Strictly Come Dancing icon addresses show's voting format after Shayne Ward's exit

Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Vincent Simone has weighed in on the show's voting format amid fan outcry for a significant overhaul.

The dance competition was embroiled in controversy last week when Shayne Ward, the former X Factor winner and Coronation Street actor, was eliminated. Shayne's departure was sealed by head judge Shirley Ballas, who cast the deciding vote in favour of opera singer Wynne Evans.

Shayne and his professional partner Nancy Xu had performed a Rumba that failed to impress, landing them at the bottom of the leaderboard. In contrast, Wynne and his partner Katya Jones performed an American Smooth that placed them third from the bottom.

During the dance-off on Sunday, November 10, judges Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse voted to save Shayne, while Anton Du Beke opted to save Wynne. Head judge Shirley Ballas confessed that the decision was "quite difficult" as she didn't want to see either couple leave, given their strong performances throughout the series.

Nevertheless, she chose to save Wynne, citing his "much more powerful and joyous routine". As head judge, Shirley's vote carried the most weight, ultimately breaking the tie and securing Wynne's spot in the iconic Blackpool ballroom for the following week.

The decision sparked outrage among fans, who took to social media to accuse Shirley of showing unfair favouritism towards Wynne. Teaming up with 10bet, professional dancer Vincent, who appeared on Strictly for six series, opened up about the "very close" dance-off between Shayne and Wynne and shared his own thoughts.

He said: "I think there should be an element of the public because every year we say 'Is it a popularity contest or is it dancing? ' so you always want the mix.

"We always said, even back to my years, if the public didn't vote enough to take you out of the dance-off then at that point maybe it is right to be up to the dancing skills to go through? But yes, I agree with the final decision, but it was very close."

Vincent also commented on the difficulty of comparing different dances: "It is hard to compare two completely different dances. How do you do that? but I think on the night it was what it was.

"I mean, I was a bit upset in the way because actually he danced a better Rumba in the live show than he did on the results show. His posture was a bit more taller and stronger. In the dance-off, I think he was trying too hard and he was a bit hunched forward and that's when I thought 'OK, he's lost it now'."

He added, "Unfortunately the Rumba is a hard dance from the man's point of view, especially because you really need to have dancing skills to not only lead the lady and tell the story but also to do all the technical aspects of it."

Vincent went on to say: "I think he did an amazing job personally. I was kind of impressed. It's just one of those things where you need two weeks instead of one. I think if you give two weeks for the Rumba then you'll have more time to process all the technical aspects of it and do a better job. It was a good Rumba, it was a really good Rumba."

He added, "It's a shame because Shayne is going to miss out on Blackpool and maybe he would have done better there and everything would have been the other way around but it is what it is. Every year there's always been an exit or a couple leave earlier on in the competition where you think, 'oh, what a shame' because the couple could have done so much better throughout the course of the show. It's just the way it is."

Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One