Shirley Will and Nancy on Strictly
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Strictly: Will and Nancy fans blast Shirley Ballas for ‘gross’ comments about his appearance

Calls for the BBC to step in

Strictly star Will Mellor opened the show tonight (October 1) with a so-so salsa with partner Nancy Xu.

The man himself admitted he made mistakes, but viewers at home thought it was head judge Shirley Ballas who made the biggest boo-boo.

In fact, they quickly took to the Strictly Come Dancing hashtag on Twitter to air their grievances.

And some even called for the BBC to step in and give the star a telling off.

Will Mellor and Nancy on Strictly
Will Mellor and Nancy Xu opened the show on Strictly tonight (Credit: BBC)

Strictly: Will Mellor takes on the salsa

Will opened the show with a salsa tonight, performing to Never Too Much by Luther Vandross with partner Nancy Xu.

Shirley was first up with her comments about the routine, which saw Will rip his shirt open at the end.

“Well first of all you’re very easy on the eye, you’re very adjudicator-friendly from a judging point of view,” she said.

Well first of all you’re very easy on the eye, you’re very adjudicator-friendly from a judging point of view.

Shirley then went on to: “But there were some mistakes this evening, I saw your little face.”

The head judge then proceeded to tell Will improvements he should make over the coming week.

She then made another comment about his appearance.

“You opened the show for us with all that glitz and glamour but time to get down to the hard work now,” she said.

Shirley Ballas in pink on Strictly
Shirley Ballas repeatedly said Will was ‘easy on the eye’ (Credit: BBC)

Fans take to Twitter with complaints about Shirley

Strictly Come Dancing fans took exception to Shirley’s comments about Will’s appearance.

And they said if it was one of the male judges making the same comment about a female celebrity dancer there would be uproar.

“So Will is easy on the eye, is he Shirls? You’ve only mentioned it a few times,” said one.

“So I guess we know who Shirl’s fancy man is for the series,” said another,

“Shirley needs to stop oogling and saying it out loud. A bit cringy now,” said a third.

“Wish Shirley would shut up with the ‘easy on the eye’. It would be gross if a bloke was saying that about the women so shut up,” declared another.

“Someone in production tell Shirley to back off,” urged another. “If Anton Du Beke talked about the female contestants or dancers the way she talks about the men, he’d be taken off the telly,” claimed another.

“I wish Shirley would stop perving over the male celebs,” said another annoyed fan.

“If the shoe was on the other foot and Anton was perving on the females, there’d be total uproar,” they went on to add.

“Imagine is a male judge kept saying ‘easy on the eye’ about a female dancer?” declared another fan on Twitter.

Read more: Strictly Come Dancing fans gush over Helen Skelton and Gorka Marquez’s bond

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor