Is Strictly Come Dancing fixed?

Weeks on from the Seann Walsh and Katya Jones kissing scandal, Strictly Come Dancing is facing a second controversy after an eliminated celebrity contestant implied that producers had “fixed” the judges’ votes.

Allegations of fixing have been levelled at the show by disgruntled fans since its inception, but the latest storm emerged after last Sunday’s results show, which saw judges vote to save comedian Walsh from elimination.

The decision meant that Capital FM DJ Vick Hope and her professional partner, Graziano Di Prima, had to leave the competition.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The following morning, Hope triggered a fresh “fixing” row when she told her breakfast show listeners that producers paused recording after the two couples performed their dances to speak to judges Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Darcey Bussell and guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro

“It was very strange because after the dance-off the judges have to give their decisions but there was a bit of a confab with some producers and then they gave their decisions,” she said. “It was just stunned silence in the studio; it was a really weird atmosphere.”

Her comments reignited accusations that the show was rigged in order to control which celebrities are eliminated, regardless of the public vote.

Some viewers speculated that showrunners were keen to save Walsh and his professional partner Jones from elimination.

Walsh, who had a girlfriend, and Jones, the wife of Strictly ensemble dancer Neil Jones, were filmed kissing after a night out in London earlier this month - and some suspect the controversy over the clinch has boosted the show’s viewing figures.

The BBC has dismissed the implication that producers on the show collude with judges as “categorically untrue”.

“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,” a spokesperson told the Radio Times.

“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.”

On Monday, Hope appeared to walk back her insinuation in an interview on Strictly sister show It Takes Two.

“[The judges] didn’t think we were the best couple and that’s cool,” she told presenter Zoe Ball. “I respect them so much because they are the best in their field, that goes without saying. So whatever they say it goes and that’s how it works, and I understand that. I understand this is how the show works.”

Despite the lack of any credible evidence of a fix, it is easy to see why some viewers may be suspicious, says The Guardian’s Stuart Heritage

In 2008, it was revealed that reality competition series Soapstar Superstar “had been thoroughly manipulating its viewers”, including disregarding phone votes and putting the incorrect candidates up for elimination.

Nevertheless, “there is no evidence that any so-called ‘fixes’ on any reality show of the last decade have been anything other than sore loserdom on the part of the contestants and viewers”.