That's possible. Katya pointed out to Craig that he missed something good Gavin did because he had his head down taking notes (not sure how she noticed though).

I think they often miss bits.

yes, in order to see the top left hand corner, they might block each others view as their stand is almost on the dancefloor isnt it?

What can I say folks, I love the girl. Its so nitpicking to pounce on her for the most trivial of things. Its nitpicking at its ugliest imo.

In any case her judging is extremely intelligent it seems in comparison to the 'know-it-all' GBP who keeps voting to keep Widders in.

trivial?
Her voting scores?

What's the important part of her job then..

Alesha isn't as bad as she used to be. With Bruno and Len going a bit bonkers, she does not seem as far out of her depth as she used to.

I didn't see her on ITT tonight, but from what I've read on here isn't it possible she meant that now she's watched it back it might have been an 8, but that her 9 balanced out Craig's score anyway? Not that she deliberately voted higher for that reason, but that that's how it worked out? I think it could easily be taken that way. I'm not really a fan of Alesha as a judge - well as anything really - but that's how it sounds to me, unless she's misquoted in this thread anyway!

If she is there just to give an opinion she should not be sitting as one of the judges . The major part of been a judge is the ability to spot when a contestant makes a mistake/mistakes and have to deduct marks accordingly. If she can't fulfill that part of the role she should not be called a judge and collecting £90,000.

True. They should both get the sack for gross incompetence.

I imagined her comment would cause uproar.

To be fair, the other judges are probably doing the same (balancing out Craig's marks), but at least Alesha admitted this.


I have more of a problem with Len who seems to think his generally higher scores are defensible on grounds of merit/dance skill assessment alone. He would not say (I don't think) that he scores that way to balance Craig's marks but rather because he believes the dance deserves that score. That is surely more worrying.

If Alesha adds a mark or two "to be nicer" for every contestant, it makes no relative difference.

Annoying though the inconsistency is, the litmus test is the judges' leaderboard, and - by-and-large - it's not usually that bad.

A portion of the GBP. Don't tar us all with the same brush of insanity.

Yup, last year it was Zoe and Natalie....oh and Ricky.

She disliked Matt and the actress who was in footballers wives (can't remember her name), Remember the drunken rag doll comment.

I actually quite like Alesha on the whole but she's a bloody awful judge - why do we need an ex-constestent perspective? Len and Bruno are there to give pats on the head to their pets and over-mark we don't need another person doing it. A 9 for Scott was ludriocious - a 6 was fair. Craig didn't mark him below 5 indicating the bits of the dance that were good and the fact he can dance. It's the public's job to save quality dancers who have a bad night - the judges' should mark the performance they see - no more no less.

The other judges have also been slated for their erratic (to put it mildly) marking on Saturday. Alesha is being singled out here because she is the one who appeared on ITT last night and made a bad job worse by her inane comments, and by treating it all as a bit of a joke.

Nit-picking?? Trivial things?? She has made a complete fool of herself by totally over-marking a dance when the contestant himself admitted that he completely blanked and forgot half the dance. This "trivial thing" - marking a routine - is her job! What else is she there for? She then made the situation worse by treating it as a total joke on ITT. I have defended her in the past but she is now beyond a joke.

Sorry, but your argument doesn't hold water.

Alesha doesn't undermark Matt because she sees him as a threat to Kara. Matt is topping the public vote - which means he is top of the public and judges' leaderboards combined. So he's pretty much safe whatever happens. He will probably win SCD8 and Kara will be lucky if she makes the final. She poses no threat to Matt whatsoever.

And Scott is a threat to Kara given that he is also more popular with the public than she is. So that blows that theory.

Scott isn't the only celeb to have lost the plot then not got bad scores from the judges. As I recall, Len was quite kind to Matt di Angelo when he gave up in the middle of a dance and just sat on the steps (which is a lot worse than what Scott did).

Frankly, it doesn't matter at all if Alesha (and Bruno) gave Scott more points than Matt. Both of them are in any case safe from being in the bottom two given their public support - so, as Matt was above Scott on the leader board, what's the problem? Matt was never in danger.

