Aliona said around week 5 that the Judges and Producers will be pushing for a Louise win.

Yep, that's about right. Maybe swap Ore and Louise around.

Perhaps things will improve once Kevin Clifton wins.

That's his opinion and yours. It isn't mine, or the judges or probably that of others.

I'm disappointed in Brendan if he has been making comments like this while the show is still on air, there is a time and a place and this isn't it.

Ore, Louise and Danny are on the tour and they like the sibling rivalry.

Sorry but I just couldn't believe they had the face to say some of the things they did last night.

Not only me and Brendan my dear... thousands more.

Even more sadder... it was so obvious they judges favouring other contestants.

He also said


Which I believe is VERY RIGHT.

I don't see why the judges having favourites surprises anyone - it's called having an opinion, the whole thing is subjective and judging never has and never can be otherwise. The same happens at any type of competition.

The judges have never made any secret of the fact that they look for different things - those who are qualified to judge on the technical side of ballroom and Latin do so, while the others are looking more to performance. Add in the fact that you simply can't watch the whole performance at once - i.e. if you're concentrating on footwork you could miss an issue in the top line, if you're looking at it more in the round you miss the detail etc. - and it's really not surprising that less than perfect dances get 10s.

I really don't see how any of that is difficult to understand, or even why it's remotely controversial.

Me neither. Some of the posts on the boards tonight have made me roll my eyes so many times that I must look like this. http://gifsoup.com/view/2518807/thom...ling-eyes.html

The judges can appreciate some aspects of dance more than others, that being their opinion, but they shouldn't have favourite couples.

You can't control how a couple's particular dancing makes you feel, that's still inherently subjective, so you will always like some couples more than others - I find some of the top professionals wonderful to watch but others leave me cold - yet sometimes they win so clearly others felt differently to me.

And that's beside the fact no-one has yet managed to point to any sort of evidence that the judges actually do have favourites and aren't just giving their subjective opinions of each dance...

And yet Karen passes remarks every Tuesday on It Takes Two about steps and scoring.

The evidence was staring at you last night. I can understand being subjective and scripted but not desperate. The reason from Darcey two weeks running about Claudia and her non connection. Louise, once again, looks down at her feet and nothing is said. Claudia has been the new Jay with this obsession with an apparent lack of drama and acting....absolute rubbish. Judges should not let their favouritism be known and that's just common sense!

Oh really? Yet they pretend to be objective and Len especially underscores it more than anyone needs to hear.

Its all BS. The judges had an agenda and they stuck to it. I said earlier that it was laughable when Darcey told the audience to stop booing as this was the semi and they had to be strict! Absolute load of rubbish. If you're going to be strict, be consistently strict.

Personally, I am not too unhappy about the final three, but I do think it's ludicrous that Danny was in the dance-off this week. I don't know whether or not there was deliberate manipulation going on here, but I do think having a shock dance-off in the semifinal - and Danny and Oti couldn't have been more of a shock - on the night of the X Factor final is exactly what TPTB would have wanted. There's no way they were going to let Danny go, but they sure generated much heated discussion. Job done.

My interpretation of Darcy's critique differs. I don't think she was referring to a physical connection or even eye contact or a frisson between Claudia and AJ. I think she was referring to Claudia's dances as being rather souless or clinical. Its not about acting necessarly but about conveying emotion. It can be conveyed with acting or it can just be conveyed because those are the feelings the dancer happens to have. But a dance is an expressive art form and it should convey some emotion. For me Claudia never did emote, at least not until the QS yesterday.

Its not only that its what the forum members agree with. Its that his view, of the marks and order, is pretty much identical to what Jordan produced, and identical to what people all over here, and other forums ,would have given.

Once you have professionals agreeing that 10s should have been 8s, and the order of 1234 should have been 2 4 3 1. or 2413, your marking looks very questionable .

Indeed its interesting, that both the pro and the ex pro , think Claudia also shaded the dance off, and it was notable that the judges came up with no objective reasons , and Craig couldn't think of any reason at all.

Louis arguably never acted as well as Claudia. They hyped him

Claudia was hit by two particularly dumb lines of attack.

She couldn't act romantically , because she was too young. But her age isn't in her control. You have to allow for that , or not have young contestants.

And she was short - which made things more difficult. But she can't do it on stilts - you have to allow for that, and mark her as a shorter contestant.

And once you have done that you have to note what she can do what no one else can - all tha added difficulty and flexibility she has, and how quickly and accurately she can move her feet, and her timing, and the difficulty of her routines compared to some others.

They end up crediting other contestant's particular skills they walked in with - musicality and acting training- and incorporating them into their marks, but ignoring other skills in play. And, by failing to allow for people's other attributes - like youth or height - they create a show where only people of standard build , and in a particular age range - not to young to act roles, , and not too old to be physically incapabl - , can win.

Brendan has my respect on this. Very honest and in some ways quite brave things to say.

I never thought of that, but you could be right.

However, as much as I loved Darcy as a ballerina, I think she should be replaced as well. To me, Craig has been the only judge who has been consistent. Think someone like Matthew Cutler, Darren Bennett or even Anton or Brendan should replace Len. Don't know many female judges, but perhaps someone like Erin Boag might do it - really the bias and favouritism needs to go next series. It has been getting worse and worse each year with the current team.

Very good post.

Just finishing off the rest of Brendan's sentence which you quoted above:

...but I think she did a better job than others last night - she did a better job than Ore, and yet he was at the top of the leaderboard and she was at the bottom.

Why shouldn't she be able to "act romantically"? She's 19, for heaven's sake, not nine! I thought she was a great contestant, but so were the other three and someone had to go (thanks Will!). If enough members of the public had voted for her she'd still be in the competition. Louise is and she was in the same position on the leaderboard.