Strictly fix row as fans claim contestant is getting ‘marked up’ by judges saying ‘he’s their favourite!’

STRICTLY fans have raged that Paul Merson is being “favouritised” by the judges after Saturday’s show.

Toyah Willcox became the second celebrity to be eliminated after she went up against Paul, 56, and Karen Hauer, 42, who performed a Cha-Cha to the Them from The Magnificent Seven.

Unfortunately Toyah’s Samba to Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid failed to impress the judges.

Toyah scored 15 points from the judges and was at the bottom of the leaderboard, while Paul followed behind with 19.

Judges Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood all voted to save Paul and Karen, with head judge Shirley Ballas confessing she would have made the same decision.

But some BBC viewers were not happy with the decision and said Paul is being “marked up” by the judges.

One wrote: “Paul is just as bad as Toyah but the judges love him.”

A second said: “Paul is measurably worse than Toyah. Toyah, for all her limitations, throws herself into it and stays more or less in time, whereas all of Paul’s dances have had long time-wasting beginnings and sequences where he stands around doing very little while Karen dances around him. Len Goodman always complained when dancers did this, and I don’t know why the current judges are letting it go.”

A third said: “Paul is just going through the motions & Toyah is fighting like mad to stay in.”

But not all fans agreed and this person shared: “Paul’s better, more entertaining, has done slightly harder dances, has probably never even danced at a party before and he’s actually improving.”

Another added: “Personally I find Paul far more entertaining to watch and he does seem to attempt more technical content than Toyah so the judges might give him props for that.”

Toyah’s time on the show came to an end after being unanimously voted off by the judges.

Craig put his decision down to bad “timing” and “loss of balance” on Toyah’s part.

Turning to her show partner, the singer said of their connection: “It was immediate. It had to be Neil. I felt so comfortable and safe. You’re a great teacher and friend as well.”

Viewers had previously been left convinced that show bosses were trying to get rid of her, thanks to an ‘obvious clue’.

Toyah and Neil were chosen to perform their Samba second during yesterday’s Movie Week installment.

Toyah did little to impress the judging panel as she came out with low scores.

But it wasn’t the scores that Strictly fans thought could land her in the dance-off again.

Many took to X, formerly Twitter, to complain that she had been given the dreaded “death slot” by going second.

The “death slot” refers to the place in the running order which is least likely to throw up success.

It left fans to suspect that the Beeb secretly want to get the 80s pop singer out by giving her the spot.

Writing online, one fan said: “Toyah has the death slot, seems like they want her to go now that she’s made it to Movie Week.”

Another added: “A Samba and Toyah is in the death spot. OH DEAR!”

A third wrote: “Lol @ production doing Toyah and Neil no favours by dumping them in the death slot.”

Last week, 80s icon Toyah and Neil found themselves in the bottom two and dancing off against Tom and Nadiya Bychkova.