Maybe the judges are applying an unofficial points handicap against the ringer. Expecting more of him.

The ringer wasn't THAT great tonight. Especially the Salsa.

definatley not

I was very disillusioned tonight. Like many people, I have a favourite and mine is Danny, but that doesn't make me blind to the others. I thought Louise was lacklustre and should be the one to go. Up till now I haven't enjoyed Claudia but she was great tonight and should be in the final. Ore is a great dancer but he didn't do much in the AT and his quickstep was a galloping frolic that lacked style. All that said, he should be in the final.

I do not understand why the judges don't get it that the audience want marking that is fair, representative of their comments and without favouritism. If their is a viewer backlash, they have brought it on themselves.

Interesting watching this back time-delayed having read the forum and James Jordan's twitter feed first. Some dances were better than I was expecting from online reviews. But judging definitely odd.

Agreeing with pretty much everything I'd read, I thought Claudia's QS was outstanding - possibly the best QS I've seen on any Strictly and the dance of the night by far. Ridiculous that it didn't get a 40.

Ore's AT and QS were better than I was expecting given what I'd read. But clearly neither were as good or better than Claudia's QS.

Interesting to see whether the public can save Claudia from the dance off or, if not, whether the judges will look more favourably on that QS regardless of who she's up against.

Here's how the judges ranked the couples with their scores tonight

Craig - Danny 1st, Louise 2nd, Claudia & Ore 3rd=
Darcy - Ore 1st, rest 2nd=
Len - Ore 1st, Claudia & Danny 2nd=, Louise 3rd
Bruno - Danny & Ore 1st=, Claudia & Louise 2nd=

I talked to some pros (not on the show) afterwards and that is exactly the rankings they gave. Are you a pro?

Thanks daveGold. These are actually useful stats.

From this we can determine who would win dance offs if the judges repeated their beliefs:

Dance Off:
Ore + Danny: Danny eliminated.
Ore + Louise: Louise eliminated.
Ore + Claudia: Claudia eliminated.
Danny + Louise: Louise eliminated.
Danny + Claudia: Unknown. Danny would have 2 votes, but the other 2 could go either way.
Louise + Claudia: Unknown. Both have 1 vote, and the other 2 could go either way.

Does anyone know which dances they would have to perform in the DO, and what marks the judges gave for them?

When Craig is actually the most reasonable judge

How did Ore end up at the top????

He might have been judged as the non-dancer/gymnastic who improved a lot in comparison to the ringahs who should have made more progress as they had a head start. Just sayin..

Not the worst night, but Ore's AT was ridiculously overmarked as he barely did anything during the dance.

That aside, it's always subjective. I had Danny ahead, but Claudia's quickstep was the dance of the night for me

I totally agree with all the reviews but it would seem to be the judges are not in favour of young blood in the dancing as Claudia and Aj have not been given good marks from the start she was 1 of the best. On the Blackpool show Craig and judges raved on there Dance but managed to find a little fault to not give them 10s . I gave my 3 votes to Claudia and Aj tonight as I think we should give young people a chance not knock them down. Love them to win and shut the bias judges up. I think we need a change of judges. There getting to old in the tooth.

Seriously take off the favourites spectacles and rewatch the dances

I have and I stand by it ALL.

And did you not feel the excitement from the crowd and the judges?

Take your 'Ore isn't good, as my favourite is bloody great' glasses off and have another look.

Joanne was great tonight I will give you that

How do you know who my favourite is ?? But after reading all your post you are so bias towards ore it's laughable.

To be perfectly honest? As a dancer, no-one deserved 10's tonight. No one performance was truly captivating. And, there have been far, FAR worse judging moments on the panel (hello, Lisa Snowden and Dr Hamela).

Disagree!!
Danny's dances were amazing, the American smooth was AMAZING there lifts were jaw dropping. Don't know what the hell darcy is on about. But of course it's ok if she finds fault's in ore's dance, it's totally fine to OVERMARK him and give him a 10.No probs. But when it comes to Danny and claudia, puff god no. That would be to bigger challenge for her to do that!!
Ore dances. Wasn't in time at all, lost balance. OVERMARKED yet again.

I thought the judging was rubbish tonight. Claudia deserved higher scores for her quickstep but I actually thought her rumba scores were quite generous, if she'd performed that rumba earlier in the series it wouldn't have got more than 32, same with Louise's samba. Danny should have been top of the leaderboard. I think Louise was correct at the bottom - this wasn't her week, neither dance really suited her. Ore has been overnarked every week since he was in the dance off and it's putting me off him and Joanne, even though it's not their fault.

I am a BIT, but I know when he's been outdanced. Only dance tonight that was 'better' was Claudia's QS. Her Rhumba wasn't good though.

Whose your fave then queen? What's got your knickers so twisted when it's an OPINION I'm offering.

Danny's salsa was average.

Danny's QS was nice but not superb. And one of the lifts was flawed and the last one was bloody stupid.

Well, TEN doesn't mean what it did, but we have to go with the inflation and debate the placings.

Darcey was shocking, she was clearly eager to call Claudia on mistakes she would ignore from Ore. But seeing as this is the BBC who fired someone for being white/male (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...inorities.html) and who also rigged a public vote for naming a cat (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...mpetition.html) we shouldn't be surprised.

The entire point of the dance off is to give the produces control of who goes - they make no secret of the contempt they have for viewers.

How darcey can comment on Claudias connection with AJ but ignore the fact Louise has the personality of a mannequin when dancing is beyond me.

The last lift was amazing,he was he was being adventurous and not doing the same average lifts over and over again.