I thought I'd continue looking at the judges' scoring for this series. What I've done is compare each judge's average score for each of the 5 semi-finalists against the other 3 judges' average scores. The answer is in each case represented by a percentage of the other judges' average.

I used the stats from the excellent ultimatestricty.com this time (saving a bit of work). Each couple has danced 12 routines in total, with the following average scores:

Harry+Aliona: 34.5
Chelsee+Pasha: 34.3
Jason+Kristina: 34.1
Holly+Artem: 32.8
Alex+James: 30.3

First, Craig. My impression (apart from his being much stricter than the others) has been that he's been favourable to Jason (especially in his comments), so let's see:

Jason+Kristina: 95%
Chelsee+Pasha: 93%
Holly+Artem: 92%
Harry+Aliona: 92%
Alex+James: 83.5%

Average for all 5 couples, relative to the other judges: 91.1%

Well, to a small extent his pro-Jasonism has been confirmed. The low scoring for Alex is partly due to the fact that he marks more strictly, but equally that implies he's also quite favourable toward Holly.

Now Len. His aversion to Aliona (well, perhaps more to her choreography!) seemed to be resulting in some low scores for her and Harry:

Alex+James: 104%
Jason+Kristina: 101%
Chelsee+Pasha: 99%
Holly+Artem: 97%
Harry+Aliona: 95%

Average for all 5 couples, relative to the other judges: 99.2%

So this is confirmed. The high relative scoring for Alex isn't a reflection of being less strict than average because he's almost exactly average in strictness (relative to the others).

Now Alesha. She seemed to me to be deliberately countering Len's low scoring of Harry:

Harry+Aliona: 111%
Chelsee+Pasha: 107%
Alex+James: 106%
Holly+Artem: 105%
Jason+Kristina: 104%

Average for all 5 couples, relative to the other judges: 106.6%

Well, clearly she has a preference for Harry, and also Chelsea.

Now Bruno. I felt he was pretty even-handed with his scoring, though slighty more generous than some:

Alex+James: 107.5%
Holly+Artem: 106.5%
Harry+Aliona: 103%
Chelsee+Pasha: 102%
Jason+Kristina: 101%

Average for all 5 couples, relative to the other judges: 104%

The fact that he was more generous than average is probably the main reason for elevating Alex and Holly. So, yes, he seems to be marking pretty consistently.

Alesha
That would be the 10s she was throwing around like candy earlier in the series.

I'm bumping this thread because it seemed to get buried rather rapidly in a flurry of new threads, and there may be some people who would find it interesting - also because it took a little bit of work to compile.

Hope you don't mind!

I find it very interesting - particularly as it proves Len's underscoring of Harry - I think because he's never forgiven Aliona for saying on ITT that she never listens to the judges. Petty.

Interesting stats, thanks.

It looks like Len is still the "benchmark" judge, which is surprising, for some reason I thought his scoring was more varied than that.

That's always been my impression too, I suppose because they are 2 Aussies of a similar age, he's biased towards Jason. Not sure why he didn't give similar bias towards Holly, perhaps he just doesn't fancy her.

Yes, I think it's a combination of that, plus the fact that some of her earlier choreography did have far too much faffing about. Now that she's giving us some decent choreography, with plenty of content, I think Len's become much better disposed towards them.


You're welcome! I do think that Len is the "middling" judge, his scoring being somewhere between the strict Craig and the generous Bruno and Alesha. However, if you look closely at the figures, you'll see that his scores have quite a "spread". Now, you'd expect a bit of a spread for a judge who's either very strict or very generous, but Len is average, so I think your initial instinct is actually correct: his scoring is rather varied (relative to the other judges).


That was my conclusion too! However, I don't think he'd be that blatant, so it's probably a combination of that and the fact that Jason puts a lot of effort into his dancing, and the performance aspect of it (something that Craig is always looking for).

Very interesting.
Seems to show to me: -
Craig goes for performance and theatricalities.
Bruno for trying hard and looking elegant (females only).
Alesha for lust and empathy.
Len for content or performance but not necessarily both.

I think I ought to clarify how to interpret the results (otherwise it's easy to draw the wrong conclusions):

The average figures (of 91.1% for Craig, 99.2% for Len, 106.6% for Alesha and 104% for Bruno) are an indication of whether the judge is strict, middling or generous. So Craig is strict, Alesha and Bruno are generous and Len is middling.

You need to take this into account when looking at the figures for each couple: for a strict judge, you'd expect an extra-low figure for a lower-scoring couple - hence Craig's 83.5% for Alex and James. It's not so much that he doesn't like Alex and James, it's just that he penalises their poorer performances more than the other judges. But if his figure for Harry and Aliona had been 83.5%, that would have implied that he had something against that couple.

And for a generous judge, it's just the opposite. That's why I think Bruno has been the most consistent of all the judges. He has very little spread in his figures, particularly when you take into account the fact that his highest figures are for the lowest-scoring couples (which is a natural consequence of being generous).

That's why I'd say that Bruno has been the best judge this series!

Because of low spread?

You know, Jennifer Gr-eight got slated for giving 6 8's in her week.

Bruno gave 5 7's (and 3 8's, 2 9s) that week - not much better. And 6 7's in week 4. In week 3 (broadway) he gave 7 and 8 to pretty much everyone except Nancy and Dan.

An alternative perspective is that Bruno is not very discerning particularly when it comes to those in the middle ranges. His score range is often low which can indicate a lack of actual /judging/ since in his book everyone would be so close on the board.

The perspectives aren't necessarily right or wrong - but it can be easy to get carried away with figures. For instance (I know this has already been said) Len's been giving out the 10s lately now Aliona has less faffing about. Was Len biased before, or was he correct to criticise the lack of content? Being in the minority does not make one incorrect or 'biased' alone... just a thought.

Malik24 - and I mean this with the greatest respect! - I think you've slightly misunderstood what I've been trying to say (I probably haven't explained it very well, and it's not the most straightforward of things anyway).

When I say Bruno's figures have a tight spread, it's not his actual scores that don't vary very much, it's that, when you compare his scores with the other judges (whatever the actual scores are), then he matches them consistently (in his case, slightly higher than the average of the others, because he's a little "generous"). If Bruno's scores were more "samey" than the other judges, this would show up as a wider spread, not tighter.

Some would argue that Craig's scoring is better, because he's more strict, and so gives greater diversity in his scores. I'd agree with this point of view, except you have to take into account the fact that, if everyone scored as strictly as Craig, there'd be a lot of disheartened contestants! So, I think you have to allow for this when looking at the other judges.

Craig's figures also have a pretty tight spread (if you ignore Alex and James), but there is a question mark over his scoring of Jason, so I think that this year, Bruno has shown best consistency (when comparing with the average of the other judges' scoring), albeit with a touch of generosity to the lesser couples.

I think Len's been the least consistent (surprising, I know). All this is saying is that he's differed from the other judges, depending on the couple. It could be that the other judges are looking for things which Len doesn't look for, and vice-versa. But I don't think he's shown such inconsistency in previous series (especially in the earlier years - but of course there was less faffing then...).