Furious Strictly Come Dancing fans lash out over Lewis Cope’s exit as ex-pro tells judges: ‘Do your jobs!’

Lewis is out – but whose fault is it?

Last night’s Strictly Come Dancing (Sunday, December 7) saw Lewis Cope crash out of the competition.

Now, fans have lashed out at the judges, who they claim ‘manipulated’ the result.

As well as sparking fan fury, an ex-Strictly pro has also waded in, declaring: “I just wish the judges did their jobs. They’re paid the big bucks to sit there and judge.”
Lewis scored 35 points on Saturday (Credit: BBC)

Judges criticise Strictly star Lewis Cope

On Saturday night’s show (December 6), Lewis danced a salsa to The Dance at the Gym from West Side Story with Katya Jones. However, their performance didn’t go as well as many of theirs have in recent weeks. They picked up 35 points for it, their lowest score in weeks.

This meant they were tied for second place with Balvinder and Julian and George and Alexis on the leaderboard. Amber topped it, while Karen was at the bottom.

“It wasn’t your best dance for me by far,” Shirley Ballas said. Anton, meanwhile, told the duo that the partnering part of their dance needed to be more “subtle”, with the routine suffering because of it.

Craig Revel Horwood also had some criticism, branding the salsa a “little bit square”. “Things weren’t finished in this, bizarrely,” he also said.
Lewis and Katya are out (Credit: BBC)

Lewis and Katya eliminated

Last night saw Lewis and Katya land in the bottom two, alongside Amber Davies. After performing their routines again, the judges opted to save Amber, sending Lewis and Katya home the week before the semi-finals.

Fans were stunned and furious. “Strictly used to be a dancing competition, but the best dancer hasn’t won since Jay McGuiness in 2015, and this is the biggest robbery in Strictly history for me. I’ve watched every ep of every series of this show but I’m done for this series. Devastated, honestly,” one fan tweeted. 

“One of the biggest shocks in Strictly’s 21-year history. I am gobsmacked!!” another said.  “Wildest dance-off in the history of dance-offs,” a third fumed.

Strictly fans blame judges for Lewis Cope’s elimination

Now, fans have blamed the judges for Lewis’ elimination, arguing that their comments are what led to the star being in the dance-off.

“I also think their needs to be a shakeup on the judging panel next year – the judges obviously attempted to manipulate the voting by scoring 3 of the couples the same score and despite this not being Lewis’s best dance he may have still got though if it weren’t for that,” one fan tweeted.

“Was tonight or Saturday night’s the result which will end Strictly? Weeks of Shirley putting Lewis down then saying it “wasn’t his best dance” – giving him same score as Karen and George… it’s on the judges heads that he went. Public would have thought he was safe,” another said.

“The judges on #Strictly are just as much to blame for tonight’s result as the public. Their all over the place scoring is the reason we’ve ended up with that dance off. If they marked contestants consistently that corresponded with the comments they make then it would be better,” a third wrote.

“Bring back Darcey Bussell and Bruno Tonioli. The #Strictly judges stitched up #Lewis. Terrible show,” another fumed.
Fans have lashed out at the judges (Credit: BBC)

Ola Jordan wades in following Lewis’ exit

Former Strictly pro Ola Jordan has also hit out at the judges today. And, although she stopped short of calling Lewis’ elimination a fix, she did declare: “I wouldn’t call it a fix. But I just wish the judges did their job and marked accordingly. They’re getting paid big bucks to sit there and judge. You’ve got to score it.

“You can’t just go: ‘Oh yeah, all those three were the same, whatever they want.’ Let’s not do that. Let’s score them correctly and put them in the right place on the leaderboard. And then fair enough, if someone goes out who is really good, people didn’t vote,” she added to Mecca Bingo.

She added: “Or if there are ties, they can rank them. If they’re tied on the leaderboard, make them rank them. Get Shirley, the top judge, to rank them, get her to write 1-2-3, this one was better, to make the last decision of where they should be on the leaderboard.

“If there are ties on the leaderboard, I think that’s what should be done. I don’t think they should have ties again because it’s not fair. This is exactly what happened – if Lewis wasn’t tied with other people, he wouldn’t have gone. I’m convinced of that.”

She continued: “In proper dance competitions, you don’t have people tying. You’ve got six couples on the floor, you’ve got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. You’ve got to mark them first, second, third, fourth. You don’t go: ‘Oh, well, they were similar. You don’t. You’ve got to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, so if they tie, especially this late in the competition, mark them. Mark them accordingly.”