Hurly burly as Strictly Shirley gives Aston his marching orders
HEAD judge Shirley Ballas was blamed for causing the biggest shock in Strictly history after booting Aston Merrygold off the show.
Millions of viewers were left stunned when the former JLS star and hot favourite was given his marching orders instead of singer Mollie King.
Last night the show was in turmoil with its troupe of professional dancers threatening revolt over the incredible decision and questioning the reasoning of the judges.
Moments after the result was announced Twitter erupted in fury leading to accusations the programme was a popularity contest rather than a competition based on dancing ability.
The seismic upset was so unexpected that Aston, 29, was 100-1 to be eliminated before last night’s riveting results show.
John Hill, of bookmaker Coral, said: “In all the years we have been betting on reality TV we don’t recall a bigger surprise than this.
“Aston was one of the most popular contestants to win the series, after this news nobody is safe going into next weekend.”
Gaffe-prone Shirley, 57, who replaced retiring Len Goodman, has endured a torrid start to her life on Strictly.
The self-styled Queen of Latin has been left embarrassed by frequent on-air blunders.
She has further alienated viewers by making a series of contentious calls with her casting vote.
As happens every weekend judges’ scores were combined with viewers’ votes to decide which two lowest scoring couples faced the dreaded dance off.
Favourites
Aston and his partner Janette Manrara were pitted against singer Mollie and AJ Pritchard.
Judge Craig Revel Horwood chose to save Mollie and AJ while both Darcey Bussell and Bruno Tonioli chose to save Aston and Janette, because their dance had “more power and much more impact”.
But Shirley sparked anger by saying: “On technical accuracy, beautiful flow and full engagement during the dance, I’m saving Mollie and AJ.”
It led to accusations of bias from the judges after no frills dances from former glamour model Gemma Atkinson, 32, paralympian Jonnie Peacock, 24, and rank outsiders Susan Calman, 42, and Ruth Langsford, 57, who all stay in the competition at Aston’s expense.
This Morning’s Ruth was left redfaced when she fell on top of dance partner Anton du Beke at the end of their paso doble with husband and fellow presenter Eamonn Holmes sitting in the audience.
On a night of surprises Debbie McGee, 59, scored the series’s first perfect 40 with a flawless Tango that reduced her partner, Italian hunk Giovanni Pernice, to tears.
Their stunning performance even prompted the notoriously hard to please Craig to bow down in mock admiration. They are now the 6-4 new favourites to win the series.