Strictly Come Dancing fans have become frustrated after spotting a pattern when it comes to influencer George Clarke.
Mr Clarke, partnered alongside professional dancer Alexis Warr, kicked off his Strictly journey with a promising start to the show, but found himself near the bottom of the leaderboard last week.
Fans have begun to suspect the show bosses’ choice of songs for the 25-year-old are to blame for his performance decline, with many growing tired of the YouTube star being forced to dance to “young” music which has often gone viral on TikTok.
Complaints about the matter flooded in after BBC Stirctly’s official Instagram account shared on Wednesday what each couple would be dancing to.
BBC Strictly: George Clarke was initially named among the favourites to win the series
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BBCIt was revealed on the post the social media star is currently training to perform a Cha Cha Cha to Apple by Charli XCX for this weekend’s Halloween Week.
The song, which was released last year on the singer’s Brat album, falls into a similar category to Mr Clarke’s previous dance songs, being popular among a younger audience.
In last weekend’s Icons Week, Mr Clarke danced a Jive to Harry Styles’ As It Was, just weeks after viewers critiqued his Musicals Week dance to Soda Pop from kids’ film K-pop Demon Hunters.
Fed up fans took to the latest post to argue in the comments section about the “annoying” trend, with some theorising the YouTuber is being “set up to fail.”
“Can we stop giving George the ‘young’ choices, it’s clear it’s only for a certain audience appeal and not to actually give him good dances,” one wrote.
A second echoed: “Can we stop giving George TikTok songs???? Setting him up to fail yet again it’s getting annoying now… 4 weeks in a row.”
“Feels like they’re setting George up with the song choices. Like he said ‘Internet man does the Trendy internet songs,'” another shared.
Another disgruntled fan penned: “Every week a TikTok song that’s incredibly annoying to listen to. Bless him.”
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Someone else added: “4th gimmicky TikTok song now. It’s actually getting annoying and I’m not even a fan.”
“Would [have] liked to see George do a ballroom this week after the past couple weeks he’s had. Think his a ballroom boy,” a different Instagram user argued.
Another asked: “Is strictly setting George up to fail? I love Charli XCX but a cha cha to apple is such an awful choice?”
However, others supported the songs given to the influencer, with one arguing: “Lol yeah…. How is giving someone on trend songs ever a disadvantage. What a dumb comment lol.”
BBC Strictly: Last week, George Clarke channelled Harry Styles with a Jive
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BBC
Someone else jumped to the defence of show producers, pointing out: “To everyone complaining about George’s song choices… You do realise the song choices are decided between the pro, the celeb and the producers… And the pro has the final say regarding any song choice – they’re never forced to dance to a song if they don’t want to.
“Kevin Clifton came out and clarified this publicly not too long ago. If you don’t like his song choices… You should be asking Alexis or George about it.” (sic)
BBC Strictly: Fans have complained about George Clarke’s songs
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BBC
Last week’s Harry Styles Jive prompted criticism from the judges, with judge Craig Revel Horwood labelling Mr Clarke’s performance “flat-footed” and “stompy”.
He received a score of 27 out of a possible 40, a significant drop from his usual scoring from the judges.
Thankfully for the pair, the public vote meant they managed to avoid the dreaded dance-off, which saw former footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and partner Lauren Oakley given the boot after fighting for their place in the competition alongside Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin.
Judges noted that neither couple deserved to be in the unfortunate position, with each having achieved comparatively high scores on Saturday night.