Strictly Come Dancing viewers voiced complaints of favouritism after Graeme Hall and Lauren Oakley received a score of 27 for a Quickstep that included several visible errors.
The dance competition returned to BBC One on Saturday night, November 14, with the remaining couples performing for judges Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke. Hosts Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe fronted the live show.
Scoring sparks viewer backlash
Graeme and Lauren opened the show with a Quickstep to Happy Days by Pratt and McClain. Lauren comforted her partner after he made several mistakes during the routine, yet the pair received three 7s and a 6, totalling 27.
The mark left many viewers exasperated, with several taking to X to complain. One person wrote: "Clear favouritism for Graeme." Another said: "I mean ok I understand there was illegal lifts in Dani's dance but scoring her the same as Graeme is absolutely diabolical."
A third viewer added: "The scoring gets worse every week! Graeme deserved no more than 5 as he totally forgot what he was doing for a while there." Others echoed the sentiment, with one saying "Sorry, but Graeme was overmarked" and another asking: "So Graeme was as good as Will's quickstep according to Shirley with that 7? Madness."
Judges offer mixed feedback
Shirley told Graeme: "I know, in your heart, that you want to stay in this competition. And when you started out, I was leaning over the desk, I was looking at the footwork. Toe, toe, toe, flat, no heels in the wrong place. Some beautiful footwork, but you just got a little bit tangled in the end. Did you feel that little mistake?"
She added: "But let me tell you, if it goes on charisma, if it goes on performance and hard work, you should be good!"
Anton noted: "You had a number of mistakes there, unfortunately. I could see what you were trying to do, you were trying to give more... You were double sell tonight. I enjoyed that part of your performance enormously."
Results show ahead
The previous week saw Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu become the sixth couple to leave, after losing the dance-off to Cach Mercer and Maddie Ingoldsby. Their exit followed those of Chris Appleton, Melanie Walters, Sarah Storey, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Lawrence Robb.
This week's results show will feature the professionals performing a romantasy-themed group routine, with Celebrity Traitors winner Bash Croft also taking to the floor before two more couples compete in the dance-off. Strictly Come Dancing is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
