The BBC has dismissed claims that Strictly Come Dancing judges and producers are in conflict over the success of Ed Balls.
The ex-shadow chancellor, 49, has survived the show week after week despite low marks and his comic moves.
Ed Balls and Katya Jones (BBC)
The Sun said the show’s judges believe that Ed should quit to avoid the show looking silly, while producers want him to stay as his routines go down so well with viewers.
In 2008, ex-political journalist John Sergeant pulled out of the show because, he said, winning would have been “a joke too far”.
John Sergeant (Ian West/PA)
But a BBC spokesman dismissed the claims about Ed and said that they were “nonsense”.
Ed and his dancing partner Katya Jones, 27, got their highest score at the weekend — 27 out of 40.
Craig Revel Horwood, Darcey Bussell, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli (Guy Levy/BBC)
It comes after Strictly dancer Brendan Cole said that if Ed continues to improve at the rate he’s going, he could get his hands on the coveted glitterball.
“He’s improving week upon week and that’s what the show’s all about… it was spot on for me as a Strictly dance,” he told Digital Spy.
Brendan Cole (Ian West/PA)
He added: “I absolutely do think Ed could get to the final or even win – and I hope he does in many ways. I think it would be a great thing for the show.
“Some of the contestants come under criticism because they’ve danced before so it’s not that difficult for them, but it is very difficult for them… it’s just a lot more difficult for somebody that’s not done it!”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel