"Pressure from above"? Ya think? I'm thinking the word you're really looking for is "rigged"! While it's true that the marks have been inflated throughout the series (did anyone get lower than a five, ever?), I was pretty happy with John's first 27.
When they got the second 27, though, I knew that I was going to be annoyed. You see, that gave them a 54 total, and the only way Kelly was going to win (the judges) was if she could add something to her 25 to make it better than 54... which means she had to get a perfect 30. It was obvious it was coming. It was exactly the kind of cheap "dramatic" shit that I'd expect.
I held out hope until the last moment that they were going to declare it a tie, but no. So the segment of the viewing public smart enough to know that the game was rigged (note: not the core demographic, apparently) winds up disgruntled. And John? He looked like he was thoroughly restraining himself from yelling out "the fix is in!" I wonder if he was told ahead of time that he would not be winning. I'm pretty sure Kelly was not told ahead of time that she would be. Would the judges still have given her a perfect 30 if she'd actually fallen, as she almost did twice? Hmph. All in all, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Of course, if they do another season (as I'm sure they will), I'll probably watch it anyway. *sigh* Maybe I am part of their core demographic after all.