Having listened to the judges' comments again, they're not as negative as I recalled from the night it aired (when I was all "WTF are you insane??" with tears still in my eyes from the performance), but on second listening they still sound to me like damning with faint praise. Lots' of "I respect the risk you're taking, but..." And your hunch is dead-on about the numbers -- they seem respectable out of context, but the math of the scoring system was completely transparent, and it was immediately obvious they would keep her out of the final round. After the spectacular reception she had the previous week, I was shocked, probably moreso than it really warranted.
Although it didn't help that it was kicked off by the Argentinean judge's very first words being "I'm used to..." And that being the only reason she articulated for awarding a lower score than in the previous round.
Similarly, wow, I can't believe that they genuinely had non-professionals grade two kathak dancers against each other
The judging overall was mostly a joke. Made more so by the abstention when their compatriots performed -- yes, it avoided favoritism, but it also meant that the judge most likely to be knowledgeable in a given idiom wasn't judging it. It really irked me that it had to be a competition in the first place -- it just shoehorned in fake drama and wasted time that could have been spent watching more dance! But that's US networks for you. :-P
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Although it didn't help that it was kicked off by the Argentinean judge's very first words being "I'm used to..." And that being the only reason she articulated for awarding a lower score than in the previous round.
Similarly, wow, I can't believe that they genuinely had non-professionals grade two kathak dancers against each other
The judging overall was mostly a joke. Made more so by the abstention when their compatriots performed -- yes, it avoided favoritism, but it also meant that the judge most likely to be knowledgeable in a given idiom wasn't judging it. It really irked me that it had to be a competition in the first place -- it just shoehorned in fake drama and wasted time that could have been spent watching more dance! But that's US networks for you. :-P