Hughie Maughan has hit out at RTÉ, after being eliminated from Dancing With The Stars on Sunday night.
The Big Brother star was booted off the show, after a controversial week involving his fake tan – and now Hughie’s calling on RTÉ to “release the scores” as the result made “zero sense” to him.
I would love RTE to release the scores because I wasn’t the lowest on the score board after the judges votes but I would have to be a lot lower than everybody else from the public to be eliminated.
“I want to see the statistics, I’d love to know how they can count all those votes, and can get them recounted during a commercial break? The result made zero sense to me,” Hughie told the Irish Sun.
Eliminated: Hughie was booted off the show after suffering a tanning disaster the week before | RTE
However, the state broadcaster has refused to supply final contestant scores, as the information is “commercially sensitive”, and could have an impact on voting patterns.
“We don’t give breakdowns on the voting as this information is commercially sensitive and may also have an impact on the voting patterns for the remaining shows.
“Also, the voting process on DWTS is independently audited by Pricewaterhouse Coopers,” a spokesperson said.
Hughie also admitted that after the controversy surrounding his tan, some of the other contestants were “stand offish” with him, and will be glad to see him go.
“There was some stand offishness from a few of the other celebrity dancers. Maybe they thought I’d been in the media too much during the week But at the end of the day, that wasn’t my fault.”
Frosty: Hughie says some of the contestant were a bit stand offish with him after tangate | VIPIRELAND.COM
The Ballymun native also blamed DWTS producers for picking such a “depressing” waltz, and admitted that he wasn’t given the chance to be himself and play up the entertainment factor – like Des Cahill.
“The producers pick your dance, pick your tune. That was one of the things that annoyed me about Dancing With The Stars, I was told to concentrate on the dancing whereas Des Cahill was allowed to play up the entertainment factor. I wish I had a chance to be myself. By being boring, I wasn’t being myself.”
Speaking about being eliminated on Sunday night’s show, the reality star admitted that he had a “face like thunder”, but that he’s thankful that he was given the opportunity.
“I have a face like thunder on the cover of the newspapers this morning. I couldn’t believe I was gone. We were even talking about next week’s performance, which was something from The Jungle Book with me dressed up in a full-length cat suit. We were going up to Dublin Zoo to film me wearing it.”
“There are people my age who don’t even have a job. How can I complain about getting eliminated off a big TV show? I’m thankful for the chance to have done it. Whatever about the publicity over my fake tan, at least when I go back for the final show, everybody will know who I am. That doesn’t always happen to the first person eliminated from a TV show,” he said.
