Will Mellor issued an apology to his Strictly Come Dancing partner Nancy Xu after Shirley Ballas 'read the riot act' at him, following his first performance in Sunday's semi final.
After he blew the judges and viewers with his week one jive to Ricky Martin, Will was installed an early favourite to win the new series of Strictly, before being eclipsed by new frontrunner Hamza Yassin. Will put himself firmly back in the frame when it mattered, after topping the leaderboard for two weeks in a row, however, things did not go plan with his and Nancy's paso doble.
Head judge Shirley Ballas looked far from impressed by what she saw in front of her and after telling Will and Nancy there was 'quite a few things missing' from their opening dance of the night, she asked for a moment to compose herself before giving some rather brutal feedback to the couple. Starting with a slight positive, Shirley told Will he 'had the arrogance part' the paso dictates, before laying into him for letting his shape 'collapsed' throughout the dance, adding: "The arms were too far out to the side...these are basic fundamentals from the very beginning; they were very much missing for me."
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Shirley then criticised Will's use of the cape at the start of the routine, saying it was like he was 'holding a scarf,' before her colleagues Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke were slightly kinder with their critiques. Before they were given a score of 32 out of 40, Will was asked by host Claudia Winkleman how he was feeling and replied: "Rubbish to be honest. I worked hard and I let her (Nancy) down a bit," as Nancy protested that he hadn't at all.
Will continued: "I'm not fishing for compliments; she taught me and I've gone too aggressive. She told me to calm and I....I just forgot a few fundamentals. I tried but it's tough, you know."
After he and Nancy then got their scores, Will said 'sorry' to the pro dancer numerous times, as Claudia urged him to pick himself back up for their second performance.
Like Will himself were plenty of Strictly viewers were quite taken aback by Shirley's scathing feedback, with one taking to Twitter to react: "Jaysus Shirley has just torn Will to bits way to harsh."
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