Actually, whilst I thought M&F's salsa was lovely showcase material - with some stunning setpiece moves - yet again, it didn't really have the feel of actual salsa to me - there wasn't the fluidity you see in real salsa dancing. And Matt clearly lost his timing on a couple of occasions. I think the judges were quite generous with that one.

I also love Alesha but Matt was marginally better. I would say 4 x 9 for Alesha would have been fairer. Arlene said last week a 10 was a WOW performance and I found myself for agreeing her for once - now she has gone and blown that out of the water! Silly woman.

At first I thought Kelly was hard done by but watching it again it was well executed but simple. I can see where the judges were coming from. Not fair to knock difficult choreography (Matts QS) for errors - he got 8 - and then overmark perfect simple dances at this stage so they do better than difficult ones.

Overall, watching again, the only 'odd' marks I feel are Kenny and Letitia who were definitely 'talked up' and overmarked. Probably trying to get him to lose the sympathy vote. We may see a shock if John picks up sympathy votes. It wasn't the most vote inspiring night (except Matt)

I agree with this - I would have given him no more than 9s.

Nope, I maintain that the leaderboard placings were near enough correct, irrespective of the absolute nominal marks awarded. The Judges absolutely got it right on the night.

As for favouritism, you're spouting a load of nonsensical drivel. The simple fact is that Alesha has performed consistently better than anyone else on the show. Marks received to week 7 have been fully deserved. In the case of her Salsa and AS she was undermarked.

Matt doesn't even come close in terms of consistency. He has performed three good dances, his AS and this Salsa (which I've already stated was overmarked yesterday) and his Quickstep.

You're implying that the Judges crediting Alesha for performing well is favouritism. As I've just said, this is utter baloney. She is receiving credit, where credit is undeniably due.

Your whole arguement is bogus, and simply isn't credible.

Alesha has been on the other side - receiving undermarkings. There is a lot of inconsistency this year with the judges.

I think the judges are playing with the public.

As someone who is a huge fan of Aleesha, I think her routine was slightly overmarked last night but then I was gobsmacked at last weeks effort which I thought was worthy of more than 2 10's.
I have loved all her ballroom dances but last week she looked the real deal and was worthy of the magical 40

A agree with you, I was beginning to think I was the only one who didn't think Alesha was fantastic, she makes errors which is probably to be expected as she is not a trained dancer, but the judges should be able to see it, they probably do but prefer to ignore it because it is Alesha, they seem to see the errors of the other couples, but they aren't the judges favourite.

Me to she was not as good as Matt and Flavia and was therefore over marked

Len has totally lost the plot his marking is going from bad to worse

There was definitely something up in last night's show. The voting was all over the shop.

That's how I felt about last week too and I feel her fox trot was deserving of higher marks.

I agree with this post, and it is really good to see a well thought out post which looks back over the whole series so far.

Alesha is not perfect by any means, but she HAS been the most consistent - and I didn't hear any complaining with her marks last week when in my humble opinion she should have got four 10s.

Matt and Flavia were great - but as I said on another thread, I felt that Alesha's mistakes with her knees and Matt's with his slight "drifting out" on two occasions made them on relatively equal footing in the dances last night.

I feel the problem is not in the public's perception that Alesha is the favourite and gets the best marks but that the judges mark too highly the dancers who are not that good. And if you give 7s and 8s to poor dancers then when people like Alesha and Matt di Angelo do incredibly good dances like they both did last night, the judges HAVE to give them 9s and 10s even if they are not perfect, just to show the discrepancy between the dances.

Its the judges' fault, in my opinion, that they started off marking too highly at the start of the series.

I personally liked Alesha's dance better than Matt's but that is only my personal opinion. I thought she showcased hers slightly better but on technicality, given the mistakes they both made, I felt they were pretty equal on that.

So...........then it boils down to what actually excites you personally and for me last night it was Alesha.

I think as well it would be great if we could all actually stop griping and really enjoy all the dances that everyone does - the effort that goes into it is phenomenal - some are better than others but as a show it is brilliant.

We all have our favourites - but at times we have to be objective as well.

and please, judges, if you are reading this, START MARKING PROPERLY then a lot of the nastiness that has appeared on these boards in the last day or so would not have appeared!

Sorry but I really don't agree - I don't think it wzas a question of favourtism at all. I think the 10's for both Alesha's & Matt D's routines were a bit much. Both deserved 9's across the board, but the judges had backed themselves into a corner. They had overmarked everyone else so much that when the final two dances blew everyone else off the floor they had no choice but to give them 10's. Quibbling and getting upset about a point here and there is ridiculous. Everyone has been overmarked and undermarked at some point this year.

