Shirley Ballas has been encouraged not to leave Strictly Come Dancing by Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley after the head judge confessed how ‘low’ trolling tweets made her feel.
Shirley, 62, stated in a recent interview that she ‘thought the abuse snowballed out of control’ during the last season of the BBC program, with some of the vitriol directed towards the candidates she chose to send home.
‘I was suffering last year. ‘It wasn’t just a little amount, it was a lot, and the most of it was done in quiet,’ she explained.
The dancer said she received hundreds of “truly awful” comments and that the BBC was “brilliant” in checking in on her and offered her assistance.
When asked if she would contemplate leaving Strictly, Shirley said, ‘It was a challenging series, I’ll leave it at that,’ before adding, ‘Will I go back to Strictly? I never take more than one step at a time.’
Richard and Susanna were joined on Monday’s Good Morning Britain by TV and radio broadcaster Vick Hope to address Shirley’s suggestion that she stand down from her position.
Addressing the messages from trolls, Richard, 66, remarked: ‘She shouldn’t read them. What’s the point?’
Vick, 33, who competed on Strictly in 2018, added: ‘Honestly, it never ceases to amaze me how angry people can get about a dancing show. It’s a dancing show – it’s supposed to be joyful! ‘
Richard insisted that the series was not the’real world,’ saying, ‘Anyway, anyway, I hope you don’t quit Shirley, ’cause I think you’re great.’
Susanna, 52, chipped in with some sound advice: ‘Never read the comments, honestly. It’s like swimming in a sewer, which none of us would prefer!’
Richard then brought up a remark made by Graham Norton the other day, in which the TV presenter remarked, “In the old days before social media, you couldn’t hear people shouting at the television, but Twitter means you can actually now hear people shouting loony stuff at the television screen.”
Susanna replied: ‘I think it’s horrible. If the kinds of things she’s receiving is that offensive, it should be referred obviously to the police, if it’s threatening in any way.’
‘Don’t read it, Shirley you don’t need to,’ Richard added, as Susanna pleaded: ‘We love you Shirley, don’t go.’
Shirley first appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, when she took over as chief judge after Len Goodman stepped down.
She appears on the panel with Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, and Anton Du Beke, and has previously worked on the show with Bruno Tonioli and Darcey Bussell.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.