Even with the fact she hadn't done it before and hadn't seen the whole series so far I still thought she was absolutely hopeless. The fact that she was obviously reading what she was saying meant one of two things - she was reading from notes she had made herself, or the whole thing was scripted (very very badly I might add). Also she didn't seem to know what scores she should be giving - even giving one of them with a shrug as if to say "why am I giving this an 8?". You see the judges conversing sometimes at score times but it looked as if the other three were telling her tonight what she must give - so are all the scores pre-scripted (barring disasters) at rehearsal too?

If it was all scripted and staged they could have had anyone at all. If not they should have had Ian Waite or Karen Hardy.

I noticed there was a lot of chat going on between the judges, ok it may have just been a catch up about the weather, but I did wonder. Whilst I thought that Len's absence did bring a more relaxed feel to the panel and a freshness to it, that is not to say I thought Jennifer was a good signing. The real shame was as you have said in your point, what a loss of an opportunity. If a replacement judge was needed for Len why not Karen or Ian?? Maybe producers were worried that Ian or Karen would have been too popular, showing up other judges and maybe this could have resulted in the producers being embarrassed into considering whether the replacement should be permanent.

Well she did the impossible and made Alesha look intelligent.

I feel she was used so as not to rock the boat. Nobody will be championing her return - job done. And no, I don't miss Len at all.

To be fair, almost all dances were overmarked and Bruno was as much a culprit as Jennifer, with Alesha not far behind. We're just used to them.

chocolate fireguard

The BBC got it so wrong!

D-U-L-L, dahling. And what's with all the "Wow, Jennifer GREY!" stuff? Dirty Dancing may have had Patrick Swayze and 'I've had the time of my life' in it, but the film itself was pretty crap and J. Grey rather forgettable, so why the fake adulation?

For an actress she didn't even seem able to memorize the lines that had clearly been written down for her. I'm guessing that even if the whole set had fallen down on someone whe still would have uttered the same inane (dare I say it: Arlenesque) comments.

At least by given almost everyone an eight she didn't influence the leaderboard positioning that much.....

They could have stuck an 8 paddle on a brush handle and stuck it on her chair and it would have looked more interesting .

Give Len a long holiday, preferably until the next series! The panel wasn't the Craig and Len Show as it is every week. It was good to see Craig not being O.T.T. this week. Jennifer Grey must have had a very calming influence on him!!

A good stand in for Len then, much of the time he does not make any technical comments and reads out a one-liner gag that either he has prepared beforehand or had written for him.

Much better atmosphere without miserable Len's shouting over the other judges and bitching like a tired old queen. Jennifer was pants, but it was a better show without Len for sure.

Oh I thought it felt flat tonight trev. I don't know who I missed more - Len or Nancy!

But it wasn't the same.

Even Jennifer seemed bored with herself towards the end when she was holding up her 8 paddle for the upteenth time.

It was her first time, judging in a different country. I'm pretty sure most people's first day in a one-off temp job isn't perfect.

Karen Hardy would have been ace at it and put others to shame.

Jennifer was dreadful, the script cards were written before she saw the dances, so what was the point???

But :

She was fine with Zoe in the week on It Takes Two...some evidence of a personality; so whose decision was it to give her scripts tonight? To her (limited) credit she appeared to abandon the pre-scripted line for the final dance, and just said what she thought - pity it didn't occur to her earlier.

No, at least a chocolate fireguard can be eaten. JG was just useless. Full stop.

She was worse than Brucie stumbling over the autocue. I still don't understand why they did'nt use one of our own very good dancers. Her scoring was rubbish but I did'nt miss Len at all. He's been a right old grump this year.

Why did the BBC waste our licence money on flying Jennifer Grey over as a judge, she may be a good dancer, but we have so many professional dancers such as Matt Cutler and Ian Waite who would have done a far better job. Her scoring was a joke.

Thinking back on it, the scoring was not Jennifer's fault but the way it was scripted for her. There did seem to be occasions when she wanted to say something or vote differently to the instructions she was given. Shame really, a genuine comment & vote (no matter how awkward) would have been far better than the talking head we had to endure.

Where was Patrick? I wanted Patrick instead. They could have put him on the Halloween edition.


Because half the women in this country treat the lurid pink kind of novelette the film was based on like cocaine. Or chocolate cakes with pretty bows...

Amazingly bad performance from Jennifer last night. It was cringeworthy, and the ever repeating 'urrrr-eight' was ridiculous.

All her comments were scripted, however who told her that Anita was a 'national treasure'? A few years appearing on Eastenders 20 years ago certainly does not make her that!!

Jennifer's dances on DWTS looks so impressive, but that doesn't mean she can critique other dancers.

One positive though ...... it highlighted the fact that Aleesha does know what she is talking about, and that she is doing a job that is not easy and she has definitely developed into a better judge.

Craig seemed to take on the mantle of head judge well, and to me is the only one who actually gives marks according to how well they dance, and they are all relative to each performance.

Please, no more Jennifer or celeb judges ...... they should have brought back Arlene for the week. Now that would certainly have drawn in the viewers.

It was obviously a "be nice to everyone" appearance...and that is always going to be boring.
I would have forgiven that if she had reprised her Argentine Tango (with Vincent ?) from DWTS on the show..best I've ever seen from a non-professional.

She seems a nice lady but a woeful judge, constant overmarking and not enough knowledge of dance to offer constructive criticism on the technicalities.

I really liked Craig last night because he wasn't quite so scathing. I like that he uses the full range of marks. I heard Len say once (think it was on ITT with Claudia) that he starts at 5 and would only very rarely give a mark lower than that which is just stupid!

Without Len they don't have anyone from the ballroom dancing field so i do think they should have had Karen or Ian on the panel instead of Jennifer and her insipid comments.

It did show Aleesha up well though, which i never thought i'd say . I do wonder if it could lead to a bit of a shake up in the panel for next year which i think it needs......