Discussion of viewer voting and judge scoring

[Krom]

Here's a place where we can discuss the overall judging, the scoring system used, the "formula" combining it with viewer voting, and the rules for viewer voting.

My first question is about viewer voting. As always on these kinds of shows I'm wondering...

Why not 1 vote per viewer?

[bbnbama]

I actually like the 10 votes per phone line per viewer myself. Of course, then you gotta throw in that whole AI thing of making the votes sound better when people get more than 1 chance to vote but I like the fact we are limited to the voting...keeps me from having to stay on the phone lines and vote like a maniac like I do with AI.....

[nemanomine]

Looks like it will be one vote per number of couples each week as last week we could vote 9 times. Since it is per phone line, theoritically I could have voted 27 times if I count mine and my husband's cell phones, so if you really want to vote a lot, there isn't too much they can do to stop you.

[TED_44319]

How much is added to the judges score based on phone in vote for Dancing with the stars. How is the score for phone in votes figured.

[PGM35]

From the 1/20 Results Show thread - thought it belonged over here.

It's simple.

Their formula is that the public is 50%. The biggest vote getter gets the equivalent of a perfect "30" score, I believe, which is combined with whatever they got from the judges. The other "places" are rated somewhat lower, although I don't really recall the exact formula.

So it's not that hard to recover from getting the lowest judge score. Lets say, each judge gave P a 1, for a total score of 3 out of 30. Worst case, right?

Combine that with a virtual "30", from getting the best public vote. Now P's got a 33/60.

Now lets assume that the 2nd to last place person from the judge voting got a 12/30, as opposed to P's theoretical 3. So he or she got much better than P. But in the public voting they got the least. While we don't know the exact amount for last place, lets put a good face on it and grant 15 points for it (it's likely much lower). Even in that case, this person winds up with 27/60, as opposed to P's 33/60.

In other words, if P gets first place in public voting, there's absolutely no way he can get kicked off the show.

Now if P gets 2nd or 3rd place in public voting, and if the other judged contestants all have scores that are at least in the 22-24 point range, that might start to change things.

I'm just saying that if the public is stupid, Ps got lots of chances to stay, no matter how bad he stinks. The judges can only hedge their bets by not only lowballing P, but also pumping the other scores up.

Does anyone know the ACTUAL percentage or points that the publc votes count as? I liked Krom's explanation, just wondered if there was more information out there. Would they ever consider giving us the Public's actual numbers per contestant?

The actual percentage IS half. What's not clear is how the scores are weighed for each "place", compared to each other that is. I believe it's been shown on-screen by the show at least once last year, but I don't recall the exact "virtual scores" they are representing as each place in the public voting. Someone here with a tape or better memory might recall, but even then I'm sure it changes every week based on how many couples are left.

And it DOES make a difference. Think about it. If the last place couple in public voting always gets a 0, that's harsh. If they get a virtual 10 instead though, it kind of changes that "50%" in a hard to calculate way.

[emeraldsong]

If I remember right from the first show all that matters are the rankings.

The number one person for the judges gets the number of points = to the number of contestants (8 contestants = 1st place 8 pts). The phone in vote works the same way (#1 in votes = 8 pts). The higher ranking in phone votes breaks a tie.

The judges scores are just subjective ratings

[dberk]

I understand that they were hoping for this show to be a huge success like AI by making the viewers feel vested in the result, but while the judges views are subjective, their scores at least revolve around the dancing. The callers make this a popularity contest that ironically takes "dance" out of the equation. I would prefer to not have any call ins, but if they have to have some it should be a small percentage.

[Miss_Griss]

I understand that they were hoping for this show to be a huge success like AI by making the viewers feel vested in the result, but while the judges views are subjective, their scores at least revolve around the dancing. The callers make this a popularity contest that ironically takes "dance" out of the equation. I would prefer to not have any call ins, but if they have to have some it should be a small percentage.

I think it's fun to have viewers vote, but I agree that we should have less say than the judges. Maybe it would work to have the judges give feedback but no scores (until the results show) and then the viewers votes would determine which of the two lowest ones stayed. (But that still wouldn't prevent a "P" scenario.)