Who is Strictly Come Dancing's strictest judge?

16 September 2023 , 08:00

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Which Strictly Come Dancing judge is the strictest? (Image: BBC/Guy Levy)

The identity of Strictly’s strictest judge will come as no surprise to fans of the show - or to the celebrity dancers who will be trying to impress him this season.

But analysis of how the judges voted last year reveals just how much harder it is to please the acid-tongued Craig Revel Horwood than the rest of the panel.

Last year Anton Du Beke and Motsi Mabuse were so dazzled by the weekly performances that they awarded a perfect score of “10” on 32 occasions each. Shirley Ballas was a bit tougher to impress, handing out top marks on 28 occasions.

Craig, however, was far stingier with his marks, handing out a perfect score on just five occasions.

In fact, he waited until week nine before he was sufficiently impressed to award his first 10 to Fleur East and Vito Coppola for their “couple’s choice” dance at Blackpool. That was five weeks later than Anton and six weeks later than Motsi and Shirley.

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After that, he was relatively unimpressed until the final, when he awarded top marks to another four dances - two performed by Fleur and Vito, and one each from Helen Skelton and Gorka Marquez, and Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal.

Over the course of 13 weeks and well over 100 dances, data provided by http://StrictlyScoreboard.com shows that Craig awarded 172 fewer points than Anton, Strictly’s most generous judge, 160 fewer points than Motsi, and 121 fewer than Shirley.

On average, the score revealed on Craig’s paddle after each dance was around a point below the marks given out by every other judge. Last year he gave out an average score of 7.01 per dance. That compares to the 8.22 points per dance dolled out by Anton.

It was Craig who awarded the season’s lowest score when he was booed for derisively handing Tony Adams and Katya Jones a mere two points for their take on the Samba. None of the other judges awarded less than four points to any couple.

Nor did Craig agree with the public choice of Hamza and Jowita as series champions, consistently giving Fleur and Vito his highest marks. But Craig was not the only judge at odds with the viewers back home.

Anton also gave more points on average to Fleur and Vito than any other couple, while Shirley’s favourite dancers based on her scorecard were Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu.

Only Motsi gave Hamza and Jowita her highest marks.

All four judges will return on Saturday for the launch of this year’s dance competition when celebrities including comic Les Dennis, actor Amanda Abbington, and journalist, presenter, and newsreader Angela Rippon OBE will be hoping to impress the judges - or at least to not fall foul of Craig’s acerbic critiques.

Richard Ault