Giving 8's in the first week and marking higher then Len

Making a play for top judge next year.

gonna cause chaos with the voting as the weeks progress and the contestants improve......giving out 7's and 8s in the first week doesn't suggest much room for improvement will be required!

I was thinking the same . Is it a ruse to impress the producers by showing a more charitable side. Not sure I like it .

Also I was surprised how many times Len echoed Craig's remarks, not so much today as yesterday .

There's often a ****ing contest between Craig and Len every year, each trying to out-do the other to get the lion's share of the public's attention. I record the show and fast-forward through the nonsense, which seems to increase each year.

do you not think dancing almost like a professional deserves an 8?

He marked much lower than Len overall.

My thoughts exactly lol. We are a cynical bunch

I think it's simply that Craig is the only one who ever marks with any consistency, and has a proper scale for what each score would require. This year's week one show had far more high standard performances than probably any other year, hence the higher scores and three 8s.

I agree. I think Craig scores very honestly

I do too and actually there were some really good 1st dances tonight. I was impressed and Craig, who marks high when he sees very good performances, clearly was too.

Craig does have his moments, he can give a dance with a lot of "theatricality" a higher mark than the dance content deserves, but I put that down to his background and not being a trained ballroom dancer.

Problem is that there was probably only one dance which deserved an 8.......from the other judges! Remember, this is Craig and week 1.

And Craig highest mark during the series is mostly a 9, meaning that someone like Anastacia almost danced a perfect routine according to him (lol).

Yes, that's true, he does love the more theatrical and also innovative performances. But at least he has some sort of consistency, the other three seem to have very little unfortunately.

On ITT Craig talks about what qualities a dance would need to have for an 8, 9, 10 etc, so he clearly has some sort of system worked out in his mind. I'm not convinced that the others do though.

Anastacia did not dance remotely like a professional.

Certainly some of the 8s that were handed out this week were deserved, but no-one was near professional standard and some people were hugely overmarked.

Craig did not have one of his finer weeks.

I don't think Craig has ever considered the other judges opinions to be in any way relevant to his scores. As I said, he has his own system and sticks to it.

The other judges were thinking they ought to be careful not to mark too highly in the first week, while Craig was actually marking honestly. The standard was far higher this year for week one.

That's the problem every week. A very high mark given to the first or second couple, for an excellent dance leaves very "little wiggle room," for an even better performance later in the show. So those who dance first can be at a disadvantage.

And that is why the order gets changed each week.

Looks like someone high up on the show has told him to mark higher due to it being the first week. On Friday's show I don't think he gave a 4! Must be unprecedented. But on the other hand he might be waiting for next week when the public vote and he'll bring out the really low scores.