Strictly Come Dancing’s judging panel has found itself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons this week, after a former pro accused them of quietly steering the results.
Ian Waite, who spent seven years on the show, didn’t mince his words, branding the panel’s scoring “very cloak and dagger”. His comments follow Saturday night’s eyebrow-raising leaderboard, which saw George Clarke and Alexis Warr, Balvinder Sopal and Julian Caillon, and Lewis Cope and Katya Jones all end up on 35 points.
According to Ian, that three-way tie wasn’t bad luck or coincidence. He’s hinted it was a calculated move to push Lewis and Katya into the dance-off against Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin. A pairing that ultimately sent Lewis home. The suggestion has certainly set tongues wagging, with fans now questioning whether the judges were quietly nudging the competition in a particular direction.
Ian, speaking in connection with Zingo Bingo, has described the show as a “popularity contest”. He believes sparking a tie meant the least popular dancers with the viewers ended up in the dance-off.
Strictly Come Dancing judges’ voting slammed by ex pro
Giving his opinion, Ian said: “I just think that it’s interesting that these things happen when the judges draw three people on the leaderboard. If the judges hadn’t done that, then you wouldn’t have had those two good dancers (Amber Davies and Lewis Cope) in the bottom.
“You might have had one of them in the bottom, but you wouldn’t have had both of them in the bottom. It makes you think if there is something else going on – it’s just very cloak and dagger.”
Ian continued: “It’s an unfortunate situation that that is what happened. I’ve seen it before where couples draw, and that when the debate about the public vote comes in.
“There’s been a lot of cases where the best dancers are voted off because of the public vote, and that happened again at the weekend with Lewis.
“It doesn’t seem fair to me and perhaps the producers need to address the balance, because it becomes more of a popularity contest than a contest based on skill, and the couples that are popular will always have an advantage.
“It doesn’t balance it out because you’re never going to have three couples getting the same public vote, are you?”
Entertainment Daily has contacted the BBC for comment.
Who is left in the competition?
Lewis Cope and Katya Jones bowed out of the competition on Sunday after losing the dance-off to Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin. And it’s clear the exit has stung. Katya, in particular, is said to be gutted that their journey ended at the quarter-final stage.
Their departure leaves just four couples fighting for a coveted place in the Strictly Come Dancing 2025 final. This includes George Clarke and Alexis Warr, Balvinder Sopal and Julian Caillon, Amber and Nikita, and frontrunners Karen Carney and Carlos Gu. With no theme week to navigate, each pair will be tackling pre-confirmed dances and songs as they compete in Saturday’s semi-final.
Ian Waite, who starred on Strictly from 2004 to 2009, has continued to lift the lid on how different things feel behind the scenes these days. Calling the modern format a “production”, he claims the pros now have far less control than they once did.
“They decide exactly what dances you’re doing all the way through,” he said. “When I was on Strictly, it was just the dance. You were given a dance and the professional had to do all the choreography.”
Read more: Fans slam ‘predictable’ result as Strictly Christmas special spoiler leaks online: ‘Not surprising’
Strictly Come Dancing continues at 6.35pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday December 13, 2025.
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