Strictly Come Dancing's Shirley Ballas has revealed she's received some 'apologies' after being the target of what she's described as 'hurtful messages' over the weekend. However, some viewers are still not happy with the judge's treatment of several contestants and think she should be the one saying sorry.
Shirley has been head judge on the BBC show since 2017, stepping into the shoes of original expert Len Goodman and she's back on the panel for the new series, which has now seen three live shows and two eliminations. On Saturday night the remaining couples took to the floor for Movie Week and Shirley divided opinion amongst viewers with some of her scores and critiques being condemned by viewers.
A few eyebrows were raised when both she and Motsi Mabuse awarded Tyler West a 10 for his Charleston, while Shirley came under fire for being 'overly harsh' on Ellie Taylor and Fleur East. And it was Fleur who was the catalyst for further backlash against Shirley when Sunday night's results show aired. Fleur landed in the dance-off and, while her place in Strictly was secured by Craig, Motsi and Anton, Shirley said she'd have saved rival Richie Anderson.
READ MORE: Shirley Ballas goes against co-stars amid Strictly result uproar
Twitter was full of complaints about Shirley's decision, with plenty of irate Strictly fans claiming that she 'had a problem' with Fleur, with others saying that Shirley 'always takes a disliking' to younger female stars on the show.
Shirley took to Twitter herself on Monday evening to say that, while she was fully aware of the hatred directed towards her, she'd also had some apologies from some of those people responsible for the posts. The judge wrote: "I have received many apologies over the weekend regarding hurtful messages I’ve received on social media. All apologies are accepted and from now on let’s all respect each other and enjoy the show. Love to you all."
While, Shirley did receive some support from her followers, others said it should be her doing the apologising, with one replying: "And you should consider apologising to Fleur and Ellie T please. The way you criticised them on Sat was nothing short of disgraceful. Positive critique is good and helpful - but downright negative critique can be very damaging and harmful."
Taking the same stance, a second responded: "You're missing the point entirely. They're not hurtful, they're just calling you out on your blatant biased favouritism. If you were professional and unbiased like Anton there would be no issues with your judging. Sadly you make it incredibly obvious who your 'favourites' are."
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