Strictly Come Dancing viewers have hit back at Craig Revel Horwood for his 'harsh' comments following Cach Mercer's performance. Love Island star Cach is one of the 15 celebrities taking part in the 2026 series of the hit BBC One dance contest, which kicked off with its first live show tonight (September 26).
The 25-year-old is competing for the Glitterball trophy alongside the likes of Lacey Turner, Will Best, Chris Appleton, Dani Dyer and Melanie Walters. During Saturday's live show, Cach took to the dance floor with his professional dance partner Maddie Ingoldsby to do the quickstep to I Just Might by Bruno Mars.
Judges divided over freestyle moves
Cach is a professional freestyle dancer who specialises in hip-hop and Afrobeats, and regularly shares dancing videos on TikTok where he has now amassed more than 1.2 million followers. The couple added some of Cach's freestyle moves into his quickstep - which appeared to divide the judging panel.
Following their performance, Craig said: "Too much freestyle for me. You are a great freestyle dancer, that is a fact, we don't need to see that here in a quickstep. The whole point of this is you are learning a new genre of dance." He then said: "I am finding it really difficult to judge that. I am going to judge what quickstep he did. The posture wasn't great, the frame wasn't great. I am sorry."
Fans defend Cach on social media
Shaking her head, Motsi Mabuse said: "I understand what Craig is saying, but dance is about music and music lives in your body and that was genius." However Shirley agreed with Craig, stating: "You're not going to like what I'm going to say. You have got potential to be a great ballroom dancer, but this was more what we would see in a street dance. I'm not saying it needs to be all quickstep, but I'm afraid I have to go with Craig on this." However, Anton agreed with Motsi and said: "I thought it was terrific. Sort your posture out. I am looking forward to watching you dance."
The couple scored 20, with a 3 from Craig, a 6 from Motsi, a 5 from Shirley and a 6 from Anton. But fans didn't think the comments were fair, and said that they should have been directed to Maddie for her choreography instead.
@LisaPatten1 said: "Cach and Maddie. I have no idea who he is but that was brilliant to watch, it's the professionals job to nail the choreography rules, not the celebrity's and if no one on team Strictly warned her of that then shame on them. #Strictly." @DeniseYNWAGGTTH said: "#Cach was taught how to dance by his professional. She wrote the choreography so have a go at her not him. He only did what he was told #Strictly #StrictlyComeDancing." @NicolaPeach echoed: "Can we stop critiquing the celebs on choreography when they're not choreographing the routines. Please and thanks. Cach was great. #Strictly #StrictlyComeDancing." @sharryw63 also said: "Why are they having a go at Cach? He doesn't do the choreography, surely it's up to the pro to put in the quickstep content. #strictly."
