Skate Canada so far...

[Bluebonnet]

There may be a home town advantage for Canadian skaters, and Skate Canada gets extra skaters as host picks, if I understand correctly. It's not super surprising that Canadians would do well. Like Russians at CoR, and Japanese at NHK

Exactly!

To me, it's simple - Home town advantage which every host country has been enjoying and happily accepted by fans of every winner in everywhere around the world, not just in Canada. Lysacek got it in LA for 2009 worlds. Takahashi got it in Japan for WTT. Why is it different this time?

I'm no Osmond fan before. I've never seen her skating until this time. She was good. I was surprised that Canada does have some high level ladies. I agree that she got a little bit high on PCS. But not much. It was an acceptable amount. Akiko lost badly in SP. She has certainly won the LP. It was right to place Osmond in the second place in LP.

[Scout]

I'm not going to go there with the bias theory. But some thoughts:

Akiko Suzuki got PCS of 28.95 in the SP. If you double that amount you get 57.90 (as you typically get double your SP score if you perform the same as the SP). In the FS she got PCS of 59.82, a difference of 1.92 points from the doubled PCS in the SP.

Kaetlyn Osmond received PCS of 27.35 in the SP. A gap of 1.60 points from Suzuki. If you double that amount, you get 54.70. In the FS she received PCS of 59.61, a difference of 4.91 points from the doubled PCS. And the gap between her an Akiko is a mere .21.

So:
** How did the judges decide that Katelyn's FS was so much better that they cut her PCS gap with Akiko by 1.39 points overnight?
** Also, why did the judges think Katelyn's FS was so much better artistically that she received an average increase of nearly a full point more for all categories?

Just food for thought, that's all.

Maybe skating first in the short hurt her PCS then, and if she had skated later, they would have been higher? Maybe Kaetlyn skated faster in the FS, covered the ice surface better? Maybe the choreography of her LP is different from the choreography of her short? There are possible reasons, some more valid than others...And of course, a hometown bonus might be one of them.