Apologies if this has already been discussed in other threads.

How could he possibly justify giving Zoe's 'Cha Cha Cha' 9???

In Bruno's world tonight Zoe's 'Cha Cha' was as good as Colin's 'Rhumba' and Patsy's 'Jive' was just 1 mark behind it. Surely this is crazy if you look at the dances on their merits.

This guy has his favourites and displays this bias every week- he clearly loves Patsy and Zoe and overscores them accordingly.

Also, James' and Patsy's 1st dances were both pretty poor tonight but Bruno somehow found a way to give James 5 and Patsy 8. I thought both dances warranted 5 or 6, and certainly not a 3 point difference between the two.

I hope he's embarrassed if/when he watches the show back.

I doubt it very much. He's been the same way with one of the couples since the start of teh series.

I've got nothing against any of the couples, but I do hate the gushing praise that we know Bruno is going to pour forth, week in, week out, regardless of the quality of their actual performances.

Yep, I've decided that even Arlene is better than Bruno. This is after I thought that he was very sweet in the previous two series. I don't understand what's come over him this time round. Any ideas?

Ian or at least that's what Bruno wants

ROFL OH PLEEEEEEase!!!

I agree that in Zoe's ccc case he marked a little high, but generally I think he just recognises good dancing when he sees it.

You all say that the judges are biased towards Zoe and Ian. For goodness sake, it's because they expect them to dance better than anyone else. What was it Len said of the ccc "This is the first time I saw her make a few blunders," - the usual mild criticism from Len (as he would give to anyone) but for the American Smooth he said, "Right back where you belong, top of the tree... beautiful." It's not so much that they're biased as that their expectations for Zoe and Ian are so high. These people have been involved with dance all their lives. They love to see good dancing and for some of them it hurts to see dances mangled. They love Z&I because they know they are likely to see good dancing.

Colin did the same for them this week and they loved it. It was definately his best week so far. Both dances were wonderful. As to Arlene's comment about giving him a job, well on last night's showing I can understand that. As someone who's spent 30 years in Musical Theatre, I've seen dancers come and dancers go. Zoe and Colin get good marks because their dancing is of a high standard. Darren is good too but wouldn't get out of the chorus exept perhaps as an understudy. James wouldn't get past the audition.

I think that in the last 2 weeks' scoring, CRH and Arlene were told to mark higher, and Len and Bruno were told to mark lower. If you notice in previous weeks, CRH and Arlene's marks were always lower than the other 2. Someone must have had a word in order to try and make the scoring more "level".

If Bruno was told to mark lower, he didn't obey that 'command' (which I don't believe would have been given) in Zoe and Patsy case.

what was even more crazy was Craig saying Patsy danced her personal best and then giving her a 6

Craig's scores never reflect his rhetoric, I've got used to that.

That's the problem wth the marks they've been receiving from the judges. There have been glaring mistakes made; & admitted to by Zoe, before the judges have awarded their scores, Len has spotted these on ITT & stated he would be watching out for them (as, in the case of the gap, "you could drive a double decker bus through"), but then they've completely ingnored these faults & awarded perfect scores (Len does comment on them as being serious on ITT, later in the week).

These problems have been there since week one &, as the judges have made no real effort to pick up on them, nothing has been done to correct them. All the efort seems to have gone into producing dazzling routines.

Yes, Zoe is a good dancer & she deserves a place in the final but, as we saw last night, the judges are doing her no favours by not offering up any criticism.

If she does get voted out next week, I honestly believe it will be nothing to do with her performance & everything to do with the actions of some, not all, of the judges. This wouldn't be fair, or pleasant, but it's a similar situation, in reverse, to the way we arrived at the line up for the finals of the first two series.

i dont get how he can give zoe's cha cha and colis rumba the same mark....its just ridiculous...stuff like that is harming their rep!

amyleah x

I can't believe he gave Colin and Zoe the same mark for their Latin. No way dod Zoe's cha cha cha deserve a 9.

Spot on! Will they never learn?

