How Scoring Works

[Snapit]

from official site: http://abc.go.com/primetime/dancing/scoring.html

The judges' scores and the public vote both carry equal weight in deciding the fate of our couples.

In the first two shows, we add together the judges' scores from both shows to give each couple a total out of 60 possible points. For every subsequent show, the judges' scores just come from the performances in that show and give each couple a total out of 30.

Public Vote

The public phone vote is gathered from phone calls to the voting lines that are open for one hour following the show. Sometimes we may rerun the show and reopen the lines to give more people the chance to vote. At present each phone line is limited to making a maximum of five calls although this limit may change. The other element of the public vote is the online vote via this site, ABC.com. Although it may appear that you can vote online many times, the site will only register one vote per email address. The online vote closes at midnight, Eastern Time, of the Tuesday preceeding each Wednesday night's show.

When both the phone and online votes have closed, we verify them and add them together to create a total public vote for each couple. We then have a confidential leaderboard of total public votes for each couple, with one couple having the most votes and descending in order of quantity. The couple at the top of this leaderboard are then given maximum RANKING POINTS. If there are six couples in the competition that week, the top-ranked couple will get six ranking points, the second-placed will get five, the third-placed four, etc. The last-placed couple will receive one ranking point. As the number of couples reduces, so does the maximum ranking points -- so when four couples are in the competition, the maximum points is four, when three are left, the maximum is three. These ranking points are kept secret as they will be combined with the judges' scores in the upcoming show to determine who is eliminated.

Judges' Scores

The judges score each couple's dance within the show, giving a total out of a possible 30 points. As the show progresses, a leaderboard is formed with the couples with the highest judges' points at top and the totals for each descending couple below. When the show has finished we will have all six couples ranked on the leaderboard. As with the public vote, each couple is then assigned a RANKING POINT based on where they stand on the leaderboard. The couple in top position get maximum ranking points (again the maximum points is the same as the number of couples competing that week) and everyone placed below gets one less ranking point. In the event that couples are tied on judges points, they will both recieve maximum ranking points available to them in that position. The couple (or couples) below this will revert to what their original ranking point position would have been irrespective of how many above them have been given higher points. An example of this is the ranking points that would have been assigned to the judges' scores at the end of the first show (if they were not being combined with the judges scores from Show Two):

Couple Judges' Score Ranking Points
Joey & Ashly 20 6
John & Charlotte 20 6
Rachel & Jonathan 20 6
Evander & Edyta 18 3
Trista & Louis 18 3
Kelly & Alec 13 1


Combining the Judges' Scores with the Public Vote

When the final judges' scores are in, and each couple has been assigned their ranking points, we then add on the ranking points each couple received from the previous week's public vote. Each couple then has a total number of ranking points. The couple that has the lowest total of ranking points from judges' scores and the public vote is eliminated from the competition. If one or more couples are tied on lowest ranking points, then the couple that has the lowest overall public vote between the tied couples is eliminated from the competition. In the very unlikely event that the one or more couples tied on the lowest ranking points are also tied on the number of public votes they have received, then our head judge, Len Goodman, will decide which of the couples he feels has been the weakest dancers in the competition so far, and they will be eliminated.

[Board at work]

I read about the scoring this morning. I find it to be very confusing. I tried to do some of the math in my head and came to a couple of conclusions.

Kelly must have had the most phone calls of any contestant in order to stay in the competition.

Rachel must have had the lowest number of phone calls to be in the bottom two.

Poor Trista was a victim of being meh. She wasn't loved enough by either the judges or the voting public to stay in. The rule of this competition is to have either faction completely on your side.

[Muduh]

I think it's confusing too. And if they were to change the rules at a later date wouldn't that be unfair to the people who are already gone? Doesn't seem really well thought out, does it?

[JLuvs]

I don't think they had any idea how popular the show would be so I wouldn't be shocked to see things change as the season progresses.

[Muduh]

I don't think they had any idea how popular the show would be so I wouldn't be shocked to see things change as the season progresses.

