Strictly Come Dancing fans accuse head judge Shirley Ballas of bias

Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas has prompted accusations of favouritism after appearing to take a pointed swipe at one of the show’s professional dancers during Saturday night’s live episode.

The second week of Strictly brought the much-anticipated Movie Week theme, with the celebrity contestants performing routines inspired by films such as The Devil Wears Prada, Mary Poppins and Zootropolis.

Among the performances, Melanie Walters and professional partner Aljaz took to the floor with a Waltz to ‘Edelweiss’ from The Sound of Music. The routine earned them just 15 points from the judging panel.

Although the pair finished at the bottom of the leaderboard, Shirley still found time to compliment Aljaz on his performance.

However, her assessment of Melanie was considerably less positive. The head judge said the celebrity had made several mistakes and criticised her posture throughout the routine.

When fellow judge Anton Du Beke appeared to scoff at her comments, Shirley hit back: ‘Hold on a minute, I’m trying to help her because she’s going to have lots of other ballroom dances and she’s dancing with the best ballroom dancer.’

Aljaz appeared to take the remark in good humour, smiling as Shirley spoke. But viewers interpreted it as a subtle criticism of the other professional dancers watching from the balcony.

The comment quickly caught the attention of Strictly fans, with several taking to X to question Shirley’s judging style. One viewer wrote: ‘The male dancer bias from Shirley never goes away does it.’

Another posted: ‘Shirley hyping her and the BBC’s favourites once more, another year same bullsh*t.’

A third user commented: ‘It seems Shirley is jealous of beautiful young ladies and loves the younger men… weird how her views are completely different there.’

Someone else added: ‘Yet another year of Shirley underscoring the women and overscoring the men.’

Another disgruntled fan said: ‘Shirley is so biased with the men on this show ffs.’

One further post read: ‘Shirley praising the male pros Carlos and Aljaz but never the female pros. Weird.’

Meanwhile, fans have claimed to have detected an uneasy atmosphere between judge Motsi Mabuse and contestant Josh Widdicombe.

New presenters Emma Willis, Johannes Radebe and Josh were under pressure as they launched Movie Week, particularly after the presenting format in the first live show received a mixed response. Josh was even labelled a ‘spare part’ by some viewers.

As audiences continue getting used to the revamped presenting line-up, some Strictly fans have also begun pointing to what they describe as growing tension between Motsi and Josh on the dancefloor.

Fans pointed out on X that Motsi appears to have ‘had enough of the comedian interrupting her with his jokes’. 

Viewers discussed: ‘Motsi just can’t hide her contempt for Josh #Strictly,’ ‘Motsi is just like me fr. She’s over Josh already too #strictly,’

‘I like Josh and he can be funny, but I feel like his jokes would be much more suited upstairs, when interacting with the celebrities, rather than the judges #Strictly,’

‘There’s a really strange overall vibe tonight. Can’t put my finger on it,’ ‘Motsi really doesn’t like Josh, does she?’

‘I’m sensing a bit of tension from Motsi when Josh talks to her #Strictly.’

Last week, Josh was on the receiving end of a very sassy comment from Motsi as she was trying to give her expert feedback to the couples.

After Craig Revel Horwood gave his rather cutting feedback, Motsi turned to him to say that she actually agreed with what he was saying for once, which led to Craig quipping: ‘Great – we can move on to Shirley [Ballas] then!’

Motsi burst out laughing before then replying: ‘Well I have to do my job too!’

Josh then jokingly shouted: ‘Shirley!’ as if to skip over Motsi’s feedback like Craig had suggested.

Motsi then cheekily remarked to Josh: ‘Well are we going to be friends or enemies, you choose now!’ as the audience and Josh laughed it off. 

Reacting to the moment on X, one viewer said: ‘Josh feared for his P45 in Week 1. Motsi ate him up.’ 

Despite some viewers suggesting some tension between the pair, away from the dancefloor it appears Motsi is backing Josh all the way.

Motsi urged fans to appreciate the show’s ‘imperfectly human’ new presenting line-up earlier this week and said AI could replace them one day.

Taking to Threads, she said: ‘While people type away, tearing apart real human beings on television, real emotions!!!!!!!

‘AI is getting better at replacing them. One day we might not even know the difference. 

‘And maybe then we’ll miss the days when television was still beautifully, imperfectly human.’

The scores from week one were added to their week two scores, giving them a combined overall total.  

Australian singer Delta Goodrem and her partner Kai Widdrington topped the leaderboard this week with their combined score of 59 points.