela was completely wrong Matt and Aliona's dance was better by far they deserved better marks its about time that Alesha was retired at least
Arlene knew what she was talking about. Come on sort out this outdated marking system

He is soooo overrated! Inconsistent too - he can be quite good one week and crap the next! Hope he doesn't win - Kara should. She is the star the show imo, but Pamela was the best tonight

No. The most outrageous marking was for Kara who got THREE 9's (one more than Scott) for a pedistrian jive.

It was sloooooow, went off time and was boring (yes, she had precision (where she didn't err) but I've yet to see any real emotion from her).

She got 3 marks more than Scott for a weak dance so where is the critisim for her???????

Given that they started with 3 9s for Kara, chances were a lot of dances were going to be overmarked tonight in fairness. Just as she didn't deserve 3 9s, so Scott didn't deserve any 9s at all and Pamela didn't warrant any 10s either. That said, the overmarking for Scott was the worst of all.

It wasn't just that Alesha thought that Matt was worse than Scott, it was that she thought he was only one point better than Gavin. Her criteria for marking people seems so shallow.

There was very little wrong with her jive actually. She was a little laboured and ever-so-slightly out of time and scores ranging from 7>9 were quite apt considering how the rest of the dances were scored. I personally would have scored her an 8 and while we're not supposed to take these things into account, she basically only had two days to learn that dance and she looked very unsure and hesitant as a result. When all the scores are looked at together, Kara and Matt's scores tonight were the only ones that were appropriate actually. That's why there's not a lot of outrage over her marks

I'm disgusted by the marking tonight. At least twice in the routine, Natalie actually pulled Scott into position by his neck. She had to move him off the spot. He then got two nines.
The programme has lost all credibility for me. Werethe marks pre decided ? Matt was treated badly...as usual. I smell a rat, here.

She remembered all of her steps. Whether you agree whether she sold it or not is a different matter.

But Scott stumbled, tripped and forgot a lot of the routine and was yanked into place by Natalie as he was so obviously dead on his feet.

I don't say Kara deserved any of her 9s, but they are much easier to justify than Scott's.

I don't think Pamela deserved more than 8s, she had no double bounce or swivel in her routine, but again she remembered it, so I don't have such a problem with it as with Scott.

None of this is any of the dancers' faults though. Most of us are having a problem with the judges and not the dancers.

I was quite shocked by her marks as the jive was not great. Neatly done, but no oomph and yes a cartwheel for show effect:yawn: She is a good dancer, but this did not deliver to a 9 level. Looking at later scores though her position on the board was about right. The trouble is she went first and these so called judges seem unable to determine whether something should be pitched at 8 or 9 level. That was shocking.

Shouldn't we be laying the blame squarely where it belongs? With the judges?

And? Are you seriously insisting (and I like Scott and Natalie) that a performance riddled with mistakes and forgotten steps and actually being moved back into position by his pro on several occasions is comparable in marks?

The judging was contrived to achieve the leader-board they needed. Matt was always going to be safe, so it was less important to keep him at the top (where he deserved to be after tonight's dances, IMO).

I, too, am disgusted by the sheer manipulation of the marks. They were clearly thrashing around for words to justify the over-marking for Scott and Pamela and under-marking for Matt. Absolutely crazy. If I were Aliona, I'd be very annoyed at the slurs about her choreography, while complaining about Matt's facial expression does not justify deducting all those marks. I want Kara to win, but Matt did the best dance of the night, IMO, and he must be bewildered after all that (unless the producers have taken him to one side and explained their cunning plan).

Hardly worth voting if they've got it all so stitched up, is it?

If Scott Maslen looses anymore weight, we will have to file a missing person's report................. sheesh!

No, he looked bewildered and more than a little pissed off, which is very unusual for him, so I don't think the producers have included him in their evil master plan .

Given his comments towards Aliona afterwards as well (he repeatedly thanked her which was...odd), I think he felt slighted on her behalf, to be honest, as most of the comments were choreography-linked. He nodded along with the comments about his dancing in agreement though, but I do sense that he was confused by the difference in attitude shown towards him and then some of the others.

yes the marks are pre decided in the dress rehearsal, its happened a few times when the judges marks really dont match the dancing standard the judges have pre-told the BBC their marks earlier in the day, its making this programme a farce

Yes agree with blatent overmarking but I think they ended up in the appropriate order in the leader board thanks to CRH's 6. Possible smacks of the fact the judges know how each other are voting and they can cancel each other out. Maybe they should have 5 (proper) judges and do what many scoring events practice, and disregard top and bottom votes.

If Bruno, Alesha and Len over score everyone and they don't follow Craig's example of actually scoring for dance content when judging Anne then all the scoring get's forced upwards. It's nuts.

It's no the competitor's fault if they get over scored, I think Kara and Scott didn't think they deserved they scores they got - to their credit. What concerns me is that Matt seems to think he does deserve higher scores for what was, imo, a confused routine which he danced with a constipated expresssion - and I like Matt!

If they had 5 judges and marked out of 20 then you'd get (perhaps) a more honest reflection.

Maybe they should score out of 10 for technical merit and out of 10 for performance.

If they used the paddles properly, then fine, but Craig is the only one that does. Len and increasingly Alesha and Bruno only use 8-10 for most of them and I can't see them doing anything differently if I'm honest. They would still have given 9s and 10s out like sweeties last night, whether they had one paddle or two.

Why is Scott so unpopular on here...or is it a carry over from the hate of Natalie last year? Yes, he did have an off night last night but most of his dancing has been good.

It's not Scott that most of us have a problem if you read our replies, it's the judges. Scott - nice guy but DID NOT deserve 9s for that routine. That's not his fault, it's the Judges'

I've only started voting over the last few weeks. I was angered into voting for Matt last night, I voted for Kara last week when Len marked her down and for Scott after Craig's mark for his rhumba. Two of the judges have marked down the best dancers and the other two have over-marked others. '10' s for Pamela & James last night were ridiculous.