Strictly Come Dancing viewers baffled over Shirley's scoring

Richie Anderson & Giovanni Pernice in Strictly Come Dancing 2022

(Image credit: BBC)

Strictly Come Dancing viewers were scratching their heads at the scores head judge Shirley Ballas gave Richie Anderson's samba.

Richie, whose day job is doing the traffic updates on the breakfast show on Radio Two, opened Movie Week with partner Giovanni Pernice.

Giovanni and Richie dance to Hakuna Matata — Shirley loved the wacky dance! (Image credit: BBC)

The pair danced a wacky samba to Hakuna Matata from The Lion King. Richie donned a meerkat onesie to play Timon, while Giovanni dressed as warthog Pumba.

Yes, really!

They started beside the judges, strutting their stuff for Anton and Craig.

Then they took their moves down the steps and on to the dance floor, where they really loosened up and clearly had a whale of a time, channeling their inner animals!

While the judges loved their energy, the fans watching at home weren't so keen!

Poor Gio, awful #Strictly #scdOctober 8, 2022

My Eyes My Eyes #Strictly what have I just watched 🤣😝🤢 #scd @bbcstrictlyOctober 8, 2022

Giovanni and Richie dance to Hakuna Matata from The Lion King — Gio and Richie clearly had a ball dancing their samba! (Image credit: BBC)

Some fans even predicted that Richie would be the celebrity leaving the show this week. Bit harsh.

Is Giovanni deliberately trying to get eliminated in week 3? Dreadful #StrictlyOctober 8, 2022

But when it came to the scores, it seemed the professional judges had a different view from those of us watching at home!

The judges score Richie and Giovanni's samba — (Image credit: BBC)

Motsi and Anton each gave Richie and Giovanni a seven, while Shirley gave them an eight!

And the viewers were baffled.

Oh come on that scoring is ridiculous, there is no way in hell that should have scored more than a 4/5. That just makes a mockery of the scoring. #strictlyOctober 8, 2022

An 8 😂😂😂 #StrictlyOctober 8, 2022

Richie was thrilled with his score and pointed out that as a young lad growing up in Birmingham he'd not had many chances to try his hand at a samba!

He said he'd had a wonderful week learning the moves and had loved every minute.

But did he do enough to stay in the competition?

We'll wait and see what happens when the viewers vote on their favourite dancers later this evening and the results are announced in Sunday's show.

Kerry is a writer, author and editor with a lifelong love of the soaps, a passion for TV drama of all kinds, and an obsessive devotion to Strictly Come Dancing.

She was features editor of All About Soap magazine for more than a decade, covering every bit of excitement from all the UK soaps and the Aussies and still writes about all the juiciest gossip from the Street, the Square and the Dales whenever she can.

Kerry’s also an author of historical fiction, and her two jobs collided when she got the chance to write two novels based on Emmerdale, and the Sugden, Tate and Dingle families, during WW2.