I'd agree with that very much, judging by this forum, Zoe seems to be suffering a horrible backlash because of Bruno's blatent overscoring (which he did on Patsy as well) which is hardly her and Ian's fault, but is doing them no favours at all. I love Z&I, but the CCC was their worst dance of the series, and never in a million years a 9. I'm starting to get really worried the final isn't going to be Darren, Colin and Zoe - as it should be as they are the best, and in Darren, the most improved dancers. I like James a lot, and I love his growing love of ballroom dancing, but he should not be in the final.

On a lighter note... did anyone notice that Bruno set his face into a cheesy smile before he held up the paddle and kept the smile after giving his judgement? I think he was very self conscious about Patrick Swayze's impersonation of him on ITT in the week. If you've taped it, play it back and see what I mean.

That said, I agree with the tone of the thread that his overmarking of Zoe (esp the cha cha cha) has done her & Ian no favours. Which is a shame as they have been very impressive, but it would have made them look more normal and more part of the general competition if they'd had some duff marks to reflect their duff first performance.

I think we can't say anything about it, they mark on what they see. I have been in music competition's were my band have out played loads of other bands and been marked down for stupid things like we weren't wearing clothes that showed we were a proffesional band etc. The judges have reason's and we usually get told during the week on ITT what their reason's were. We don't get to see everything with all the close ups and so on, and I'm suprised at some of the mistakes Len show's us on a Tuesday. I don't think we should say anything about the scores because I hated both Colins dances, I loved both of Zoe's and Patsy's it didn't stop them getting the marks they got, we have our say and they have theirs.

But with SCD the judging isn't blind; i.e. the judges are given the chance to offer a critique & advice to the competitors, in order for them to understand what areas of their performance they need to work on. If they don't do this properly the couples don't stand a fair chance of improving; if they are capable of doing so, therefore, the judges are not fulfilling one of the purposes for them being on the show; & thereby preventing the whole thing degenerating into a popularity contest.

I completely agree with the sentiment of the thread. While the judges being 'soft' on Zoe is doing her a favour in the short term (ie her overall judges score), it appears to be killing her chances of winning the competition because the public are annoyed with the way she is marked and the only avenue they see to respond to this is to not vote for her/vote tactically against her.

Next Saturday's show is going to be really interesting, as is ITT, especially if there is any comments from other competitors about Zoe's 'Cha cha cha' 9.

Actually, the judges did do Zoe a huge favour this week by marking her so high.

Had she finished behind D & L with the judges she may well have been out of the competition or at least drawn bottom with Patsy.

Hmmm what do they do if there`s a draw at the bottom?

I can see you hate Colin for some reasons. Fortunately lots of viewers chose to judges their performances rather than solely on their opinion on the celebrities. An evidence is that Zoe and Ian almost certainly get the lowest mark from the public vote last night.

Apparently, although the public vote & judges scores each count as 50% of the overall mark, in the event of a tie for the bottom or top places, the public vote is given more weight.

If, for example, a situation arose where the top couple with the judges tied for bottom with the winners of the public vote, then it would be the former couple who left the series.

Hope this helps.

I was told that if they draw in the bottom, the one who got the lowest mark from public vote out. In last night's case, if they was a draw, for example Zoe 4 (judges) +1 (public) = 5 and Patsy 2(judges) +3 (public) = 5, then Zoe was to go. It's almost certain that last night Zoe got the lowest and Patsy got the second lowest from the public, any other combination would not leave Zoe and Patsy on the bottom two and Patsy to go.

I think Len has re-played the dances before he goes onto ITT and can comment more than he could on Saturday.

No doubt they miss a lot on Saturday with all the nerves and atmosphere.

If the scores for the bottom 2 are the same, then the couple who came higher with the public win.

I did say last night on another thread that I wonder if the judges know the results of the previous public votes, and knowing that perhaps Zoe and Ian aren't so popular with the public, then they are marking them high to keep them twoards the top of the leader board and so safer. Looking at the results last night, James and Camilla could have come no lower than third with the public vote, meaning that Zoe and Ian were bottom or 2nd to bottom with the PV.