I'm a Strictly Come Dancing professional - and have one question over voting format

Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Vincent Simone has shared thoughts on the voting format as fans call for a major change to the BBC show. Fans of the dance competition were left outraged last week after former X Factor winner and Coronation Street actor Shayne Ward was eliminated from the competition.

Shayne was sent home after the deciding vote from head judge Shirley Ballas was given in favour of Opera singer Wynne Evans. The soap star and his pro dance partner Nancy Xu performed a Rumba which failed to impress, placing him at the bottom of the leaderboard. Meanwhile, Wynne and partner Katya Jones danced an American smooth to see them third from bottom.

On Sunday (November 10), judges Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse chose to save Shayne in the dance-off, while Anton Du Beke picked Wynne to stay. Head judge Shirley Ballas admitted she found the decision "quite difficult" because "I don’t want to see either couple leave because you’ve both had a great run this series".

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However, Shirley chose to save Wynne for displaying a "much more powerful and joyous routine". Her role as head judge meant Shirley's vote for the Welsh opera singer broke the tie and saw him through to the iconic ballroom in Blackpool next week. Strictly fans took to social media following Shayne's exit, claiming Shirley showed unfair favouritism to Wynne.

Opening up on the "very close" dance-off on behalf of 10bet, Vincent, who appeared as a professional dancer on the show for seven series from 2006 until 2012, 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.

"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'.

"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 continued: "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.

"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