Strictly Shirley Ballas' emotional axe decision confession as fans left raging

Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas admitted she is finding it nearly impossible to choose who to eliminate each week.

Shirley, 64, became the head judge on Strictly in 2017 following the departure of Len Goodman. The ballroom dancer, also known as the Queen of Latin, gets the deciding vote on who to send home if her fellow judges can't agree.

However, this position has caused Shirley some problems as she confessed to not wanting to send any celebrity home due to the standards being so high.

Speaking to Express.co.uk at the Pride of Britain Awards, Shirley said: "I think they're all doing amazing. I mean, who do you send home? They're all fabulous and I want to keep them all."

The professional dancer continued: "They're amazing and doing fantastic. They're all working extra hard and there's so much fun backstage, everybody's really relaxed but also trying their best."

Shirley admitted she struggles with deciding who to send home each week on Strictly (Image: Getty)

Issuing a bold claim about the current series, Shirley quipped: "I would probably go ahead and say it's one of the best seasons."

During Sunday night's results show, the judges were forced to choose between Montell Douglas and Sam Quek after both stars landed in the dreaded dance-off for the first time this series.

In the show's first ever Icons Week, Montell and Johannes Radebe hit the dance floor with a Waltz to a classic Whitney Houston song, I Will Always Love You.

The duo were awarded 35 out of 40 points for their emotional performance, ending the night in joint fourth on the leaderboard.

Meanwhile, Sam and her partner Nikita Kuzmin paid tribute to Taylor Swift as they performed an American Smooth to Love Story. Despite their efforts, they scored a modest 29 points, landing second from bottom on the leaderboard.

The judges voted to save Montell Douglas (Image: BBC/Guy Levy)

After Montell and Sam performed their routines again, all four judges unanimously decided to save Montell.

The decision left fans furious as they took to social media to share their frustrations. One wrote: "Noooo!!! How come all the women are being eliminated? We didn’t even have that many this year. Sad."

A second viewer penned: "Actually so annoyed at this??? Neither of the couples in the dance off deserved to be there when they’ve improved week after week and then there’s others that have had several bad weeks and keep sailing through."

Echoing this, another added: "I'm sorry what!! My first question is why was either couple in the dance off??!! And 2nd why are the worse ones still in?"

Shirley has been the head judge on Strictly since 2017 (Image: BBC/Guy Levy)