Craig Revel Horwood calls for Strictly Come Dancing public vote figures to be revealed
If the audience knows exactly how many votes each couple got, will people stop claiming the show is a fix?
Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood is so fed up of viewers crying "fixed!" that he wants show bosses to publish the raw voting figures.
At the moment the BBC1 talent show only reveals which two couples got the lowest votes each week, leaving audiences guessing about who was most popular with the public and who narrowly missed out on the dance off.
"I only wish they’d make the figures from the phone vote public, to stop any talk of the show being fixed," Revel Horwood told the latest issue of Radio Times.
"But if one celeb gets 13 million votes and another gets two votes, it might not go down well..." the judge added.
When Strictly returns this autumn, there will be a new judge sitting in Len Goodman's seat. Revel Horwood, Darcey Bussell and Bruno Tonioli will be joined by replacement Head Judge Shirley Ballas.
The appointment was a surprise as Ballas beat competition from pro dancers Anton du Beke and Brendan Cole, and the BBC even opted to make the newcomer Head Judge instead of promoting one of their three existing judges to the top spot on the panel.
No hard feelings?
"It would have been wrong for me because I would have had to become a smiley mediator which isn’t in my nature,” Revel Horwood explains.
"Besides, you don’t get any more money. Anyway, it’s best that it’s someone viewers have no pre-conceived ideas about, unlike Anton or Brendan."
Read the full interview in Radio Times magazine, on sale Tuesday 4th July.
