Strictly Come Dancing viewers vent fury after Shirley Ballas ‘over marked’ Joe McFadden before judges ‘under mark’ favourite Alexandra Burke
STRICTLY Come Dancing viewers were left furious tonight after Shirley Ballas 'over marked' Joe McFadden and then the judges 'under marked' Alexandra Burke.
The judging panel found themselves a man down tonight after Bruno Tonioli missed his first show in 13 years due to a prior work commitment.
And it seems the lack of a fourth judge played havoc with their scoring, and viewers were not impressed.
After Holby City actor Joe danced an impressive Paso Doble with his partner Katya Jones, head judge Shirley gave him his first 10, while Craig Revel Horwood had issued a seven.
Meanwhile, Alexandra Burke impressed viewers with her Samba, but felt the judges were harsh with their critique and subsequent scores, with the singer receiving a seven and two eights from Shirley and Darcey Bussell.
The final leaderboard saw Joe sit in second place with 26 points behind Debbie McGee, who finally got big scores for her Rumba after two weeks of - what viewers felt - was under marking.
However Alexandra found herself in the bottom half of the leaderboard for the first time with her score of 23.
Taking to Twitter, viewers couldn't hide their frustration at the panel, with one writing: "#Strictly scores all over the place this week", while another added: "What is wrong with the judges scoring this year? It's all over the place".
A third agreed, writing: "Scoring is all over the place! Does Shirley watch the same dances as everyone else?!"
Indeed, Shirley came under fire from a number of viewers for her marking on tonight's show.
One fan of the show wrote: "Shirley's scores have been all over the place tonight. 10 for Joe?" while another tweeted: "10 for Joe but only 8 for Alex?! Marking is all over the shop tonight."
A fellow viewer wrote: "I'll always love #strictly but scoring was backwards tonight. Jonnie, alexandra & susan undermarked & joe & debbie WAY overmarked. wow."
The website was flooded with similar comments having at go at the judges.
One viewer shared a gif of an unimpressed looking puppy along with the tweet: "Did the judges pop out for a cup of tea during Alexandra's dance or is there a secret agenda? 7's and 8's when Joe got a 10!"
Another added: "The scoring tonight on #Strictly is flipping ridiculous! @alexandramusic was seriously undermarked... and no way in hell was Joe's Paso a 10".
Many pointed out the lack of consistency with the judges scoring, with one writing: "Sorry where's the consistency there??? 10 for Joe and 8 for Alexandra. No way."
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