Judge Shirley Ballas rose to her feet to give Tom Fletcher and Amy Dowden a standing ovation after their dazzling dance performance on the first live show of the new Strictly Come Dancing series
Strictly Come Dancing returned to its live shows on Saturday night and fans are already convinced they know who is judge Shirley Ballas’ favourite.
As the professional dancers and their celebrity partners took to the floor to showcase their moves in their new couples viewers of the show took to social media throughout to offer up their own personal opinions.
And it seemed as though many were in agreement to who this year’s favourite couple will be for one of the judges – and insist they already have seen a clue to give it away.
Judge Shirley Ballas rose to her feet to give one couple a rousing round of applause – as McFly’s Tom Fletcher dazzled in his opening live performance.
Musician Tom, 36, and partner Amy Dowden, 31, put on a brilliantly upbeat performance and rightly received praise from the judges and audience.
And followers on Twitter quickly got to writing about the pair.
One user commented: “now let’s see if Shirley has the same reaction and compliments when it’s a female contestant on her first-week dancing #Strictly ”
Another wrote: “F***ng Shirley standing already. Guess who’s gonna be favourite Tom. #strictly ”
“What a way to open the 2021 series! I can see why Tom is a favourite to win the show. He looks like he’s paying some real attention to detail already, which will take him so far! Can’t wait to see him in ballroom now #Strictly,” wrote a third.
And a fourth said: “Bit early for standing ovations Shirley !!! #Strictly #StrictlyComeDancing”
It comes after Tom had revealed that he has had the “toughest week” as he tries to juggle his Strictly training regime with his touring with McFly.
Taking to his Instagram Story on Saturday afternoon, dad-of-three Tom said he was gearing up for his first live performance on the Strictly dance floor with partner Amy.
Laying down on the sofa filming himself, Tom told his two million followers: “So today is the day, or tonight is the night, should I say. It’s Strictly.
“We’ve just done our band call, just run it twice through with the band which is why I’m so out of breath. But it’s great doing it with the live band, makes it completely different.”
Elsewhere on the show, there was huge praise for John Whaite and Johannes Radebe in their ground-breaking performance.
The Great British Bake Off alum John is the first male celebrity to perform in the BBC One hit with a male partner in a same-sex coupling and was paired with the South African dancer.
The duo danced the tango to New Order’s Blue Monday in the dance which made history for the show.
*Strictly Come Dancing continues next Saturday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 6.45 pm.