This!!

I actually think Craig is right that Louis should be better than he is. But, it was totally unprofessional to talk about Louis like that, & I don't agree that he is over-confident.

I can't put my finger on what it is with Louis that's lacking. While I love Flavia, I do feel it may be partly personal connection that's missing. I think Louis may have been better with Natalie who has a more athletic style of dance, perhaps better suited to him. She's also taller & a phenomenal teacher. I think she's less shy than Flavia & that might help Louis with his self-consciousness.

I would have agreed with you until this week but

1) it seems to be getting personal with Craig. You give him a 6, huge outrage, job done. But he keeps on.

2) there seem to be lots of stories drip drip dripping about Louis' attitude. Weird if he's the chosen one

3) why would you need create such strong feeling if he's popular anyway?

Really? I think you'll find (ringer or not) that the best technical dancer is Denise. Louis, while very good, is more about tricks and stunts which he pulls off effortlessly.

Agreed. I don't buy the conspiracy shtick.

Craig has always had irrational favourites & betes noires & always had a tendency to get personal & mouth off about them...

I don't think the judges should be allowed to speak out in the press about the contestants while the show is still on. They have their say on the Saturday and then again on ITT, so they then shouldn't be allowed to further announce what they dislike about certain contestants! Surely this could influence the public!

Arlene did that and look at the trouble it got her into....

Sorry to say it but for a whole variety of reasons I feel all the judges lost a lot of their credibility some time ago apart from Darcey who has only had half a series so its a bit too early to judge. Louis over confident? Not so sure about that. I do think he needs to sharpen up considerably on the performance side however. Technically he is quite sound but none of his dances have blown me away and I think where as 6 was probably a bit harsh a 9 was over the top generosity last week. So all 4 judges were wrong imo!!

Journalists really seem to want to talk about Louis. In the last few days we've learned that he wants a fly-on-the-wall tv show in which we can watch him play computer games, and also that he's turning up late for rehearsals and getting bored of SCD. Whether true or not, who knows. Whether relevant or not, that's easier to judge.

But still I agree with Monkseal and with J.R. on the main two issues in this present article. Yes, Louis can be criticised / tough-love-encouraged. He's not above that. And yes, Craig should have been allowed to say his piece whatever the judges or the crowd thought of his judgement.

But Sid is probably right that we're being manipulated with all this palaver. It's just more votes for the boy who doesn't really need em

I think some people on here are so convinced that the show is set up to favour Louis that everything is interpreted as helping him and part of some fix for him to win. It's getting a bit ridiculous. I don't see any way a judge calling someone over-confident can help them on a reality TV show. It's basically saying arrogant and smug which are about as unforgivable a thing as anyone can be on something with a public vote. Plus he's a young successful mixed race man with an unusual/stupid haircut so a lot of the people watching will be all too keen to believe he needs putting in his place. The idea that this and the other stuff this week doesn't damage him is daft.

And the obvious person to say Louis wasn't as good as was Denise. But Craig knows what he's saying will make some people cross (while influencing a lot more) and so he's careful that any of that reaction sticks to Kimberley and Lisa and not Denise.

Oh,monkseal stop being so reasonable and standing in the way of a good shock and outrage strop, some of us enjoy them.

I am more shocked to learn that CRH is 47 I thought he was a decade older.

Hair cut is daft but you'd have to be a UKIP voter or worse to want to keep a black kid down? Craig's not that bad!

I'm laughing and pointing alright, but not at Craig .

I agree it's all just to stir things up and make Louis' eventual win more interesting. Either that or they've realised how easy it is to wind up Louis fans and are just having some fun .

I think it is more a case of that the LOUIS articles are the ones that get their very own threads made which makes it look like it is ONLY Louis they are talking about.

Take this article for instance :

Craig Revel Horwood Claims Public Hate Kimberley Walsh

http://tellymix.co.uk/reality-tv/str...ley-walsh.html

This could easily have its own thread for everyone to discuss but it doesn't, so I think it is DS'ers who make more of the Louis headlines than anyone else. Also most times it isn't actual LOUIS fans who make these threads from what I can see.... I think it is a case of other contestants fans knobbling the opposition

What I love is that Craig is always trying to claim some moral victory over the X Factor for being scripted/fake/contrived, and yet he's the one always coming out with sh1te like this...

I think Craig's absolutely right. Louis will never live up to the potential that he has if everyone just says he's already brilliant. He's not. Sometimes I see moments where I think he could be, and it annoys me that no-one has told him straight out that he's got a lot of work to do to reach a level where he truly is great. He's pigeon-toed, something that it took them weeks and weeks to tell Ricky Whittle off for. I'm waiting for them to say it to Louis, but they haven't yet which is a real shame because it ruins so many of his lines and makes his footwork look exceedingly messy. But they're too busy telling him he's fantastic because he has some rhythm. It's total bollocks. I want him to turn his bloody feet out. I want him to fix his frame in hold. I want him to make his body flow when undulating, as opposed to snapping into place. I want so many things and the judges just won't tell him. It's extremely frustrating.

Let's just get a little mathematical ...

I lurve watching Louis and I enjoy listening to the comments made by the judges, but I also felt that when Craig only gave him a 6 last week it was out of order; and I wonder if that had anything to do with the other judges each giving him 9.

I would have awarded an 8 from each judge = 32

But he received 9 x 3 + 6 = 33

So - in that respect he came out even better than I thought

I'm not sure the judges have been that OTT with Louis. Len had a go one week, Darcey was underwhelmed another, Craig has never been overly impressed. I wouldn't put him as any of the judges favourite.. *shrugs*

Craig made a point, but in selecting the word over-confident he got himself completely misunderstood. Craig could have said, "Don't look so damn self-contained and self-sufficient in your dance. If you disallow even your partner from entering your ordered world then the audience will feel they are sitting on the other side of Grand Canyon."

Watch the waltz in question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR0u9WAovHA

If Flavia had been substituted in mid-dance by Ola it would not have made the slightest difference to Louis who likely would not have noticed. As in his pommel horse routines he is thoroughly drilled and in control. He knows every beat of every bar, every step, every arm stretch -- all pre-programmed, pre-rehearsed. An earthquake would not disrupt him.

He is not dancing in the present, he is reprising a drill like a history text book recapping past events with certainty -- and with confidence. It blew Craig's fuse. In every bad there is some good, .

Craig is such a giver, he's only trying to help But punishing Louis for his confidence and undermarking him as he did (or was that waltz really the second worse dance of the night) may cause Louis think that whatever he'll do it won't be good enough and he may as well give up now. If Craig wants to help not undermarking him would be a good start.

I think Craig is trying, in his cack-handed way, to get Louis to work even harder and pull away from the pack. Trouble is, that sort of reverse psychology can often backfire.

For all Len isn't always constructive to celebs, I quite like when he tells the pros to work on specifics with the celeb. It usually works, as the pro feels they have to take up the challenge, and the celeb responds because they don't feel slighted. But I have yet to see Len really do that this year, although in the Spring DWTS he did it with the couple that eventually won. If he did that with Louis via Flavia, who knows? Louis, good though he is, may just get even better.

Louis seems to have Harry's luck regarding his hands though.

Robbie Savage claimed he could do no right in Craig's eyes because Craig fancied him and couldn't have him.

Perhaps Craig fancies Louis...!!!

Maybe he was talking about the annoying Irish judge on a complete joke of a so called "talent contest" on ITV?

I agree with that. I think it's been orchestrated too. I think Denise is the best technical dancer - not that I'm an expert.