Strictly's Shirley Ballas finally corrects her awkward mistake

She danced her way out of that one.

By Katie Francis

14 Nov 2022

BBC

Strictly Come Dancing brought some welcome closure to the Dianne Buswell naming drama, with Shirley Ballas proving to the world that she does know Dianne’s name.

While the show primarily sets fans’ nerves on edge over numbers on scoreboards, attention was previously caught by Shirley getting Dianne’s name wrong during feedback.

But during Saturday's episode, Shirley made sure to get the pro dancer's name right, seemingly adding emphasis on Dianne's name in her comments on Dianne and partner Tyler West's dance.

"You did a commanding Paso Doble, and you really danced Dianne well," Shirley said to Tyler.

tyler west, dianne buswell, strictly come dancing 2022

BBC

The naming confusion started when Shirley mistakenly called Dianne ‘Diana’ during the November 5 instalment, stating to Tyler: "I think that you give Diana room to show her fluidity."

Twitter was quick to react to the mistake, but it seems that everything remained friendly behind the scenes.

Shirley made a point to apologise to Buswell off-camera, with the dancer later sharing that she wasn’t at all insulted by the innocent slip-up, and pointing out that any online bullying towards Shirley was unnecessary.

After the November 12 show saw Ballas clearly pronounce Dianne’s name correctly, verbal slip-ups can be put to one side; now we only need to worry about physical slip ups on the dance floor.

Tony Adams was the seventh celebrity to exit the show over the weekend, as he withdrew from the competition.

After he and Katya Jones ended up in the bottom two, the ex-footballer was unable to participate in the dance-off due to an injury that he sustained on Saturday.

Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One, while spin-off show Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows also stream on BBC iPlayer.

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