Ex Strictly pro Oti Mabuse hits out at 'mean' judging as she takes a swipe at 'sad show' and says 'it was so uncomfortable to watch'

Oti Mabuse has hit out at the 'mean' judging on Strictly after viewers complained the voting was all over the place on Saturday's show. 

The professional dancer, 36, was one of the show's most successful professionals during her tenure from 2015 to 2021, and hasn't held back her opinion – despite her sister Motsi being on the panel.  

But in her new podcast The Fifth Judge with husband Marius Lepure, Oti said she found the show 'uncomfortable to watch' as she took a swipe at the harsh scores after Craig Revel Horwood scored a four for Cach Mercer. 

Oti said: 'The judging was crazy. I think some people were massively underscored.

'It was so uncomfortable to watch and then I thought people were massively overscored.' 

Oti commented that head judge Shirley Ballas having a guest stint on the judging panel on Dancing With The Stars changed the competition and believes she went head-to-head with Craig on who can be the 'mean judge'. 

Oti continued: 'I think Shirley went to America and was the mean judge and she got all this press.

'She flipped Dancing With The Stars upside down and then she came back to Strictly and she flipped Strictly upside down.

'Then Craig said, "that’s my job, you can do it in America, but my job is to be the mean judge".

'What it did to me was go, "oh, this is such a sad show,’ – I can see these couples are working so hard and I can see Lacey [Turner] is growing in confidence".'

'They made it about who can be the mean judge and they completely took away the hard work that you put in as a professional and as a celeb.' 

Marius then commented: 'Even Anton was being a bit too much.' 

Oti skimmed over talking about her sister Motsi and concluded: 'Anyway that was my rant.'  

On Saturday, fans were outraged by Cach's scores as they once again accused the judges of undermarking and inconsistent scores. 

They wrote: 'So undermarked I LOVE watching them dance'; 'It feels like the judges are doing a bit with their scoring now and it's boring. A 4?!? Absolutely no way?';

'This was beautiful x disagree with the scoring so much!!!!'; 'Absolutley LOVE this couple.. Maddie is new & doing her best Cach is a fab natural dancer … something doesn’t add up.. why the judges need to be so harsh with their words.'

'This did NOT deserve a 4 or 6! What is their problem??? Every week they are extremely harsh with this couple, nothing they seem to do is good enough.'

However some fans agreed with the judges as they added: 'That was a poor dance and not to have basic heel leads nailed in by now speaks to insufficient practice.';

'The pro in this pairing doesn't seem to know the ballroom techniques and bizarrely keeps doing it. It's letting Cach down. It's weird.'

Cach and Maddie landed in the dance off against Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu.

In a nail-biting results show, the judges were split, with Anton Du Beke voting to save Mercer and Ingoldsby, while Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse chose to keep Antonia and Xu.

It was left to head judge Shirley with her casting vote to decide. She saved Cach and Maddie.