Craig Revel Horwood has branded 'Strictly' contestant Louis Smith "over-confident".

The 'Strictly Come Dancing' judge came under fire from his fellow judges on Saturday (10.11.12) after awarding Olympic athlete Louis, 23, a six for his waltz with partner Flavia Cacace, 33. The other judges scored him a nine.

Craig explained: "I like him very, very much. I think he's got a great potential and that's what I was bringing up last week. It's not just about me giving him a six out of 10 for a dance. It's about him learning and knowing that he needs to catch up to people like Kimberly [Walsh] and people that are better than him,like Lisa Riley, for instance. ] He's got a lot of work to do and he needs to not have falsities thrown at him."
"You can have your... self confidence is an issue, but he doesn't have that problem. He's overconfident. He needs to calm down and put the work in."

The 47-year-old added that fellow judges - Len Goodman, 68, Bruno Tonioli, 56, and Darcey Bussell, 43 - were unfair to criticise him.

He told BANG Showbiz: "It was quite vicious, actually. I thought I was unfairly being judged by the other judges, to be honest. I think, there's four of us on that panel, we all have different backgrounds and opinions, and I am entitled to my opinion so I'm standing by absolutely everything I said because, you know what? It's the truth."

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/What...-2-2778668.xnf

Seriously Craig is a odd one Louis is the best technical dancer he just needs to connect more and improve the performance.

While I agree that the other judges were wrong to attack Craig for his critique, I can't believe he thinks Kimberley and Lisa are better dances that Louis, or that he gave that dance a six.

Craig is losing any credibility he had.

It was beginning to look as if Louis was the front runner. The production team do not want a front runner at this stage. Hence the attack on him. BBC want to keep things unpredictable to keep the viewers interested. A bit of controversy creates drama and keeps us all talking. He is not my favourite but I think he could get the first 10 tonight and probably he will reach the final. Not enough performance for me so he won't get my vote.

Craig is one to talk - he's proving that he can dish it out but he can't take it!

How dare he say that he thinks what the other judges said to him was vicious when you consider what he says to the contestants!

He's got a thing about Louis - hence giving the way out of line mark and critique last week, and saying that Louis is overconfident when he's anything but! And how can he say that Lisa and Kimberley are better than Louis???

Sad little man!

Lisa is better than Louis.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Craig, check your calendar. April 1 is way off yet.

He's given them more marks so I'm not sure why this is such a SHOCK AND OUTRAGE AND HOW DARE HE HAVE AN OPINION OTHER THAN THAT LOUIS FARTS RAINBOWS AND AM BESTEST to people.

Haha, my reaction wasn't quite that, given that I don't particularly like Louis, but I do get a sense of Craig playing for publicity.

I really shouldn't care so much about this show.

Pffftttt...

Stop being so bloody REASONABLE!

I mean...that is his job. I'm more saddened that he's lowering himself to BANG Showbiz. I just checked their front page and their top story is "Fearne Cotton is gorging on cheese and bagels".

I haven't ever heard of BANG Showbiz.

Hee heeeee

I sort of see what Craig means. Everywhere you see and hear the comments that 'Louis has it in the bag'. no-one can beat Louis' etc. Maybe Craig dosn't want him to relax and not work on improving. Maybe Craig sees a brilliant dancer in Louis but thinks he needs the extra push to get there, or maybe he's just over compensating for the gushing favouritism of some of the other judges.

I'm not really sure what he sees or dosn't see that others do or what was behind his comments on Saturday but if the other judges had just let him say his piece it would have been less important than it became. I think Len and Bruno's behaviour was terrible, almost bullying. It got blown up out of all proportion. I didn't agree with Craig either but he is allowed his opinion - just as Len is and I frequently don't agree with him. They could just as easily have said they didn't agree with him without the drama.

The comments and scores seem to be all over the place this year. Some are praised for just coming out and 'giving it some welly' or being brave or 'putting on a show' whilst others are criticised for virtually the self same things?!

Saying that they are better overall is laughable.

I don't believe for a second that Craig really thinks Louis is over-confident or that his dancing is really worth less points than Lisa, Victoria or Richard's.

It's all designed to stir people up and increase the anti-judge vote.

Craig is losing his credibilty. He's far too patronising to Lisa and Victoria. Also he gushes over Denise and slags off her nearest rival - Louis.

Hmm.

The 'article' in question doesn't have any journalist connected to it. If you look at all the other articles on the site, they do.

I think this might be a bit of concocted filler rather than, say, a comment that Craig specifically gave to a Cambridge News journo who contacted him.

Louis lives in that neck of the woods, doesn't he?

Exactly. He's a Peterborough boy.

It's not that I think it impossible for Craig to think this - but I'm sceptical when an article isn't attributed to a reporter.

I disagree. I think Louis is a better dancer than Kimberley, but I don't think the gulf is so large that it would be ridiculous to think otherwise. Lisa gives me a bit of pause, but it's hardly surprising given everything Craig's background and everything he has ever said about dance ever.

For me the problem with Craig's comments last week was not that he dared make them lol but that his score of 6 undermined them - even 7 would have been more believable but 6 just suggested lack of discernment: no way was Louis that bad.

maybe he got his paddles mixed up.

Upon further investigation, it appears Craig also said this in the same interview, with regards to The X Factor :


I have to admit, I laughed until I wee'd a bit. Metaphorically, obviously.

Awwww, poor Craig, gets all mean and vicious about Louis and then doesn't like it when the other judges are mean and vicious to him. Karma is a bitch Craig.

Craig's becoming a bit like that anchor on Network that goes insane on air. He's shouting and huffing and puffing while Louis sits there smiling pityingly and we all laugh and point.

This article was in the List and was attributed to BANG Showbiz, an entertainment news agency set up by Rick Sky, a former fleet street showbiz editor.

Mind you, I read an article about Louis in his local Peterborough paper after his Dirty Dancing and I was surprised it was a bit down on Louis.