Exclusive: Strictly Come Dancing's Shirley Ballas fiercely denies she's judging "too harshly"

Strictly Come Dancing's Shirley Ballas has claimed she always does her job "with a smile" on her face.

The head judge has faced criticism in recent weeks and was accused of being "harsh", particularly when scoring EastEnders actor Lacey Turner over the weekend.

However, Ballas has now had her say and speaking exclusively to Digital Spy at the 2026 Pride of Britain Awards on Monday (19 October), she fiercely denied that she's marking certain contestants too harshly.

"Do I agree with that? Not at all. I do everything with a smile on my face and everything to help people progress forward in the competition," she said matter-of-factly.

Related: Janette Manrara admits Strictly Come Dancing "took up so much" of her life

Ballas judges the celebrities alongside Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, and Anton Du Beke.

Asked if she thinks it's hard being the head judge at the table, she replied: "No, I don't think it's hard at all. I go in there, I do my job with a smile on my face, help them improve for the first six or seven weeks, and then hopefully they move forward and they can be all they can be."

Ballas also shared her thoughts on the most recent Strictly elimination, which saw Dame Sarah Storey and her professional partner Julian Caillon leave the competition.

"We never like to see anybody go," Ballas said, before adding: "And at the end of the day, the public put two people in the bottom two and we have to make a decision, and the decision was unanimous for all four judiciary."

Ballas, who has been the head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017, went on to describe the BBC show as "amazing".

"The new hosts are brilliant. Our professionals are the best in the world, and our celebrities, the class of 2026, are awesome," she said.

Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.

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Kirsty is a freelance writer and editor specialising in all things entertainment. Over the past 16 years, she has worked on showbiz desks at various national newspaper websites in London, including Express.co.uk, The Sun, and MailOnline.

More recently, she spent three years living in New York City writing celebrity and lifestyle news for DailyMail.com, The Mirror US, and Daily Express US. Kirsty graduated from Southampton Solent with a BA in Magazine Journalism and Feature Writing. When she's not watching reruns of Sex and the City, you'll find her listening to David Bowie and daydreaming about an espresso martini.