Dancing With The Stars judge Brian Redmond responded to claims made by Deirdre O’Kane that the women in the show were being marked more harshly than the men.
The comments which sparked the sexism row appeared in The Irish Sun yesterday where it was reported that the comedian said, “I set a personal best but we can’t control the judges scores. I am sick of it (low scores).”
Deirdre received 23 points last week which landed her at the bottom of the leader board but Rob Heffernan was sent home and she lived to dance another day.
The Irish Sun went on to quote the comic saying, “The judges are not just tougher with me. They are tougher with all the women without a shadow of a doubt. The men get an easier time on Dancing With the Stars and that’s plain to see.”
RTÉ have sent stats to to back up claims made by Brian that four out of the five highest marked dancers are women including Deirdre.
He said the judges are awarding scores purely based on the dancing.
“The statistics prove that nothing could be further from the truth. Of the five highest scores this series four of them are women, and one of those is Deirdre. As it happens the female contestants in general are averaging three points more than the men so the stats just don’t back up what Deirdre has said.
“We all know emotions run high after the live show and for Deirdre to be unhappy with her scores is understandable as anybody who has a competitive nature would be aiming for the highest possible scores.”
“We have some fabulous dancers still in the competition, including Deirdre, and the standard is really high this year, that’s the nature of competition.”
“One thing for sure is the integrity of the judging panel is unwavering and no matter what people say about us the opinions and scores that we give are always solely based on the dancing we see in front of us, this of course will always be the case even in the face of criticism. As they say it’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it.”
Not letting the scores get her down for long, Deirdre is hosting a massive comedy show in the 3Arena on St. Patrick’s Day in aid of Comic Relief.
