Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas has called out viewers who ‘don’t understand the show’ after being on the receiving end of backlash this week.

The head judge, 64, has had to address trolling in the past after social media abuse, and she’s now hit back after fans called for a ‘rule change’.

Last Sunday’s results show saw X Factor star Shayne Ward and his pro partner Nancy Xu eliminated after a dance off against Wynne Evans and Katya Jones.

Their exit left fans fuming, as they demanded a change to the rules of the show after the two couples tied by getting two votes each from the judges, with Shirley getting the final say and sending Shayne home.

Former Strictly judge Dame Arlene Phillips was among those sharing her disagreement with the judges’ decision, and now Shirley has hit back, thanking those who have supported her and do ‘understand’ the competition.

Taking to Instagram, she said: ‘I wanted to thank you all for reaching out with your beautiful messages, for the handful of vitriol and awful messages I got, I got thousands of supporting messages and that really made my day, so I appreciate that.’

Ahead of next week’s Blackpool special she added: ‘Hugs from me to you because you sure made me feel better this week, to each and everyone of you that understand the show, I love you, take care.’

Shirley Ballas has a strong message for viewers after trolling (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

This comes after Dame Arlene, who served as a judge on the programme since its first series in 2004, before losing her seat at the table in 2009, said: ‘I disagreed with the @bbcstrictly judges last night on which couple stayed.

‘Watching @shaynetward at the start of the competition I didn’t think he would get this far.

‘From being a clumsy dancer last night turned into an actor and a dancer, portraying a beautiful partnership with @nancy_xuxi the dance felt romantic and true and I was sorry to see this couple go.’

Plenty of fans agreed, claiming Shayne was ‘robbed’ and stating that ‘he didn’t deserve to go’.

Others also questioned the rule that head judge Shirley has the casting vote in a tie-break, rather than it going back to the public’s decision.

‘If the dance-off ends up in 2 votes for each couple it should then go back to the public vote to decide who goes. Shirley should not have the final say!!; argued Jason Harrison, while Angela P chimed in: ‘I’ve been watching Strictly for years, I’ve never understood the judges’ decisions. How can it be a tie-break if the head judge hasn’t voted? They should all vote then if there’s a tie-break it goes to public vote.’

Shirley has previously taken to X to hit back at trolling against her judging skills.

The dancer has been subjected to social media abuse before, having said the negative remarks from those watching at home had left her at an ‘all-time low’ after she was sent thousands of ‘truly awful’ messages about decisions she made when sending contestants home.

After a comment on X in which one viewer accused the judges of ‘not marking properly’ which led to ‘the wrong people in the dance off and the wrong couple going home’, Shirley clarified: ‘The show has been on over twenty years the public vote makes a difference. You the public can vote to save your favourites. It gets childish to always blame the judges.’

As another troll wrote: ‘How do we vote to eliminate Shirley next week,’ Shirley hit back with: ‘Thank you. Vote vote vote lol.’

This comes after Shirley took a break from the programme in 2022, skipping the Christmas panto season after enduring ‘immense trolling’.

The star, who has been the series’ Head Judge since 2017, said at the time: ‘It’s the first time I’ve taken any time off – ever! I’m taking two and a half weeks off, because of the immense amount of trolling I got throughout this series.

‘I decided I wouldn’t do panto this year. Last time I did it, I got a letter hand-delivered to the theatre that was very off-putting. I actually kept it. I don’t know why.’

Shirley also shared that the negative comments had almost made her consider quitting the show, after the trolls sent her thousands of ‘truly awful’ messages about her decisions to send contestants home.

‘Last year I was struggling. It wasn’t just a little bit, it was a lot – the majority of it was in silence,’ she said.

‘I felt the abuse snowballed out of control and impacted me in such a negative way. I’m a pretty stoic person, and I tend to hold everything in.’

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.45pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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