Bruno marked the same as Arlene for almost all teh dancers. Usually he marks the same as Good old lets be Mr nice Len.

I mean did anyone really deserve more then an 8??

I think Arlene and Bruno's marks were spot on all evening.

So hoprfully no more easy 10's from Bruno. But it is early days!

I really do hope Bruno keeps his cool and marked like he did last Saturday. Yes, I agreed that Arlene and (more surprisingly) Bruno's scores were by and large spot-on.

Len giving a nine for Austin's waltz? It was good, but not more than an eight, IMHO.

I hate them marking so high early on

At least keeping the scores around the 3 - 7 mark gives the celebs something to aim for.

Bruno definitely surprised me on saturday. I think the producers must have had words with all of them as their respective roles were becoming blurred: Craig was being too nice, Len was being too nasty, Bruno was overscoring, and Arlene... hopefully she was told to tone down the alliterations/metaphors/drooling over fit blokes.

He did seem high on something though!

Maybe a tomcat sprayed him?

Craig was being too nice?? He gave a 1 to Gary, which was desperately unfair. I'm not sure but wasn't Len still giving out fairly high marks?

Len over scored every dancer by one I thought.

I felt that Craig and Len were trying to counterbalance each other's scores by marking lower/higher than they actually felt. Bruno, however, does seem to have learned his lesson, or at least someone's had a word in his ear.

Or all that botox has found its way to his brain?!


Sorry my post wasn't very clear. I meant that their roles became blurred last season with Craig being Mr Nice to Len's Mr Nasty. So they're trying to get back to their old roles this season.

Bruno seems to be scoring 1 below Len ... only once did he not do that on Saturday! But I'm sure he's waiting for the moment when someone breaks the rules and he says he doesn't care and does the "TEN" moment!

I know it's all sort of scripted and they have their roles to play but it's still fun watching the scoring!

Its getting like Eurovision. How many, after a few dancers, could guess the scores though. If Arlene does a 5 you know Len will be a 6 LOL!!

Other than a few occasions (e.g. the one) you could guess the marks like this once you'd seen Craig's:

Craig, Craig + 2, Craig + 3, Craig + 2

Craig has ten paddles 1-10
Arlene has seven - 4-10
Len has five - 6-10
Bruno had three paddles last year but seems to have got a duplicate sset of Arlene's this year.

Actually, get rid of all the comments there for enteratinment purposes only and I thought they all spoke a lot of sense on Saturday. Thats a first!

i agree!

that seems to be the formula

This is the formula if Craig scores 7 or less.

We are now working out a formula for judges' scoring?

I agree but do they have a zero?

The problem is, that it is not just about the actual score, it also has to be appropriate compared to the couples, so I think sometimes a judge (Craig in particular) under sccores a contestant, he then has to keep going lower if the next contestant is weaker. (Same in reverse for Len over scoring - he does one a bit high then has to keep going!)

Some of the discrepancies on Saturday were ludicrous.

Mark Foster; Craig gave 3 - Len 7 (a difference of 4 was ridiculous).
Arlene and Bruno both gave 6 - a fair mark imo.

Gary Rhodes: Craig gave 1 - Len gave 6 (another ridiculous disparity of 5)
Arlene and Bruno were again in tune giving 5.

I was impressed with both Arlene and Bruno on Saturday. Arlene seems to have moderated her tone, and resisted the excruciating alliteration; Bruno was fair and constructive - and whatever has been dancing around in his trousers for the last 6 years - seems he's had pest control in and the problem is no more.

Just a comment on Len's 9 for Austin. He started the rot by awarding 8 for the first dancer Tom - knowing that with 7 dancers to go someone might better it. In the event Austin was superior and Len had no option but to go with a 9. The question is - Austin was not the last dancer - Mark, Gary, John and Andrew followed. Until they'd performed no one knew if one of the last 4 would prove better than Austin.

In the event it became irrelevant, but had one of them outperformed Austin - would we have witnessed the ridiculous situation of Len giving a 10 for the first programme of the series.

Hope he's learned a lesson for next week.

I think Lens 9 to Austin, wasn't neceassarily OTT. I feel that a 9 was given because if you take into consideration that it was his first dance etc etc and such an early stage in the competition it was really tremendous.

A 1 to Gary from Craig was IMO shocking though.

And I wouldn't mind trying some of what Bruno was drinking before the show

I was harsh. If Fiona Phillips got a one, I can't see, however 'bad' Gary was on Saturday, that it deserved a 1. Maybe worst come to worst, a 3 (that's still harsh but that's understandable coming from Craig). But ONE?!

As for the nine from Len. He's definitely overscored at least by one point per dance...

I agree Austin's was an amazing 1st dance - but what if it had been bettered? Would we have seen a 10?

My feelings on the judges:

Len's comments were on the positive side which isn't a bad thing but his marks were too generous. I think he's making allowances for the fact this is their first week which I don't necessarily agree with on the marking front.

Arlene's marks were generally right but she and her ridiculous comments annoyed me greatly. Lost count of the times I thought 'STFU!'

Bruno's marks were generally right. He's a bit of a nutcase but a rather amusing one.

Craig's comments were spot and I think his marks were almost right. He didn't change his marking criteria simply because it was the first week which I think is the right way to go about it. His mark for Gary's dance is the only one I think he got really wrong - I think his personal hatred for the performance (not the performer) over rode any merits.