You'd think they would leave it alone this time and adjust it for the next show. If they decide to increase the voting time then it will no longer be a dance contest and become a popularity contest just as some of the other shows have.

[jasmar]

I actually think this is a good system. If you think about the points they receive as ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), it makes more sense. So the couples tied with 20 points from the judges each get a 1st place ordinal - which, with 6 couples means they all get six ordinal points. The next two were tied for fourth, so they each get 3 ordinal points (since ordinal points 6, 5, and 4 were used up in the three-way tie for first). The sixth place couple gets one ordinal point (2 and 3 ordinal points having been spoken for by the fourth-place tied couples).

Then they do the same thing with audience totals. Since it is extremely unlikely for any two couples to recieve exactly the same number of audience votes, there won't be any issue with ties. So the couple with the most au. votes gets the first-place ordinal points (6, when there are 6 couples), the second most popular couple gets the second-place ordinal points (5, when there are 6 couples), etc.

Then they add the ordinal points from the judges with the ordinal points from the audience, and arrive at a total.

What I don't know is whether they are going to try to make the vote totals cumulative over the competition, which would be weird unless all six couples got to comete each week with the winner revealed at the end.

[Snapit]

jasmar, your explanation made more sense to me than the explanations from official site.

I'm just hoping that they don't change things in the middle of the series. I don't think that would be a good idea and would tarnish the results as far as I am concerned.

[jasmar]

Thanks, snapit! It's good to know my decade of judging skating is still useful for something.

[E-Daddy]

from official site: http://abc.go.com/primetime/dancing/scoring.html

Combining the Judges' Scores with the Public Vote

When the final judges' scores are in, and each couple has been assigned their ranking points, we then add on the ranking points each couple received from the previous week's public vote. Each couple then has a total number of ranking points. The couple that has the lowest total of ranking points from judges' scores and the public vote is eliminated from the competition. If one or more couples are tied on lowest ranking points, then the couple that has the lowest overall public vote between the tied couples is eliminated from the competition. In the very unlikely event that the one or more couples tied on the lowest ranking points are also tied on the number of public votes they have received, then our head judge, Len Goodman, will decide which of the couples he feels has been the weakest dancers in the competition so far, and they will be eliminated.

I am appaled by Evander's elimination. Explain this. There was a tie between Evander & Joey. They had the same number of total ranking points (it doesn't matter what the actual number is). Evander got 1 RP from the judges and Joey got 3. If there was a tie between the two, Evander would of have to have more RPs from the public then from the judges. It says right on the site that the person with the lowest number of public votes is out. That can't be Evander, because Joey got more RPs from the judges therefore Evander got more RPs from the public.

Let's say Joey got 1 RP from the public. That meant Evander had to have 3 RPs from the public in order to catch up with Joey.

So according to the rules, Evnader should of survived and Joey should of been sent packing. Does this make sense? As a result of the rules being broken, this show has lost points with me.

Go John!!!

[Primetimetommie]

I am appaled by Evander's elimination. Explain this. There was a tie between Evander & Joey. They had the same number of total ranking points (it doesn't matter what the actual number is). Evander got 1 RP from the judges and Joey got 3. If there was a tie between the two, Evander would of have to have more RPs from the public then from the judges. It says right on the site that the person with the lowest number of public votes is out. That can't be Evander, because Joey got more RPs from the judges therefore Evander got more RPs from the public.

Let's say Joey got 1 RP from the public. That meant Evander had to have 3 RPs from the public in order to catch up with Joey.

So according to the rules, Evnader should of survived and Joey should of been sent packing. Does this make sense? As a result of the rules being broken, this show has lost points with me.

Go John!!!

I must have missed something. Where was it ever stated that Evander and Joey finished in a tie? Your basic premise is correct, I think...If both had finished with equal points, that could only happen if Evander got a lot more popular votes than Joey, and then Evander would have won.

But as far as I can tell, there was no tie. Evander was eliminated because he had the lowest score.