Strictly Come Dancing viewers accused show judge Shirley Ballas of overtaking fellow panellist Craig Revel Horwood as the series ‘baddie’ as she came under fire for her harsh comments on Saturday night.
Programme fans claimed head judge Shirley, 62, was favouring certain contestants over others, with audience members slamming her for being particularly harsh towards singer Fleur East, 34, and comedian Ellie Taylor, 38, with one person noting: ‘She’s rivalling Craig for baddie of the week!’
After watching radio host Fleur perform, Shirley said: ‘There were too many foot faults for me… It never got enough flow for me.’
Harsh comments? Strictly Come Dancing viewers accused show judge Shirley Ballas, 62, of overtaking fellow panellist Craig Revel Horwood, 57, as the series ‘baddie’ on Saturday
She told Ellie: ‘I can appreciate the shape when you were in plain hold, it had some decent footwork, but for me it lacked completely the essence of Pasodoble.
Fending off boos from the audience, she said: ‘Let me finish. I didn’t get the Spanish feeling… It just missed for me.’
Taking to Twitter to express their disappointment with Shirley’s comments, one person remarked: ‘Shirley is the new Craig tonight. Her comments towards Fleur and Ellie T tonight have been awful. #Strictly.’
Changing roles? Craig was previously known as Strictly Come Dancing’s Mr Nasty but it seems the roles are changing
Someone else wrote: ‘Sorry but the scoring is again all over the place. Shirley being much harder on the female celebs again. I don’t mind Craig. He’s Craig. But Shirley is so transparent sadly. #Strictly.’
While another person posted: ‘I feel like the judges have favourites especially Shirley she’s harsh on James, Fleur and Will tonight and actually James and Fleur deserved higher scores I don’t get why the judges over mark and under mark. #Strictly.’
Demanding BBC bosses take what Shirley said into account, another viewer wrote: ‘@bbcstrictly The BBC needs to do something about Shirley’s dislike of Fleur East. It is clear from her comments, facial expressions and body language that she’s got it in for Fleur. Not a Fleur East fan but think everybody deserves a fair crack of the whip.’
Unimpressed: Programme fans claimed head judge Shirley was favouring certain contestants over others, with audience members slamming her for being particularly harsh
While another audience member shared: ‘When craig’s comments are nicer than Shirley’s and his score is higher than Shirley’s, you know Shirley’s hatred for young women has struck.’
‘When Shirley is scoring less than Craig.. you know it’s slightly personal,’ tweeted another viewer.
While someone else wrote: ‘Snide little comment from Shirley – disguised as all nicely nice there about Kym about her earrings. #Strictly.’
Views: Strictly Come Dancing viewers took to Twitter in their droves to remark on Shirley’s strict comments
Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu topped the leaderboard on Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday.
The 21-year-old actress has been paired up with professional dancer Carlos, 28, as she takes part in the BBC Latin and Ballroom competition and the couple scored a total of 65 following their performance the Quickstep.
Following the victory, Molly told host Claudia Winkleman: ‘I forgot I had to dance a little bit in the beginning! It’s my favourite song as you know so I feel like that alone got me through the dance.
Strictly Come Dancing 2022: Molly Rainford topped Saturday night’s leaderboard in the second live show with partner Carlos Gu
Suited: Molly and Carlos took to the dancefloor in bright pastel coloured suits as they danced a Quickstep to a cover of Beyonce’s Love on Top – which Molly admitted was her ‘favourite song’
‘I was a little bit concerned about playing with umbrellas because I had to walk down some stairs last week so I was like, “Please make it easy!”
‘My best friend Kira is here and she is all about positive mental attitude, she’s always saying, “Manifest this, Molly, you’ve got this!”‘
After their performance, judges Craig Revel Horwood and Anton DuBeke granted the pair an 8 out of 10, while Motsi Mabuse wanted to ‘start the evening all over again’ with the couple and – along with head judge Shirley Ballas – granted the pair a score of 9, which when combined with their score last week gave them a leading total of 65.
Tears: Fleur East got emotional following her performance, shedding a tear as she admitted emotions had ‘built up’ throughout the week’
Elegant: The singer donned a blush gown for the impactful dance as she embraced her partner
The rest of the leaderboard was filled up with the likes of former Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps actor Will Mellor, who gained total of 26 points with partner Nancy Xu, whilst Countryfile presenter Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystałcame came in third place with a combined total of 60 points.
Former X Factor star Fleur East landed in fourth place after she gained a score of 24 – giving her a combined total of 58 after she danced the Viennese Waltz with Vito Coppolo, whilst Paralympian champion swimmer Ellie Simmonds rounded off the top 5 with a performance of the waltz set to Elvis classic Can’t Help Falling in Love with You with professional dancer Nikita Kuzmin, earning a score of 30 which gave the pair a total of 56.
Crashing into bottom place was former Arsenal player Tony Adams, who danced the Charleston to My Old Man’s A Dustman with Katya Jones and earned a score of 22 points, bringing his total in week two of the competition to 37.
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