Dan Walker once issued a plea on Twitter as he jumped to the defense of Shirley Ballas.
The head judge of Strictly Come Dancing had been facing a tirade of online abuse over her critiques on the beloved show in 2022.
At the time, Will Mellor lost out on a place in the Strictly final after a dance-off with Fleur East.
Following the result, Dan – who is on screens on June 25 for Dan & Helen’s Pennine Adventure – headed online to see the reaction and saw a wave of hate being sent to Shirley.
As a result, he decided to call some of the trolls out.
Dan Walker on Twitter
Shirley had chosen to save Fleur over Will as she had the final say.
The Channel 5 star tweeted: “Can people please lay off @ShirleyBallas? It’s ok to disagree but some of the bile & hatred on here is horrible.
“She’s been dancing her whole life, has won a gallon of titles, and loves and cares for what she does.”
“Just be nice!” he added.
Can people please lay off @ShirleyBallas?
It’s ok to disagree but some of the bile & hatred on here is horrible. She’s been dancing her whole life, has won a gallon of titles and loves and cares for what she does.
Just be nice!
PS
I’m speaking as someone who she booted out 😂— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) December 12, 2022
Following his remarks, Shirley responded to Dan after the backlash began to die down.
“Thank you for all the positive messages I received,” she tweeted. “It’s overwhelming. I read them all hard to reply to them all.
“Handful of haters, as usual, sad people, I feel for them.”
Sharing her love for Dan, she added: “Love you to the moon and back. Have a great week.”
The Strictly judges regularly find themselves being criticised by fans. However, Shirley appears to be a favourite among trolls.
In response to the criticism she receives, Shirley told Loose Women in 2022 that she found the hate “unfathomable”.
“I love that they have an opinion but then it goes overboard and it’s not nice,” she said.
She continued: “I do read everything – I know people say don’t read it but I think it’s quite important. I like to think I’ve helped so many people who have had mental health issues over the years.
“Some of the language is so explicit I couldn’t even retweet it, it’s unfathomable.”
Read more: 5 News star Dan Walker on moment he was incorrectly told he had cancerous tumour in his kidneys
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