Strictly Come Dancing bosses deny ‘fix’ claims after Vick Hope speaks out

Strictly Come Dancing bosses have denied claims of a ‘fix’ after Vick Hope’s exit on Sunday.

At the weekend the remaining twelve celebrities and their pro partners all danced live once more before the panel gave their marks and viewers voted. In the bottom two dance off, Vick Hope and Seann Walsh had to dance again and it was Vick who left in this week’s Strictly Come Dancing results.

It wasn’t a unanimous decision from the judges. Craig Revel Horwood voted to save Vick while Darcey Bussell and guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro voted to keep Seann. With the casting vote, head judge Shirley Ballas also saved Seann, sending Vick home.

Following her exit, Vick returned to her day job on the Capital Breakfast Show this morning to spill all.

Her co-host Roman Kemp was clearly unhappy with the decision, quipping: “It’s not the best kisser that gets through!”

Vick herself also had something to share, claiming that before the judges gave their decision they were spoken to by producers in the pre-recorded results show.

“There was a conflab with the producers and then they gave their decision,” she explained. “There was this stunned silence, it was a really weird atmosphere.”

A spokesperson for the BBC however denied there was any sort of ‘fix’.

They said 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 2018 returns Saturday and Sunday night on BBC One.