I have seen all 3 judge and I personally think all 3 are good judges. I tend to agree that with Griner and Hoge after the first couple of classes of the day, you can probably pretty much tell where you are going to place, they are easy to follow because they tend to pick a more uniform type and kind throughout the day. In my experience the cattle in their champion drives will be very uniform. On contrast, Johnson doesnt necesarily follow as specific trait pattern, the thicker made ones may when one class, while the prettier ones may when another. Personally I tend to like Johnson because our judging patterns are very similar. The ones that have the most holes in them will be at the bottom while the ones that have the fewest holes will be at the top. The trick with Johnson is to have the calf as complete as possible, with some judges you can sacrifice a little style or structural integrity for more power or visa versa, but with Johnson sacrificing anything could get you into trouble. Personally I think thats the way they should all be, but thats my opinion. When it gets down to the ones that have pretty even holes in them, just different holes, experience tells me that Johnson will use soundness over muscle over style. And I definately think lately soundness seems to have trumped all for both Griner and Hoge, but I think they all 3 tend to follow the trends pretty close.
And Showstopper, as Chambero said, these guys have all 3 sorted Americans before, but beyond that they are all good evaluators so the Americans shouldnt give them any trouble. Not saying everyone will always agree with them, because they probably will knock some of them for leather etc. And lots of people thinks that means they dont know Americans or what to do with them, but really even the American breeds are trying to clean their cattle up and this is a steer show so leather equals waste equals a hole that should be penalized. I think these 3 will do just fine. But like always the people who win and place well will love them when the show is over, and the people who dont place well will hate them and say they are blooming idiots that dont know what they are doing and the placings were all strictly politics. I mean hey, thats they way stock shows go!