You have to admit last night Fridays dancers were completely buried by the judges scores.
On Friday the highest score was 7 but last night 8 and 9,s were thrown everywhere but my question is we're Fridays undermarked or were the ones who they knew would be good deliberately kept for Saturdays show?

Definitely. If Greg and Nat had been on Saturday the'd have got straight 8's.

I do have sympathy for the Friday night performers - even though I thought quite a bit of that marking was too high for week 1.

I hope it will balance out next week when everyone dances at the same time.

Yeah I think had Rinder and Greg danced on Saturday they'd have probably scored alot higher

"The BBC move in mysterious ways."

No they don't, you sussed it out. If you think "ratings," it will become clear to others immediately.
There's not a lot of competition on a Friday night on ITV. So the BBC could have expected reasonable ratings for a one hour show. This was as much " a promo" for those viewers not as interested in it, whose reaction might be, "is it on again?" So being aware of the Friday show, by possibly finding it "on," they might add extra numbers to the Saturday ratings.

They needed "the big guns" for Saturday night as they're up against the X-Factor.

Those appearing on Friday will have suffered as the judges didn't want to hand out some really good scores in case it left them no "wiggle room," for any better performances on Saturday.

Saturday shows also clash slightly with football on Sky Sports as the second half of late kick off games clash with Strictly generally last night it was Aston Villa Vs Newcastle.

There also was football on Friday though as well forgot.

To be fair, I don't think the BBC take much notice of Sky Sports, they certainly wouldn't move their schedules around because of a football match on Sky.

They see their main competition, as it is, ITV.

I did feel sorry for them but feel Greg was overmarked anyway. Judge Rinder shouldn't have been bottom half of the leaderboard though!

If you're seen to be overmarked you lose public support, just as being seen to be undermarked by the judges can make them very popular. Maybe we should feel more sorry for the ones being overmarked!

I know I'm very much in the minority but I completely disagree about Judge Rinder!
Yes he was entertaining I guess but much of what he was doing was just 'performing' & pulling silly faces rather than trying to execute a proper dance routine, imo at least, for what it's worth!!
I thought he was marked fairly & certainly didn't deserve higher scores!!
Tameka & Anastacia were both very much overmarked to me however!!

the better dances are always on Saturday so I don't see why sympathy should be given to Fridays couples

It'll all even out next week. It always does.

It's worth noting that Kellie and Kevin, Helen and Aljaz and Anita and Gleb were all in the 1/4 finals so half the 1/4 finalists were from The week 1 Friday show (which is good showing considering there are loads more dancers on Saturday)

However only K&K made the final so only 1/4 of the finalists came from the Friday show.

Caroline danced on Friday two years ago (getting a 6 from Craig for her CCC, lol) and all the finalists except Abbey danced on Friday three years ago (and only Abbey did better then their scores).

No, Saturday's performances were just much better, mostly because that's where they put all the ringers.

Spot on as ever !

I think maybe the Friday lot suffer more from nerves? It might be a bit easier on the Saturday as even if you've not danced before you've at least got more 'used to' the show? The Friday lot did seem a bit more nervous to me, but that could just be me!

True, plus the odd "fascinating" person, like Ed Balls.

Um, I think Laura may have possibly got higher if she had been seen in the second day rather than the first, but I think overall the better dancers were on the second day so most of the scores were right (or there about).

Danny, Louise, Daisy and Will only really stood out for me, but then obv Ore, Laura, Claudia and Naga also showed some varying degrees of potential as well. I thought Robert and Greg's dances were entertaining, but I felt it was all a bit messy and frantic to make an solid opinion. They had gusto (as Bruno said for one) but, yeah, not sure. I hope Greg gets better, as I want Natalie to at least get half way this year if not further.

I agree with all of this. I feel I'm in the grumpy corner by saying I didn't particularly enjoy Judge Rinder's performance but I didn't. And yes, Tameka and Anastacia were overmarked - particularly Anastacia. She's a lovely person but that dance was in no way worth those marks.