if you look at other similar programs such as "american idol" or "indian idol" (i think the idea of closeup1 comes from these contests), the judges do criticize the contestants much much more even though those programs are fully judged by sms/votes. I even remember Sonu Nigam and Anu Malik in the idian idol program harshly criticizing the public votes which did not reflect the performances of the contestants.

I would rather want the judges to be balanced and they should critique the contestants consistently and fairly.