16:51 23 November 2015
Ola Jordan claims that Strictly Come Dancing is fixed as voters’ decision is influenced by over-marking from the judges. The former pro suggested that the judges are deliberately giving dances higher marks than they deserved.
She said: "In my opinion they know how many votes people scored in the previous weeks and then they try to influence their position on the leader board. Why else would they over-mark someone?
“All the pros talk about the marking. We ask each other, ‘What is all that about? Why are they trying to over-mark that person?’
“Someone could do a dance and mess it up quite badly. Now I know that was a bad dance and there’s no way it’s an eight, but the judge says, ‘That’s amazing’ and gives them an eight or a nine and we go, ‘What the hell’s going on?'
She also suggested that the pairings of celebrities and pros is also fixed to influence which dancers would progress on the show.
"Previously the producers would never know how good the celebrities were. Now they watch training for the opening group dance so they can see who’s good and who’s not and how people learn.
“It’s unfair because it means they can decide which professionals will stay in the competition longer. Jay McGuiness is clearly the best dancer so they gave him Aliona Vilani, who went out in the first week for the last two years."
Meanwhile, the BBC has dismissed Ola’s accusations. A spokesman said: "Each judge scores each dance independently, and based on its merits and on their expert opinion."