Of course they can mark how the hell they like, Jason does and they criticise him for it. I am not a Ruthie fan, in fact, I don't even know who she is. I am a big fan of ice-skating not the West End. I like to see fair marking as does Nicky especially when he is commenting for Eurosport at the European Championships.

So what you are saying then is that its ok for Ruthie to overmark but not Nicky or anyone else?

Course they can mark how they like - they can and do. But where does it say in the rule book that they can undermine a fellow judge TWICE in public and give a post mortem about a performance TWO dances on? And to say in all of this in public?

It seems to me that this thread isn't about the scores that any of the skaters were given.

The thread is about the appropriateness of Ruthie's attack on Nicky, for attack is what it came over as.

Surely they should all give the mark they feel is suitable for THEIR opinion of the performance. Much as the threads on here, none of them would necessarily favour the same skater but you can't browbead another judge for not agreeing with your take on the scoring.

Was it just me though, because I though it was when she was banging on about the score he gave Coleen not leaving a margin for a better act that he said he had been given a 'directive' by Robin, rather than when Ray was scored?

Well perhaps - but where does that leave all the other skaters who have gone before? If she only overmarks Zoe, then Ruthie is no better than Nicky. I think judges (and you seem to agree) should be consistent. If they are not, or if another judge happens to disagree with them, I think they should save the discussion for after the show.

People seem to want to dislike Ruthie as she doesn't come from an ice skating background. Her point was totally valid, she was not saying that the person who skates first is marked down in case those after are better - but if Nicky had've given a 5.5 or 6.0 to Ray then it leaves no room for improvement.

I do agree that Ruthie's handling of the situation wasn't great but I don't see how else she could've approached the situation whilst on air.

What is more worrying about Ruthie is that she clearly has picked Zoe as her little favourite- she overlooked a mistake tonight- gave her a 4.0. Karen, Nicky and Robin correctly marked Zoe down.

And what is more annoying is that she marked Elleray low for a clean performance.

Maybe Robin should have a word with her and give a course on the art of marking

Nicky does - the others show consistancy between the couples

They can and they DO, regardless of rules!

Judges are there to give their own opinion. I don't think judges should adjust their marks to counterbalance others' as they could be accused of manipulating the scoreboard. I don't think Ruthie was doing that though

Ruthie had a point, but the way she raised it was wrong. If she has an issue she should take it up with Nicky (and Robin as the head of the judges) after the show.

I doubt if Ray was upset about getting only 0.5 marks more than Colleen (he looked delighted with his scores as far as I could see.)

She should not have raised it on air at all! She should have waited until the break or after the show.

Did Nicky take the option of finger pointing about her Zoe mark?

Whatever the marks, agree/ disagree, her behaviour was not professional at all.

They can mark how they like within reason - however if they do mark how the hell they like eg giving Todd a 6.0 for what he just did then they would lose face and the small amount of credibility that they have.

The fact that Nicky said there was only a 0.5 difference between his scoring of Ray and Coleen was because of a directive from Robin shows they can't mark how the hell they like

The problem is the marks can only be given .5 increments, which doesn't give a lot of room to slot skaters in. If they give a skater a 3.5, and then another a 4, there is no where to go if another skaters comes along and is in between. given 2 is regarding really low, and 5 seems to be the highest they are prepared to go in week 2, there really aren't that many different marks they can give out.
I'd like them to be able to give out 4.1, 4.2 etc not just 1/2 points.

It was none of her business to approach it on air. If there was a problem then, given that we now find that there are directives from Robin about scoring perhaps she should have taken it up with him - off camera. But she is not the head of judging. She is not entitled to redress balances. She is there to give HER marks for HER view of the dance she has just seen. Not to bring up dances that were performed two times before and castigate the marks that were awarded by a fellow judge. She was out of order, simople as that.

Whether Nicky overmarked is not the point, but the fact that she had a go at him over it when it's not her place to, she should worry about her own marks and Nicky can mark how he likes. She's getting way too big for her boots.

She had dodgy marking of her own, giving Jeremy a 2.0 while the three skating judges all gave 4.0s.

At least Ruthie's scores leave room for people to improve. Nicky's didn't make sense when comparing his scores for different skaters. Ruthie didn't go about expressing this in the right way though. But I still like her... *ducks flying bricks*

Yeah I grant you that. But if I buy a CD and tell you it is great 10 out of 10. You buy it and say it's rubbish 2 out of 10. Unl. ess there are clear guidelines about what people are able to score on ie use of guitar being at least 20% then like this show it is purely a matter of opinion. That is why, so I am led to believe, that ballroom dancing won't be allowed to enter as a competition sport in the olympics because there is no frst past the winning post. It is open to corruption and full of flaws. This is why, I guess, the Russian were accused of fiddling the olympics years ago and why, I also suspect, that Torvil and Dean were robbed on their Olympic comeback, way back when.

Not at all, some of the judges mark irratically apart from maybe Karen and Robin but the Nicky mark for Colleen stood out for me. I thought it was outrageous, just my opinion.

I would hate to be judged down for something I had just done, because I might be able to do something better at a later date. I would much rather be judged for what I had just done. Ray Quinn, in my opinion today deserved 6's all the way, if I was on the panel, directive or not, I would have given him a six. Then Ruthie could have had a go at me and I would have said "F*ck off Ruthie you have had your say - so zip it - Capeesh..."

That is just for a giving a top mark of 6 at early stages.

Other than that, they do infact mark however they like, if not, we wouldn't be seeing so much difference in the marks given by different judges for the same dance.

I mean, 4.5, 4.0, 2.5, 2.5, 3.5 for the same dance! That is marking however they like!

What stuck out for me is that she was pig ignorant.

But she has no credibility now- she undermarks those who don't make a mistake and overmarks those who do(Zoe)

They can't keep her on for that- or at least Robin should have a word with her

Well we agree on Ray Now if Nicky had given him a six, that would have been just and deserved IMO.

I think you should be a judge!

Thank you - should I post my application form now - or just drag Ruthie out by her oversized necklace, throw her in the bin and sit in her seat?