This isn't the first time in SCD history that the judges have scored erratically. And at least this wasn't a long-term set-up job that cost one of the series' best dancers their place in the competition, as we have seen in the past (exhibit A: Snowdonia).

This hysteria is a storm in a teacup and any fan of Matt's 'incensed' about it should get wise and start worrying about the prospect of Ann reaching the final - because that's much more of a threat to their favourite than any overmarking on the judges' part.

If it's 'nitpicking' to want a judge to mark on the individual performance rather than what a celebrity has done before then I'm proud to be a nitpicker. That's not trival - yes it's not unique to her but it's still bad.

On the basis of your arguement anyone could judge better than the GBP - although Len giving Ann a 7 calls his judgement into question - rightly so - but it doesn't defend Alesha. Most of Alesha's crtics probably aren't voting for Ann.

Undermarking/overmarking/general marking doesnt matter anyway. Viewers don't take to it, if so Anne would have been out in the 2nd week.

Matt DA did not give up - he blanked and couldn't salvage it and he came back the next week and did better - as a Matt DA fan it annoys me when people imply that he just couldn't be bothered and he could have done something about it. Yes Len and Bruno chronically over-marked him because they were being kind but they did so in the knowledge he would be bottom of the leaderboard no matter what mark they gave - it's still wrong but it had less effect. Yes Matt DA messed up worse than Scott but it's the same shame of someone good having a bad night - although with Scott what is concerning is the problem is more endemic - unless Scott's shooting schedule eases up he could have the same problem next week. However hard it is to do the judges' (and I understand how it could be to mark down a really good dancer and leave him to the mercy of a public which votes back Widdy in every week) should mark what's in front of them - it's up to the public to save people out of sympathy.

Apologies if I chose the wrong words that upset you re Matt DA - not my intention. I only raised it as an example as Len (and Bruno - thank you for reminding me) being kind to a celeb who forgot his routine.

Totally agree wth you re Scott's EE schedule and Moira Ross should have been on the phone to Bryan Kirkwood yesterday to try and sort it out. It's not in SCD8's interests to lose one of its best celeb contestants.

I hope I am not accused of Alesha-bashing, but I think the main problem is she is not articulate enough to defend her judging decisions. I think she also lacks articulacy in her feedback to the contestants/dancers, whether they be good or bad. She also lacks the histrionics of Bruno (therefore adding less comedy/drama) and as she is mostly giving the same scores as him I find her role a bit superfluous. And seldom does she say anything witty which can add to the entertainment value to the show. Without sounding horrible, I think the production team should see how she does at the more backstage type of work like Karen Hardy (although Hardy does have technical expertise to contribute), but I think they would not want to lose face over having selected Alesha as a judge for the show in the first place.

And I don't know whether it is to do with social or professional backgrounds, but I definitely feel that Alesha (and to some extent Len) 'click' much more easily with Scott and Kara than say other contestants like Matt and Felicity, which seems to be conducive to the awarding of higher marks irrespective of technical issues in the performance. This is not to say Scott and Kara don't deserve their high marks, but they should given based on the performances on the night.

I apologise then - supporting a marmite contestant makes you defensive (this year I'm a Pam supporter so I do seek them out rather).

I agree totally on Scott's EE schedule although perhaps it might not be easy to change in time they should try at least - it's filmed months ahead so perhaps they could fudge something that gives him a break for a month. Re-schedule some of his scenes or something.

I think that Alesha hit the nail on the head on ITT last night when she said that it's the come down after the Blackpool show. It was fairly evident that the slebs had lost their sparkle, it was all the pros could do to keep some of them awake. Actually, the pros weren't much better, I've yet to see a decent pro dance on this series yet, they're old fashioned and lacklustre and the costumes are pretty dire; I think at this stage in the competition the odd mis-marking is the least of the shows problems !

Well the best thing that can come out of it is that maybe it will make her more careful in future.


If I were Craig, I'd be quite cross that she was effectively trying to control his score as well as her own.
Talk about over-confidence!

Well, they both laughed after she said it, so I don't think he was bothered about it at all. Len does this as well, and I'm pretty sure he's said so on the nite.

I hope she will score better from now too. I wish Bruno would do the same too though.