Craig Revel Horwood has hit back at claims of a fix following Strictly Come Dancing’s latest results.
Last weekend’s bottom two dance off saw Vick Hope and Seann Walsh having to dance again and it was Vick who left in the latest Strictly Come Dancing results.
It wasn’t a unanimous decision from the judges. Craig voted to save Vick while Darcey Bussell, guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro and head judge Shirley Ballas saved Seann, sending Vick home.
The result caused anger with a number of viewers, especially in the wake of Seann’s so-called ‘kiss-gate scandal’ with pro partner Katya Jones.
Adding fuel to the fire, after her exit, Vick claimed that before the judges gave a decision they were spoken to by producers.
“There was a conflab with the producers and then they gave their decision,” she said. “There was this stunned silence, it was a really weird atmosphere.”
Craig has now spoken out to defend the dance off outcome, despite being the one to save Vick.
He said: “There’s been this whole thing about last week of Vick leaving because I voted for her to go through and everyone else voted for Sean and Katya of course to carry on, which is absolutely fine. It is only my opinion.
“I think they were equally, technically pretty dismal. So I thought well, they were as bad as one another technically. The dance I liked most on the night was that one – that’s it.”
He told The Sun newspaper: “And Shirley who is fantastic, who knows her craft so brilliant and is very eloquent decided to choose in the end and she has the final vote as Head Judge, which is totally in her jurisdiction and that’s why we are all there.”
A spokesperson for the BBC also denied there was any sort of ‘fix’ in a statement: “It is categorically untrue to imply that producers tell the Judges how to score or who to save.
“Each judge votes on each dance independently, based on its merits and in their expert opinion alone. The Judges use an electronic voting pad to transmit their score or choice of who to save to the production gallery which is then locked in and cannot be changed.
“Only after this does a Producer speak to the judges, advising them on how long they have to speak and reminding them to give a reason for their decisions. The process was exactly the same this weekend.”
Strictly Come Dancing is back Saturday with a Halloween themed special.
