Former Strictly pro Brendan Cole has admitted his “despair” over the judges following last weekend’s show.
Brendan, who appeared on the BBC dance show for the first 15 series, shared his thoughts on the judges’ scoring for week one of the 2023 competition. However, he wasn’t impressed with some of the scores.
Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Anton Du Beke and Motsi Mabuse were dishing out a variety of scores last weekend from 2s to even 8s.
Brendan Cole on Strictly judges’ scoring
Speaking to Entertainment Daily, Brendan said of the judges’ scoring: “I despair when I watch the judges. Some of the stuff that they come out with; I just wonder if I’m watching the same [show].
“Maybe it’s different when I’m watching on the telly to what they’re seeing in the studio. They’ve all got their role to play and as a judge on any show, you do have to play a role. They can’t all be serious.”
He continued: “Craig [Revel Horwood] obviously is the pantomime villain and people love that about him. He’s quite often close to the marks where I want to see things but things like Bobby Brazier’s Foxtrot. For me, that was a terrible Foxtrot because it didn’t have the essence of Foxtrot and they were raving about it.
“I was going ‘what are you watching?’ Surely, you’ve got to see that and go ‘listen, it was a lovely dance, however, it was more like a quick step than a Foxtrot.'”
What else has Brendan said about 2023 series?
Meanwhile, Brendan went on to say that “bad routines” – which he said everyone has – need to be “reflected on”.
He said: “It’s all part of it. And then likewise, they should be praised when they do a phenomenal routine like, like Katya [Jones] did. I just thought the scoring was a tiny bit off – certain people got quite high marks.
“As always for week one, I’ll never understand why they don’t start with threes and fours, because where do you go? Next week, they’ll all be better than they were this week. If you’re scoring a six, for five weeks, the couples are going to be soul-destroyed.
“Mentally, how do you tell your partner ‘listen, a six is a six. You are getting better, but you’re only getting a six.’ But if you start with a six, if you’re four times better than you were on from week one to week four, do you get a ten? Do you get a nine? No – you’re only a little bit better than you were, but it’s hard for them to understand the marking.”
Strictly scoring under fire
Brendan added: “Whereas if everybody starts low, let’s say, Layton [Williams] and Nikita [Kuzmin] and Nigel [Harman] and Katya all got, let’s say, a seven, that’d be a really good starting point for week one. It gives them somewhere to go when they improve, which they all inevitably will. But if you started with an eight on week one, I mean, nobody is an eight, nobody’s a nine, nobody is a ten.
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“If you’re in the semi-final, or final, that’s when tens should be coming. If you’re starting with an eight, you know that they’re going to get tens within three or four weeks because they will have improved. So I find that weird, but I also find the comments slightly too kind.”
Brendan concluded: “There was a lot of gushiness, ‘oh, aren’t you wonderful?’ Give it a bit of home truth, a bit of punch. Be praising, I don’t agree with being nasty, but give them something to aim for, give them something to work for. Maybe they were just being nice because it was the first show, maybe they’ll get to the nitty gritty next week.”
Strictly Come Dancing continues this Saturday (September 30) from 6:20pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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