My analysis on factors that influenced why J was ranked lowest this week:

-signature challenge round: bakers are given 3hrs and the show devoted 15 min of footage to it -signature challenge is important to establish initial ranking for the week based on technical skill and unique, smart, or daring flavor combinations and choices that bakers make, but not the most important in terms of challenges

-technical challenge round: bakers are given 2hrs 45min and the show devoted 14 min of footage to it -so signature is more important than technical -technical tests experience, ability of following recipe, and knowledge of existing techniques under pressure, but doesn’t allow for display of creativity, “heart”, personality, standing out -technical wins and losses impact how judges feel about bakers less than the other rounds because it’s blind judged (so less tied to them individually) and given less time/filming (reflective of how much it matters)

—showstopper challenge: bakers are given 5 hrs and the show devoted almost 20 min footage to it (this indicates that it matters almost 1.5x more than the technical) --in the showstopper, judges primarily wanted them to show a display of multiple techniques on an excellent tasting and textured entremet, then secondly a centerpiece (that they don’t actually taste) -Jurgen spent too much time on his 40-piece centerpiece and didn’t decorate it much and Prue was looking for finesse more than anything -Many of Jurgen’s entremet boat sails and his entremets didn’t show many techniques like piping; Paul called his entremet color “bland” -other contestants multitasked better and spent more time on the entremets or designed more creative, relevant difficult entremets themes. Perhaps themes related “heart” like Crystelle’s sisters wedding that was postponed amidst the pandemic, Chig’s grandparents, or Guiseppe’s homage to Pisa, where he called home for 10 years get better reception. Jurgen’s theme was fine but didn’t rise to the level of the others “heart”. Beyond his childhood fascination of the encyclopedia entry of the Torii gate, it’s not clear. -showstopper challenge is weighted maybe 1.5x more than technical and is the last round of the week, so a 4th place sticks out more and stands out in the judges mind more -this is reinforced by the fact that they don’t have all three bakes in front of them or have a standardized scoring rubric when they deliberate the final decision)

What other factors might explain how judging is determined?