Shirley Ballas found herself at the centre of some score confusion, just two dances into the first live show of Strictly Come Dancing's new series, forcing host Claudia Winkleman to step in for clarification.
Shirley is back as Strictly head judge for 2022, alongside colleagues Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel-Horwood and took her seat on the panel after an amazing start to the show which saw the judges join the party as the pro dancers brought the carnival to the ballroom, for a medley which included Ain't Nobody and U Sure Do.
The first of this year's Strictly line-up to take to the floor was Kym Marsh, who performed a jive alongside pro partner Graziano Di Prima, before radio DJ Tyler West made his debut, doing an American Smooth to Harry Styles hit Falling with pro Dianne Buswell. Tyler admitted on Friday night's Strictly launch show that he had a bit of a crush on Shirley, something referenced by Tess Daly as the judges got ready to deliver their verdicts on Saturday.
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Shirley said she something in Tyler, after Tess joked that he really wanted to impress her. And Shirley's positive feedback for Tyler and Dianne was reflected in her score for their first routine. While her notoriously hard to please co-star Craig only rewarded their efforts with a 4, Shirley was much more generous, giving a 7. However, things weren't so straight forward, as, after looking like she was struggling to find the paddle she was after as Claudia asked her for her marks, Shirley held up a 7.
That was music to Tyler's ears, but he had a rather anxious moment when Claudia cut in to ask Shirley to clarify her score. The head judge insisted she wanted to give a 7, adding that she "got mixed up with her paddles."
It didn't take long for some viewers to accuse Shirley over 'bias' towards Tyler and being overly generous with her score. Taking to Twitter, one posted: "Tyler is clearly gonna score high every single week from Shirley." with a second joking: "Shirley so flustered after watching Tyler she messed up her scoring. Totally understandable."
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