Strictly pro insists 'judges scoring has got to be looked at' as he fumes over Pete Wicks

Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Brendan Cole has lashed out at the judges for showing apparent bias with their scoring.

who hails from New Zealand, was a pro dancer on from 2004 to 2017. He also served as a judge on the New Zealand version of the show - which is titled Dancing With The Stars - from 2005 to 2009 and thus has a clear idea of what it is like to be on both sides of the judging desk.

He has argued that the judging panel of Strictly - which consists of 64, 58, 43, and 59 - is being too sloppy with their marking. Brendan has noticed an inconsistency with the way the judges give their feedback - sometimes prioritising technique over performance, and vice versa.

He has suggested that the scoring job should be made more difficult for those on the panel - urging the show to change the format so they have to judge twice. The dance star took particular issue with the way scores were administered over the weekend - with and his dance partner Jowita Przystał receiving low scores from then judges only to then win huge support from the viewing public.

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Brendan, who is working with currently, told The : “Pete was last, on his own, at the bottom of the table with 22 points, so even if they [the judges] could have scored him lower, it wouldn't have changed [his position]. People obviously like him, and people are voting for them [Pete and Jowita Przystał] to get out of the bottom two. Whereas, people weren't voting for Montell [Douglas] and Johannes [Radebe], or Sam [Quek] and Nikita [Kuzmin], and that's why they were [in the dance-off]. Both of those couples were not at the bottom of the leaderboard.

“Sam actually should have had higher marks and that's where the show went wrong on Saturday. Sam's Foxtrot, technically, was very good. She did everything right. The judges were right in the fact that it was a bit stiff and a bit wooden in the top half, but with Chris [McCausland] they spoke about how good it was technically. It wasn't a good dance and deserved a lower mark than the likes of Sam."

He argued: “[The judges'] scoring has got to be looked at – are they judging technique, or are they judging performance? It wouldn't hurt to have two marks for the judges – a technical mark and a performance mark, then the judges really have to be on their toes. They can't just like what they like and not like what they don't.

“If somebody's really good with the technical aspect, they'll get really good marks and if their performance is terrible, they'll get a bad mark. That way, you get a fair result. Technically, Sam was one of the best on the night, yet it didn't reflect in their scores.” continues on Saturday night on One and at 6:35pm.

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