I am in NPC, but your first comment about the head judge having anchoring effects on the other judges reminds me of one of my shows. I remember being first call outs in center and then I got moved out. I was watching the judges as they were talking and the judges were looking at me and talking to the head judge. The head judge keeping shaking his head, as if disagreeing with the judges next to him. I didn’t win that show, but my feedback was that they had me in first but moved me out for lack of glute fullness. I personally think the other judges wanted me to stay in the middle but the head judges said, “no” (literally) lol.

Anyway, that had nothing to do with this particular show but it just reminded me of that.