Strictly Come Dancing fans have taken to social media to brand judge Shirley Ballas "unprofessional" after she gave harsh comments to Emmerdale star Lawrence Robb during Saturday night's show (October 10). Viewers are worried that the repeated criticism will shatter his confidence.
Week Three Rumba
Lawrence Robb and his partner Jowita Przystał performed the Rumba to Back to Friends by Sombr. As a dance style notoriously difficult for the male celebrities, he already had quite the task ahead of him.
While many viewers enjoyed the emotional routine, Shirley Ballas was not as impressed. Sharing that the dance "wasn't my cup of tea", she explained that she thought the Scot's performance was flat footed and only added an extra point because he "hit one nice line in there".
Fans React
Shirley gave the couple four points, with Lawrence and Jowita getting a total score of 20 from the judges. This placed him near the bottom of the leaderboard by the end of the night.
Following the dance, many fans defended Lawrence, with some sharing that the pair smashed the performance and that the choreography was "absolutely gorgeous". Quite a few also claimed that the pair were undermarked.
However, some fans hit back at Shirley's comments, claiming that she is being particularly harsh on the Scot. One fan wrote: "I feel like he’s Shirley’s least favourite, she never says anything nice about him!!"
As another viewer added: "Every year Shirley picks a couple to pick on and tear apart. This year it seems to be Lawrence unfortunately. She's so unprofessional."
A third fan also asked: "Really wish Lawrence was getting more positive feedback from the judges!! Where was the praise for a Week 3 Rumba?" This was followed by another fan worrying: "Shirley was so harsh on him again it’s totally shattering his confidence."
Another fan also shared: "Think Shirley has turned into Craig this season. Especially with these two and then praising Shaun who can't dance for toffee. She's so has her favourites, and is so unprofessional. At least with Craig he's the same with everyone."
Support for Shirley
However, some viewers did agree with Shirley about her comments on Lawrence not doing a lot of dancing in the performance. One person said: "This was good, but please give him more dance content going forward. There’s potential there and it’s not being used."
Another fan wrote: "I actually agree with Shirley, truth be told. I loved the storytelling of this Rumba, but as Shirley said, I would’ve loved it if Lawrence did a lot more dancing and a lot more leading, those are the sort of Rumbas I prefer. Technique could’ve been better too, but it’s only Week 3 after all!"
A third viewer simply added: "He didn't do much unfortunately but the ending was fabulous."
Fans can find out who makes it through week four in tonight's (October 11) result show airing at 7:10pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
