Okay so I felt like writing a lame blog. One of the things about this show that causes me the most stress is unfair judging. Sometimes they're too soft, sometimes they're too harsh, sometimes you just don't know what in the world they're smoking.
I feel like scoring used to be a lot more consistent in earlier seasons, but as the seasons progressed things got a little weirder.
Here's a short list of SOME scores (there are MANY more) that made me go "WHAT were they thinking???"
Season 7[]
- Guest Judge Michael Flatly giving Brooke Burke and Derek Hough a 10 for their Rumba. Now I know Michael is not a ballroom expert, but neither are Bruno or Carrie Ann. That Rumba was NOT a perfect 10 Rumba, so I don't know what on earth he was thinking when he gave that a 10.
- Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo getting a higher score on their West Coast Swing than Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. I know Lance slipped on his West Coast Swing, but Toni's routine looked like anything BUT a West Coast Swing. I feel like the judges were punishing Lacey for overdancing, but at least she gave Lance a true WCS routine.
Season 9[]
- Len giving Mya low scores for the first 7 weeks of competition. Yes, I know the Viennese Waltz should have had more content on hold, but a FIVE???? I've seen similar routines with less line and finesse get a 7 from him.
Season 11[]
- Really, just Jennifer Grey's scores all season long. I hate how she played the injury card until the very last minute. But, for example, in the finale her encore Viennese Waltz had two VERY obvious lifts (not on purpose, but still lifts) and yet she had a perfect 30? Whatever happened to Carrie Ann aka the "lift police".
Season 15[]
- I love this routine SO freaking much, but when Bruno gave Shawn and Derek a 9.5 for their Quickstep I was outraged. They broke two major rules TWICE (hold and lifts). In the past it was 1 point deducted per rule violation, I suppose he can bend his own rules and deduct 0.5 instead. But still, 9.5 was too high. Having said that, that routine was awesome to watch. Not much Quickstep content but it was fun.
- Since we're talking about Shawn and Derek, their trio Samba. I have to agree with Len 100%, there was very very VERY little Samba content in that routine, and yet Carrie Ann gave her a TEN??? That makes no sense at all. Even Bruno was tough for once and gave her a 9.
- Kelly and Val's freestyle: It was nice, it was sweet, it was a rip off from Dirty Dancing, but it was nice. JUST nice, nothing spectacular. How it managed to score 29.5/30 is beyond me. I would have given that an 8.5 at best.
There's many many MANY more weird judging moments, but I don't want to make this a super long blog. If you can think of any you'd like to add or if you disagree with anything I have said feel free to leave a comment :)