Why can't they split them in the main show then? Why have four performers supposedly at the same standard if it's seemingly straightforward in the dance off.

And no, I'm not struggling to understand why two dances get the same score from the same judge - of course that can happen. But four out of five dances? From the same two judges? The scoring system's a mess. If the judges can split the dancers that quickly in the dance off every week then they could split them on the main leaderboard as well. Get rid of bloody ties.

Just rank the tie scores at the end - and if they can't or won't seperate the couples then they shouldnt get grumpy when the public do.

Yep, that'd do.

Seriously though, I'm labouring a point here (and I'm not really that bothered about it per se) because it addresses two of my principal bugbears - the late series dance off and tied leaderboards.

The judges ranking so many couples at the same score at this stage, to me illustrates exactly why they shouldn't have dance off control when there are so few left. They're finding it almost impossible to split the majority of them so any dance off decision is probably going to be minimal and a bit random. Leave it to the public once there are only five or six left. Any potential travesties will probably have already been averted by then and if not - so be it.

They are not ranking they are judging a particular dance

Sure they are. At this stage they're just chucking nines and tens around and seeing which land face up.

Because they are not asked to !!

its the only dance of Danny and Oti's I havent enjoyed

I struggled to see anything resembling a tango apart from the promenade bit that Len pointed out

I found him the best of the night& didn't spot any mistakes so I think it was undermarked and whouldve been another perfect 40

I like Danny & Oti, but I think their Tango was overmarked. I don't think they were helped by the disco music and especially the speed of it, which made the routine appear rather frantic. I think that Oti did the best she could with it.

Having said that, I think that Claudia & AJ, Louise & Kevin and (to a slightly lesser extent), Ore and Joanne were also overmarked.

The judges' marking came across like, "it's quarter-finals week so we have to give at least a 9 to the top couples". They do the opposite during the first few weeks of the series, even when a dance warrants a higher score. Who can forget Darcey's "It's only week 3, so it's a 9" comment from last season.

Overall, for quarter-finals week I felt the dancing (and routines) were disappointing. None of the dances wowed me and I would expect better than that at this stage of the competition.

The marking scale has no decimal points - which means9 means either 9 = amythimng between 9 and 10, or it means nearer to a 9 than an 8, or 10. Or they have to have a clear standard for each mark - which is difficult given different dances, choregraphy , weaknesses and judges likes.

And the different judges have different likes ,and different marking scales. Darcey seems to disregard not doing basic steps , like toe or heel leads , and penalises not smiling a bit wider - or so she claims . Bruno rewards being entertained. Len has a list of biases. And Craig's 10 probably starts at 9.9 - while Darcey will settle for giving a 9.5 10.

That means 8.6 could be a 9 , or an 8 - depending what scale the judge is on. And the the same judge can give the same mark for a 7.6 and 8.5.

Two judges told us what the biggest mistakes were - no heel leads. That would seem a pretty unavoidable reason for not giving a 10 - but two judges just ignored it.

Which is why for the audience there is more logic with the scores. If a judge makes no negative comment and scores a 9, why did they drop a point?
I really only count Len & Craig for any logic when it comes to scoring. Darcey & Bruno seem to score for unfathomable reasons.

and one of those Judges, Darcey, admitted she wasn't even looking at Danny's footwork *rolls eyes*

why the hell is she a Judge ?

One can't possibly look at feet, when there's a "top line" to be gazed upon.

One thing people may be overlooking when it comes to the marks, is a deliberate ploy to make Louise & Kevin the underdogs to get the backlash vote. Perhaps working on the principle that lower marked dancers have won the competition quite regularly.

Unfortunately, if that was the idea, it may well have backfired, as Claudia seems to be grabbing the backlash votes.

Even if people think that Danny was over marked, they might like his reaction to his 10s. To me, it was cleared that he didn't think that he would get any 10s and was in disbelief.

Ah but there would be no reason to have decimal points if the judges actually used all their paddles Len has said he gives 5 for just turning up.

There are actually very few dances that deserve a 10 but many get them even though the judges admit they have spotted a mistake.

Also to be fair they need to be very careful with scoring the initial dance of the night.

When they score a dance like Claudias jive a 9 and praise it to the high Heavans when all can see it really wasn't ful of energy and flawless then they have no where else to go to other than a 10. So dances then get 10s when they are not equivalent one being easily better than another.

So the argument is that, after a Results Show where the audience were pumped up to cheer the idea that Claudia is undermarked, a whole week of It Takes Two where every day someone said Claudia was undermarked, and a Live Show where it was mentioned repeatedly she hasn't got 10s yet, the producers would be UPSET for people to think that Claudia was undermarked?

I mean it's a theory...

Exactly. Without "seeding" the dancers in the order they appear (which would cause even more arguments) there's always going to be a problem. Starting with one of the better dancers and giving them a "9" where is there to go ? Someone comes on later who is clearly superior and they have to reach for a "10" otherwise there would be complaints on social media. But what happens then if someone comes on afterwards with a real knockout routine ?
I've always said that it would be interesting if they gave separate marks for technical merit and artistic interpretation, but I guess they think that it would take too much time and be boring for the majority of viewers. But it would give them more chance to separate the couples.

Then to finish the week they had all three Friday panellists supporting Louise. So who knows? Her footwork is better than Danny's, but Louise still has not wowed me.

Riiight, so giving Danny top marks again is all a plot to make people Danny less popular than Louise?

And all the hype about Claudia 'deserving' a ten etc. has nothing to do with her perceived popularity? But rather, an unfortunate 'miss' by the ptb who really wanted Louise to get the 'backlash'.

I find that difficult to get my head round.

Do you think they vetted their guests for their 'favourites' before allowing them on?

It may well have been in the back of the producers minds at the start of the series, but like many plans, did not pan out. In part I suspect because Will dropped out.

My point is they clearly have no problem with people viewing Claudia as an undermarked underdog because that's the current actual editorial line. I'm not saying they might not be painting Louise as an underdog, but if they are it's via all the "she's just a shy humble mum" stuff, not her scores. The only time I remember her scores coming into it is when they've compared her scores with Ore's via a Stat Attack and showed hers coming out better.

I guess there was also that time the Clifton Minors tried to start a chant of "undermarked" for her and everyone else stayed awkwardly silent and it was never mentioned again...

I think Danny's performance, connection and storytelling was a '10' and his technique was a '9' on Saturday. I think the judges are looking for different things and mark accordingly. He did a very good job dancing a Tango, full of difficult content, to a disco song. Brendan Cole alluded to this in his blog. I think all of the celeb dancers are working hard and I enjoyed watching them.