On ITT, Zoe said the judges were fans of a certain contestant; and at least one of the judges said it themself during the final. That makes me wonder whether they can be judging fairly.

I think many agree that judges shouldn't be fans. Just look at all the complaints that appear when people think someone is the judges' favourite. (The disagreement is more about who, if anyone, the favourite is.)

I'm often sceptical of the idea that the judges have favourites in that sense (rather than just thinking someone is the best dancer because of how they've danced), but it's a different story if the judges are fans of a contestant. That casts real doubt on whether they are sufficiently impartial, imo.

The judges should be impartial imo. It annoyed me how much Craig favoured Pixie and undermarked Frankie.

Pixie's latin and ballroom technique was not that great but because she was all jazz hands and pirouettes Craig loved her.

They are only human and can't help having favourites. The trick is not to show it... like Craig did

Best comment on here this year, was in last week's semi final discussion thread.

"Simon's up next, so Darcy is hunting for her 12 paddle"

It seems they all probably showed it, for Zoe to tell the contestant the judges were fans.

I suggested many series ago having an extra judge and discounting top and bottom scores. This would help with the DO 'casting vote' controversy too.

Obviously for that system to work properly another judge or two apart from Craig would need to employ their low paddles too (so that it's not Craig's mark dropped every time)...but that's fine with me.

The only favouritism that I noticed was Craig with Mark and Darcy with Simon... were there any others?

Who did Craig give 10s to?

so he can spank her with it

A quick average score work out (if anyone wants to check, feel free cos you know - sums )

Caroline:
Craig 8.3
Darcy 8.8
Len 8.8
Bruno 9.1

Frankie:
Craig 8.1
Darcy 8.6
Len 9.0
Bruno 9.1

Simon:
Craig 7.4
Darcy 8.6
Len 8.5
Bruno 8.4

It seems that, by that, Craig and Darcey favoured Caroline, Len favoured Frankie, and Bruno couldn't decide between F & C.

It makes no difference who the judges like personally, the producers decide how the leaderboard/DO will look and the judges oblige.

the french shows system of two sets of marks would be good for the show (like ice skating technical mark and artistic mark) in case of a tie in do tech mark applies

I'd like to see that adopted. I think they are currently very inconsistent with their scores, sometimes being picky about technique, sometimes being carried away by the performance so the scores end up very random.

But then, it suits the show more to have the ability to manipulate the scoring when it suits them with the current system.

One bad thing is that the points dont correctly evaluate for all positions, as ties are not scored correctly. It may help popular losing contestants stay in longer.

They will inevitably have favourites. Their marking should be impartial though.

I think the only one who shows incredible bias is Craig - he often marks ridiucuolusly low and out of kilter with the other judges but only to the dancers he doesn't appear to like. Last night there was no way he was going to give Kevin and Frankie a ten and no way he was going to score Caroline anything but tens - it was petulant I feel.

Craig is used to produce the right total. He distinguishes the 39 from the 40 , and the 35 from the 36. He also stops everyone weak getting 28 every week by opning up 24-28. . I think they think its easier to have one baddie, than to have an anti-judge vote because two people have given someone a (realistically) low mark. Arlene and Craig was overkill. You now have the right order produced - while 3 judges remain looking likeable, and someone whose judgement is more likely to be followed. .

Shows of this nature always need a hard man on the judging panel, and Craig fills that role very well. He counterbalances the sometimes over-generous scoring elsewhere. I would favour a simple system whereby an odd number of judges just voted, with the winner decided by a straight majority. The casting vote leaves a bad taste.

On a light entertainment show primarily they should entertain.

^^

Of course, part of being 'entertaining' is not to wildly insult the viewers' intelligence by conspicuously over-marking or under-marking.

As said before, the producers really really don't care who is top/bottom of the leaderboard. ALL they care about is ratings ratings ratings.

That would work if there were judges who were able to judge technique, but as it stands, only Len is able to do that.

If they ditched Darcey and brought in someone like Karen Hardy (not that I'm a particular fan of hers!) they could then have Len & Karen judge technique and Craig & Bruno judge performance/artistry.

If that is what is happening, it galvanises votes. So it does the job they want it to do.

Exactly.

but no adult over the age of 18 should ever be a "fan"