As for technical perfection - well IMO I don't think the judges are actually looking for that when they award 10's. The celebs are amateurs who have one week to learn a dance - no-one in their right mind would expect any of them to be technically perfect. I think the judges award a 10 when they are blown away by a dance. I don't think there's much question that Alesha & Matt D have better chemistry with their partners than anyone else, perform their dances with more passion & energy. If Matt hadn't tripped last week I think he would have had the same score Alesha got tonight despite him making a couple of slight mistakes, because that QS was electric. I like Gethin & Camilla and Darren & Letitia and thought their routines were charming, but they don't have that extra pizzazz.

In the end the right two people ended up at the top of the leaderboard, regardless of the actual numeric marks (which as I said, I think the judges ended up backing themselves in to).

Kelly didn't put the hours in, and it showed in her dancing. She shouldn't get special treatment just because she didn't have enough time to train. The steps she did were fine but the routine had no 'oomph' and the song choice was a disaster. They should have gone for something more traditional. I'm being completely serious here, I think the routine Kate Garraway did for Samba was more complicated!
Regarding Matt&Flavia and Alesha&Matthew, I thought they were both super but Matt's routine for me had more of a wow factor, but 38/39 reflects how tight it was, it would be hard for me to say which was better.
I'm so excited to see how things go tonight!

i don't think the judges overmarked them becuase they had to i just think they made an error ehich shouldn't of happened ! luckily craig used his head and gave them a 9 which wass what was deserved! an i still think favouritism plays a part in this but thats just my opinion
Last edited by shellshell : 25-11-2007 at 11:27

You don't have to be sorry for not agreeing with me, this is the good thing about this forum, we can all put our views across and discuss it, but I am not getting upset about the marks, but I also think that Gethin and Camilla have good chemistry.

It was the way alisha acted the dance, i think thats what gives her the slight edge, but matt is catching up fast, both of their dances were fab last night.

I agree with you (and everybody else who said similar things!!)

Matt Di and Alesha were the last 2 out, by this time everybody else had been overmarked, there was nothing else the judges could do. The 3 judges who gave Alesha 10 gave Kenny 8. Her dance was worth more than 2 points more than his. Craig was able to give a 9 because he gave Kenny a 6.

IMHO the problem that caused the thread to start, is that the judges overmark.

In relation to the other scores that went before them, you could even argue that both Matt Di and Alesha were undermarked!!

Well its clear to see who are the judges firm favourites are this year. I cannot believe they got three ten's for that one, it wasn't even their best one, i've never seen such blatant over-marking, their was clear obvious mistakes in that routine, it was worth an 8, it lacked the wow factor that arlene was talking about in ITT in order to get a 10, it just didn't take off after the opening sequence and it felt a little disappointing. The judges over-marking could be putting this couple in trouble with the voting public.

Her joie de vivre lights up the whole floor - and it's infectious. Watching her last night made me beam from ear to ear.
Matt has a similar effect on me, but as yet he's not quite as consistent as Alesha has been.
So as you can see, it's two grins for Alesha at the moment, and one for Matt!! (his Jive made me want to get up and dance, though!! It may not have been perfect but it was full of pizazz)

I agree. There were a lot of difficult Cha Cha steps in there that she did really well and she mainly kept it all very sharp. Bearing this in mind in addition to her performance, I can see why exactly why they gave her such high marks.

A couple of small places looked a little sloppy for me though and so I think 39 was a bit too high. I would have given her equal marks to Matt, as I didn't think his routine was perfect either and I would have given both routines straight nines or nines with one ten.

I thought Letitia was a little overmarked as well - I agreed with Len about her routine.

I'm comparing her with someone who locks their legs when dancing a cha cha!!! That's just basic, you keep your legs straight. She didn't. Anton picked up on it...

I agree completely! Everybody was overmarked last night and so if you use a relative scale it was all about right.

yep anton a great latin dancer - yes you straighten legs into lock - but no you dont keep them straight all the time

Alesha was overmarked. Which could actually effect her, i mean look what happened to Emma last year when people thought she was overmarked.

It bugs me because i think Matt was ace, but i also though Letitia was amazing and that she got marked down!

No offence Erinfan but how can a routine look sloppy in places and still deserve 10's. It's not DWTS were watching. The routine should have been as breathtaking as Marks's AT or Colin's QS and in my opinion I don't think it did.

Alesha routine was great but I said people will go off her if they see high marks and think 'really for that?' and I think last night was a case in point. The routine deserved straight nines but no tens, neither did Matt deserve tens for his routine. I think the judges were saying this is who we want in the final regardless of public opinion. Not that I think public opinion would put either out the way they are dancing.

Gethin got 34 for his QS so if the judges has given Matt 35 and Alesha 36 the leaderboard would have look exactly the same, so why give the 10's?