@ Jane. I see your point. I think Malaika has improved over time. She is pretty honest on what she feels, but gets her message out in a nice way so it doesn't hurt as bad. Vaibhavi is a great judge too. Don't have either of the two ladies replacing Lauren. But I think Lauren really needs to go if she is going to continue judging at this level.
My hopes are the same as yours for Shahid. This is one of the qualities I have come to respect in judges over time. Un-biased and honest opinion.
@ Patronus: LOL, I haven't seen what Saroj Khan did with KSG, but since I am not his fan, whatever it was I would have enjoyed it.
However, I do recall her telling one of the contestants that she dances like a man and doesn't have any grace of a woman and needs to work on that in NB 1 or 2. She said it so bluntly that I was so shocked. She could have definitely said it in a nicer way, but her marks were up to the point.
Unfortunately, don't think she will come back to TV where everything is getting scripted probably comments' scale for marks as well. I feel like at that time, judges had a lot of power and they honestly gave marks, whereas now, the channels have more power due to TRP race. Also, not to forget NB 1 and 2 was on Star One. So less involvement of channel as it already was on lower pedestal on TRP scale. Plus, TRP issue wasn't as bad that time, was it? And I think NB was the first reality show when it came to dance and singing shows so not much competition on weekends at that time.