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Exclusive: James and Ola Jordan talk disagreeing with judges scores and reveal their winner

The dancers joined this week's HELLO! Insider

Senior Features Writer
December 12, 2022

Strictly Come Dancing stars James and Ola Jordan joined this week's HELLO! Insider to talk about the semi-final, revealing why they disagreed with the judges scoring when it came to a couple of the celebrities' performances on Sunday night's show.

MORE: Watch moment Helen Skelton rips figure-hugging dress during live Strictly semi-finals – VIDEO

Chatting about how there were no perfect scores on the night, James began: "I think [that] was fair, although it was a great semi-final and a lot of the dances were good and I really enjoyed the show." 

VIDEO: James and Ola Jordan join HELLO!'s Insider to discuss the Strictly semi-final

Changing his mind, the professional then added: "Actually no, I'm going to retract that. I'm going to say there should have been one perfect score and that was Molly." Ola agreed, interjecting: "She definitely should have been top of the leaderboard for me. She was amazing."

James added further: "I'd say she was the only one who deserved a perfect score. When you do two dances, you get half the time to do the dances and I could see that some people struggled with that more than others.

MORE: 'My little snow princess!’ James and Ola Jordan share cute snaps of toddler Ella

MORE: Why Strictly's James and Ola Jordan ditched mammoth four-storey mansion

© Photo: BBC

"I felt Will [Mellor] found it difficult. I thought his Paso Doble was going to be exceptional and I was a bit disappointed. Paso isn't the most difficult dance because it's very stompy and aggressive and I thought he was going to be really good but I was left a bit underwhelmed."

While James and Ola were sure that Molly was undermarked, it seems they thought Will's Couple's Choice routine, which was a street dance number to Happy Mondays, was overmarked.

© Photo: BBC

On whether Will managed to redeem himself after the Paso Doble disappointed, James joked: "I would say no. I haven't woken up on the wrong side of the bed! But I thought when I was watching I thought 'That's what I would look like if I did street dance', because I know I wouldn't be good.

"I felt it was a bit Dad-dancey. And the fact that it got two tens I thought was baffling."

The results for the semi-finals will air on Monday evening, revealing who has landed a place in the final in the hope of lifting the Glitterball trophy. James and Ola also revealed who they think could be the 2022 champions: "I still it's going to be Hamza [Yassin] because of the likeability, and he's been brilliant," said James. Ola added: "I agree!" 

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