The Dancing on Ice judges have received a "barrage of abusive comments" online following last night's (January 6) shock elimination of Pamela Anderson, according to panellist Jason Gardiner.
Anderson was voted out in the ITV show's premiere after stumbling in the skate-off against Keith Chegwin due to a wardrobe malfunction.
Gardiner and his fellow judges - Robin Cousins, Ashley Roberts and Karen Barber - unanimously chose to save Chegwin, despite him finishing bottom of the leaderboard after the cast's initial routines.
Writing on his official Facebook after angry viewers condemned the decision, Gardiner explained that the panel voted off Anderson - who was third in the rankings before the public vote - because the bottom two are now judged solely on their 'save me skates'.
"The judges can not take into account anything they have done before or what potential they may bring to the show for the future," he stated. "Pamela made quite a few errors throughout and Keith didn't. This is what makes the skate-off so unpredictable and exciting.
"As for the barrage of abusive comments on Twitter towards the Judges, I would like to point out that the public vote ultimately decides the bottom two for the skate off.
"Therefore Pamela didn't receive enough votes either because she isn't popular enough or people just assumed she would be safe and didn't vote."
Gardiner had previously tweeted that the elimination of Anderson and her professional partner Matt Evers was "a shock result but the right one".
Cousins, meanwhile, admitted on his own profile that the first Dancing on Ice elimination "certainly didn't play out as expected".
