fans were up in arms during the semi-final, accusing Shirley Ballas of overly praising and over-scoring .
After never facing a dance-off, the former TOWIE star has advanced to the last stages, while seemingly better dancers have been sent home. On Saturday, December 7 he was competing against , , , and .
And after Pete’s initial performance, head judge Shirley heaped on the praise, even crowning him ‘Mr Strictly’.
Shirley addressed Pete directly, explaining saying: “You are Mr . You are what this show is about. Everybody at home, all the parents, will be sitting there and thinking, ‘if Pete can do it, I can do it’ and you will inspire people to go to the dance studio.”
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Pete after his semi-final performance (Image: BBC)
She continued: “You had no experience whatsoever coming in. I thought you did a very good job on your footwork and your neckline…. week one you were like this and today you were shining. You didn’t make any mistakes, you did a grand job. You should walk with your head high – you are absolutely Mr ,” reports . She then awarded him an impressive score of nine out of 10, contributing to his total of 32 out of 40.
Social media users on platform X, however, accused Shirley of showing favouritism. One outraged fan posted: “SHIRLEY CALLING PETE MR LIKE MONTELL DIDNT ALSO START FROM NOTHING BUT NEVER GOT THAT PRAISE. The bias is RIDICULOUS.”
Another said: “Sh*rley can retire after calling pete mr after criticising tasha for coming out of lifts, it’s completely unfair to treat contestants so differently. Pete is not the first or last person to start at nothing NOT EVEN IN THIS SERIES.”
Shirley Ballas lavished praise on Pete Wicks (Image: BBC)
A third added: “shirley calling pete “mr ” when he shouldn’t even be in the semi finals in the first place…” and another fumed: “Shirley acting like Pete is God’s gift to dancing and giving him a bloody 9.”
A fifth added: “Shirley giving that a 9? ? I’ve defended her all series but scoring that the same as JB and Sarah? Please..”
The controversy follows last weekend’s shock dance-off which saw Olympian and facing elimination, ending with Montell’s departure after the judges’ decision.
is on One and iPlayer