Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas breaks silence over Aston Merrygold’s shock exit

The head judge explained she had based her decision on Merrygold’s waltz alone 
Controversial: Ballas explained her reasons for sending Aston Merrygold home
BBC
Aime Grant Cumberbatch9 November 2017

Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas has addressed her controversial decision to send Aston Merrygold home after he ended up in the dance-off.

Ballas explained her reasons for giving the former JLS bandmember the boot after he went head-to-head with Mollie King.

Speaking on sister show It Takes Two, she told host Zoe Ball: “Because actually it’s an awful decision to have to make to send anybody home, but you have to judge on that particular dance.

“Not past performances, not future performances, but just that dance.”

Like fellow judge Craig Revel Horwood, who earlier this week tweeted that viewers could save their favourites by voting, Ballas encouraged the public to do more.

She added: “So I urge everyone at home, you have to vote. Look at Ruth, she got a four but she was saved!”

Her comments come after both she and Revel Horwood received criticism over Merrygold’s surprise departure.

Strictly Come Dancing 2017 - In pictures

1/14

Some viewers blamed Ballas for her decision as head judge to save King and her partner AJ Pritchard in Sunday night’s dance-off.

While others felt that it was Revel Horwood’s low score of four that had put Merrygold’s place in the competition at risk.

Despite being a favourite to win the dancing competition, Merrygold failed to impress the viewers and judges with his Viennese Waltz to the the Jackson 5's Who's Loving You?.

Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday, November 11 at 6.45pm on BBC One.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in