Will Mellor was on the receiving end of some harsh comments from head judge Shirley Ballas during tonight’s Strictly Come Dancing semi-final, following his Paso Doble to Uccen (DWTS Remix) by Taalbi brothers and DWTS.
Mellor and professional partner Nancy Xu had finished top of the Strictly leaderboard on each of the past two weeks, but his first dance of the semi-final was received less positively, with Ballas singling him out for some especially tough criticism.
“There were quite a few things missing for me in this dance,” she said. “You had the arrogance part, you came out and you delivered a good strong message I’m going to give you that… but Paso Doble is very much built – and has been – on an oval shape. It collapsed every time you picked her up, the arms were too straight when they were out to the side.
“These are basic fundamentals from the very very beginning that were very much missing for me, and when you choose to use a cape at the beginning you have to extend it, it can’t feel like it’s a little scarf around your neck, it is an extension that reaches and goes. So I didn’t get a good start from the beginning.”
She concluded: “I do believe you give 100% of your heart – I love that. But this is the semi-final and those are the things that I saw.”
In the end, she awarded him a 7, which combined with the scores from the other judges gave him a total of 32 – the lowest of the first round of dances in the semi-final.
And Mellor was clearly disappointed with the comments, telling Claudia Winkleman that he felt “rubbish.”
“I worked hard and just I’ve let her [Nancy] down a little bit there,” he said. “Because she taught me right and I’ve just…forgotten a few fundamentals.”
Viewers at home appeared to be in agreement with Shirley, with one fan on Twitter describing it as “so messy” and adding that “That cape bit at the start looked like he was stuck in a shirt trying to get it off.”
That cape bit at the start looked like he was stuck in a shirt trying to get it off #strictly https://t.co/tOkLfMLgLh
— Rhia (@reieesc) December 11, 2022
Another viewer wrote, “it’s time for Will to go home,” while a third added that “we do need honest feedback like that from the judges” even though it “must be hard receiving criticism like that in the semi-final.”
Strictly Come Dancing: The Results airs tomorrow night at 8:15pm on BBC One. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide for more to watch.
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