Strictly's Shayne Ward hits back after viewers brand him "insufferable"
Former X Factor winner, Shayne Ward, has hit back at Strictly Come Dancing fans who dubbed him "insufferable" and "full of himself" after his first performance on the BBC dance competition over the weekend.
The 39-year-old, who rose to fame after winning the second series of ITV singing competition, The X Factor, in 2005, is now trying his hand at ballroom dancing almost 20 years later, on series 22 of Strictly Come Dancing.
He has been partnered with professional dancer, Nancy Xu, with the pair taking to the dancefloor for the first time on Saturday (September 21), performing the samba - and securing a respectable score of 21 from the judges.
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However, while Shayne wrote in an Instagram post that he had "so much fun" learning the dance, and called Nancy "the best teacher", it seems that not all viewers enjoyed his debut Strictly performance as much as he did.
X, formerly Twitter, was awash with comments on Saturday night about how "unlikeable" Shayne is, with several commenting that he gave them "the ick" - a slang term referring to a feeling of disgust or dislike towards a person.
One wrote: "There's something super unlikeable about Shayne Ward", while another added: "Shayne Ward is a bit too full of himself."
A third echoed these sentiments, commenting: "Shayne Ward is going to be INSUFFERABLE, isn't he?".
Another X user posted: "If Shayne Ward was made of chocolate, he'd lick himself."
And someone else predicted: "I can anticipate meltdowns of epic proportions when Shayne Ward doesn’t get the scores he thinks he deserves in 4/5 weeks time, I can’t wait for it."
Now, amid all the negativity, Shayne himself has taken to Instagram to respond, sharing a black-and-white picture of himself on his Stories as he wrote: "Strictly is amazing and I love being part of it.
"But through my smile on TV I'm as nervous as the next person. Not cocky or overconfident... I'm nervous! I just gotta work hard and listen to my wonderful teacher @nancy_xuxi. All I can do is my best!"
And not everyone found him dislikeable, as one X user wrote: "That was sensational", while another added: "Such a difficult dance to do, especially for week 1! I do think that Shayne Ward is a great dancer, but hopefully a better dance next week."