Strictly star wades into show fix row as he slams judges’ scoring as ‘ridiculous’
STRICTY star Brendan Cole has slammed the judges’ scoring as ‘ridiculous’.
The BBC dance show returned to our screens last month – and this year’s bunch of celebrities have set the bar high with their scores so far.
Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin were given a whopping 36 points for their quickstep on Saturday night, and Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice were given 32 for their salsa.
Brendan, who took part in the BBC show between 2004 and 2018, thinks that although Layton could have easily scored 40 in total, some of the others have been awarded too high.
Speaking to The Sun on behalf of Sky Bingo, Brendan said: “Layton Williams could have easily scored four tens – that’s how good it was.
“If not the best number that Strictly’s ever seen, then very close to it and it’s week two.
“It’s two fellas dancing together, making an ensemble look really cool – that’s quite something, that’s quite an achievement.
“I think the marks were way too high across the board [for the other couples] and obviously Les [Dennis’] two – that was about right.
“You can’t just be throwing out these ridiculous numbers because you’ve got nowhere to go in the following weeks and if you’re giving a seven or an eight for something that’s lacking in technique and lacking in performance, just because it feels nice to do it, then you’re in the wrong job.”
The professional dancer later explained his opinion on the judge’s scoring at the moment.
Brendan said: “You can look at it [unjustified scoring] from any of the judges – Anton [Du Beke] scored an eight for something that was no more than a six in my mind.
“Craig hit the nail on the head for most numbers, bar one or two for me.
“The judges are there to do a role, their role is to critique the numbers, not praise them.
“There’s too much praise given out – you need objective criticism, it doesn’t have to be nasty.
“The couples need to know where they’ve gone right and where they’ve gone wrong and for the couples, it’s really important to know where they stand compared to the other couples.”
It comes after the star confessed that he ‘feels sorry’ for this year’s celebrities because Layton is in the lineup.
In week one he scored 29 points after performing the samba, and last week topped the leaderboard.
Brendan said: “Leyton is a professional performer.
“I know he’s not done ballroom dancing before, but there’s too much of a difference between him and the rest.
“I feel sorry for the rest because they can’t even compete with it currently. “
Strictly Come Dancing continues this weekend on BBC One and iPlayer.