Cruel Strictly fans criticise head judge Shirley Ballas as first star eliminated

01 October 2023 , 20:51

545     0

Cruel Strictly fans criticise head judge Shirley Ballas as first star eliminated

Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas has been heavily criticised by fans of the show as they call her out for 'harsh' marking.

The judge has been called out for awarding low scores to three female dancers, whilst appearing to favour the male celebrities competing on this year's show. It comes after the 2022 series was also criticised by viewers who claimed the judge was being sexist with her marking and her critique of the celebrities.

Saturday night (30 September) saw Shirley award the lowest points out of all four judges for Zara McDermott, Ellie Leach and Angela Rippon.

Head Strictly judge Shirley Ballas has been accused of 'harsh' marking and favouring male dancers over female (BBC)

As Shirley gave her criticisms after some of the celebrities had danced, she was met with huge boos from the studio audience as well as a backlash online from viewers at home.

Taking to social media, Strictly fans called out Shirley for her marking as one wrote: "Shirley’s dislike for young women is so obvious."

Strictly's Molly Rainford and Tyler West fuel romance rumours while on tour

Another wrote: "Shirley was rude everyone this week. Cocky and harsh."

"I’ll never stop bringing it up each year how Shirley Ballas doesn’t try to hide how intimidated she is by younger women," said a third.

A fourth shared: "Shirley getting annoying at people booing her criticisms. For goodness sake, it’s like panto. She’s fine when it happens to Craig!"

One viewer even questioned whether Strictly should replace Shirley and bring back Arlene Phillips, who previously sat on the judging panel from 2004 until 2009. The viewer tweeted: "Who thinks #strictly should bring Arlene Philips back and swap her 4 shirley?"

Zara McDermott received some of the lowest marks from Shirley on week two of Strictly (PA)

Angela Rippon has also been on the receiving end of some of the lowest marks from Shirley (PA)

A Strictly source speaking to The Sun said: "All the judges judge on dance alone."

Last year, Shirley faced similar criticisms and the abuse got so bad that she reportedly ended up hiring a professional to help her. The 62-year-old's social media manager is tasked with filtering the comments on her accounts so she doesn't have to deal with trolling anymore. She was so affected that she even had second thoughts about signing up this year.

Last year, Shirley told the Mirror that she was "struggling" in silence after the abuse "snowballed". "I'm a pretty stoic person," she said. "And I tend to hold everything in. When it all kicked off, it seemed like it was larger than anything else.

"I was crying, I was emotional, but I was embarrassed about being so emotional. I didn't want to talk to anybody about it. And that was an all-time low since I joined the show – it was the most negativity I'd ever experienced. The BBC were brilliant, checking in on me and offering counselling and support."

This week saw the first celebrity guest to be eliminated as Les Dennis was sent home after the dance off.

Niamh Spence