STRICTLY Come Dancing judges have come under fire this weekend after two dances have been deemed to be over-scored.
Week five of the dance competition saw the 12 remaining celebrities deliver their dance routines in a bid to take home the Glitterball trophy.
Now fans believe judges have ‘overstepped’ the mark with fans up in arms at last night’s leaderboard.
EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick and his dance pro partner Michelle Tsiakkas took top place on this week’s board after wowing the judges with a ‘near-perfect’ Paso Doble.
The duo danced to Malagueña by Ernesto Lecuona in matching monochrome outfits and were praised for their “paso-bleeding-tastic” performance by judge Craig Revel Horwood.
Judge Moti Mabuse then said: “This is how a Paso Doble works.”.
“All that intention, all that intensity, leading, shaping, being alive with your dance partner – brilliant!”
However, fans weren’t sure, with many taking to X, formerly Twitter, to express their dance dismay.
One said: “Challenge for the judges next week… stop over marking Jamie, it’s coming across like judges favourite, his footwork isn’t perfect yet is never critiqued on it, yet others are marked down for it, that was never a 10, it was an 8 max a 9.”
Another fumed: “It’s coming across fixed for Jamie this year, I like him but I feel we’re being manipulated into thinking he’s a better dancer than he actually is.”
Another dance duo in the scoreboard firing line were Wynne Evans and partner Katya Jones.
No stranger to controversy, the pair danced the quickstep to Mr Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra this week before judges gave their views.
After scoring 33 from the panel fans were left raging, with one adding a comment alongside a screenshot of the scores that said: “I want them to defend this score in a court of law. #scd #strictly.”
Another replied with: “The most bonkers score I’ve ever seen #Strictly.”
A fan of the show said: “Disappointed with Wynne on #Strictly tonight! Am I the only one who saw him stumble at one point? And he still scores 9’s! How???”
One fan headed online to comment: “I honestly think this season has had the ROGUEST scoring and tbh all the men (Wynne, Jamie, Chris etc.) have been overmarked and all the women (Sarah, Punam etc.) have been undermarked.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen more inconsistent and unfair scoring!”
Another fumed: “Wynne and Jamie both getting 9’s?? what is up with the scoring this week!”
This week’s Strictly leaderboard in full
Marks from judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke
- Jamie Borthwick and Michelle Tsiakkas: 9 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 39
- Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe: 9 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 39
- Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell: 8 + 9 + 9 + 9 = 35
- Wynne Evans and Katya Jones: 7 + 9 + 9 + 8 = 33
- Shayne Ward and Nancy Xu: 7 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 31
- JB Gill and Amy Dowden: 7 + 8 + 7 + 8 = 30
- Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec: 8 + 9 + 8 + 9 = 34
- Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola: 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 32
- Sam Quek and Nikita Kuzmin: 6 + 7 + 6 + 7 = 26
- Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystał: 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 22
- Dr Purnam Krishnan and Gorka Marquez: 4 + 6 + 5 + 6 = 21
- Paul Merson and Karen Hauer: 3 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 19
