It is Tom who is overmarked not Austin

The judges want a rachel/tom final remember. Even tho christine is polling more votes than rachel, so Tom will win.

Game over

Did they announce this yesterday. I don't remember that at all.

I'm an Austin fan, but I certainly don't think he was undermarked yesterday, however the Cha Cha Cha is not my favourite dance so what do I know. Generally, I think the judges were rather generous with the couples on top, maybe to justify their preaching from weeks before that the competition has now really started (because John left).

Like most of the others I disagree - he was massively overmarked.

That chacha was rubbish - no rhythm, lost his steps, he was flat-footed, I could go on...

He deserved 30 at best, 35 was ridiculous.

Totally agree. All Austin's Latin dances have been overmarked. He got most of his 35 marks for cheekiness!

Yes, they marked Lisa & Brendan, Jodie & Ian and Christine & Matthew properly and then overmarked the rest.

I thought he was grossly overmarked, Christines was far better, Austin can do no wrong as far as the judges are concerned. The have been biased since the 1st programme about Austin. He is one of the favourites and will stay to the end, I feel a bit sorry for Christine because she tries so hard and always seems to fail in the eyes of the judges.

Well said, I thought I was missing something when it came to the judges comments, He missed a large section of steps which the judges did not seem to notice, if they did they didn't mention it and then went on to overmark

Lisa wasn't any good either. There were huge gaps between her and Brendan and no way was that a QS, it was a medium step at best. Brendan has done all of Lisa's fast dances at a really pedestrian pace and it's starting to get really annoying!

I think everyone was overmarked if I'm honest. But the leaderboard was about right. I do think Austin was better than Lisa, but I would say that!

Christine, imo, was very wooden, very stilted and was almost being dragged around the floor by Matt like a rag doll.

Austin's wasn't amazing but it was definitely better than Christine's.

Yeah I agree. Christine gives good performance - big smiles energy - but her dancing is often really limp, soft and rag dollish. Her Cha Cha made me cringe to be frank. (I've no idea what Len was on last night...Arlene was 100% correct - good performance but bad technique....especially at this stage in the game.)

I thought Austin was good but let down by some of Erin's choreography...too much walking around the place. Christine on the otherhand was helped enormously by Matthew's "oh look she can do the splits" "bend her back quite far" flashy punctuations points.

I agree! You could tell last night that Mattew was the Latin specialist and Erin the ballroom. Austin danced it better, but Christine's choreography had more substance.

If Erin wants to get to the final, she has to bring in some help with the Latin choreography. Their ballroom is amazing, they could be just as good at Latin imo if Erin made the choreography as complicated in Latin as she does for the Ballroom.

Do you honestly think Christine was much better? I think austin was better technically and even on performance .
Shes possibly more likeable and has better chemistry with matt then austin does with erin but i cant see how anyone can believe her cha cha was better then austins?
Neither were great last night though

The Cha Cha from Austin was poor IMO his technique wasn't good the routine was awful and he walked around more than he danced basic steps - for that he got 35 points?? and christines which was no better or no worse got 27?

Christine's footwork was sluggish and she did look a bit like a rag doll at times but Austin's wasn't much better, even though the scoring was stupid last night the leader board was about right.

Sorry, Alli, can you explain how someone can be both wooden and rag-dollish at the same time? It seems a bit of a contradiction to accuse someone of being both stiff and floppy...

On the Christine v. Austin debate, I do think Austin was better on the night, but not as much better as the judges' marks implied. Neither of them used the floor very well which affected their hip action (something pointed out in Christine's case but not in Austin's) and I agree that Matthew's choreography was more complex and had more substance than Erin's. I think that Christine was concentrating so hard on keeping up at some points that she lost her performance on occasion - although she kept on managing to recapture it which did impress me. I honestly didn't see her being 'dragged around the floor' but that is my personal perception. And Austin's arms still bug me as much as they have done all season.

Basically, I think a lot of what Arlene said to Christine could have been applied to Austin as well (although being Arlene, that was never likely, was it ). I would probably have scored Christine a point or two higher (no more) and Austin several points lower, so no, I don't think he was undermarked.

Didn't reckon much to Austin at all was shocked when I saw he had high scores, I was expecting a real low score for what I saw, maybe they see something we don't

I think he was overmarked really, though the dance itself really entertained me - I was grinning throughout!

I totally agree with him being overmarked tonight, his dance was poor.

I think the problem with Christines was that the music seemed too slow to make it a good enough dances for the judges. It was a bit stilted and she seemed a bit awkward but i think the scores were about right. The choreography was amazing from matt.

Austin was probably overmarked, but i loved the performance just based on the cheekiness, and the fact that he looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself. Erin may need a bit of help with the choreography for the Latin, there seemed to be way to many New Yorkers in her routine, but I generally like her so Im not going to critisise to much! Her help from last seasons has been Ian and Matt tho, and since they are both still in the comp, they aren't exactly going to help her out are they?!!!

So, basically, this thread title is 100% wrong?

OK, here's the Youtube link:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RdG7OYfe_tY

Looking at it, he obviously goes wrong in the first few seconds (at 02:15), Erin looks uncomfortable for the next bit, they recover then he makes another mistake a 02:37 (steps back instead of forwards), and the whole sequence from 02:40 - 02:50 suffers as a result (e.g. look at his spare arm hanging limply around 02:47). And that's just in the first half of the performance.

Apart from all the mistakes, it just didn't look good - wooden, flatfooted, no rhythm, yuk.

Honestly, 35 is ridiculous.

In my opinion it was better, more enjoyable to watch, maybe because I also thought doing a Cha Cha Cha to it's raining men was the worst choice of music as well. She didn't miss steps or forget whole sections though like Austin appeared to do, in fact I think in the interview afterwards with Tess, he sort of admitted that he had forgotten/missed steps.

maybe its just the teacher in me and my critical eye but Austin's cha for me was no better and grossly overmarked

I thought it deserved no higher than 8. Actually scrap that idea.
6 or 7 would have been fair.
There wasn't much use of the floor.
The hips were going nowhere and the top line was awkward.

Another contestant going downhill.
Not a patch on his opening jive.
I'm actually preferring the ghastly Tom dancing-wise.

I thought the Matthew's Cha-Cha choreography was pretty poor tbh. The music was actually too FAST. In series 3 they do a SALSA to the same music. The frustrating thing about that song really is that it's great, but too slow for Salsa, too fast for Cha-Cha.