With Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas waltzing off to the US to appear on Dancing with the Stars, there has been mounting speculation that the latest series of Strictly could be her swansong.
On Tuesday (27 October), Ballas appeared as a guest judge on the US counterpart of the dancing competition and blindsided contestants and fellow judges with her harsh scoring. She will return to the UK in time for Strictly’s Halloween weekend special on Saturday (31 October).
Despite Ballas describing the chance to judge on Dancing with the Stars as “a job I always wanted”, she has stated in no uncertain terms that she will not be leaving her role on Strictly, which she joined in 2017.
“It's double duty this year,” she told Prima magazine, adding: “It's going to be very interesting, but I'm 100 per cent not leaving Strictly.”
Ballas said that Dancing with the Stars has been on her “wish list” and teased that she would be harder on the contestants overseas than the competitors in the UK.
“I feel that Dancing with the Stars will be a slightly different audience. I think I can probably be more strict.”
Ballas certainly didn’t hold back during her appearance on the series, giving actors Julia Stiles and Tatyana Ali fours, and she gave no preferential treatment to her son, Mark Ballas, a professional on the series partnered with Maura Higgins. She awarded the dancing couple a seven for their contemporary dance to Gerard McMahon’s “Cry Little Sister”, while her fellow judges, including former Strictly colleague Bruno Tonioli, gave them eights and nines.
The British judge also made her mark by giving out the first 10 of the series so far to actor Harry Shum Jr and his partner Jenna Johnson. The former Glee star received a perfect score of 40 for his contemporary number to a horror remix of the Britney Spears hit “Toxic”.
Ballas is not the first judge to juggle Strictly Come Dancing with its US counterpart, with Tonioli and the late Len Goodman both having crossed the Atlantic for more than a decade to appear on Dancing with the Stars.
Bruno, 70, who is a judge on the ABC show, quit the UK version in 2022 because of the gruelling transatlantic commute.
He previously said: “I just couldn’t do the flying anymore. I don’t know how I survived that schedule. To be honest, it’s a miracle.” Like Tonioli, Goodman – who died from prostate cancer in April 2023 at the age of 78 – was a fixture on both shows from the start, joining Strictly Come Dancing in 2004 and Dancing with the Stars a year later.
Goodman quit Strictly Come Dancing in 2016, and Dancing with the Stars seven years later.
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