After an action-packed semi-final, Mollie King has become the next celebrity to be eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing.
When the voting results were revealed The Saturdays singer and her professional partner AJ Pritchard found themselves in the dreaded dance-off for the third occasion – this time against Gemma Atkinson and Aljaz Skorjanec.
The battle between the final two saw Mollie and AJ performing their Waltz to Angel by Sarah McLaughlin, while Gemma and Aljaz took on their Tango to My Sharona by The Knack once more. Although both dances were awarded the same score on Saturday night (32), all the judges opted to save Gemma and Aljaz after the dance-off – a result that Radiotimes.com readers predicted early today.
Craig Revel Horwood said Gemma had the “edge” over Mollie, Darcey Bussell claimed Gemma and Aljaz looked more “confident” on the dance floor and Bruno said they were the “couple that stood out to my eye”. Head Judge Shirley Ballas said she agreed with the panel and said that she would have also saved Gemma and Aljaz.
Before departing the dance floor, Mollie said: “Firstly congratulations to Gemma and Aljaz because they danced their socks off and totally deserved to be there and congratulations to all the finalists, they’re so incredible!
"Thank you to the judges, you have just been unbelievable and I will forever remember everything that you said and I will take it on board wherever I’m dancing.
“Above all, AJ, you have been just incredible and you have been my hero for the last couple of months. I couldn’t have done any of it without you.”
AJ himself added: “I want to say thank you so much for being in training and literally spending all the time working so hard and always willing to try everything and performing every single night as if it’s your last.”
Next weekend the final four couples (Alexandra Burke and Gorka Marquez, Debbie McGee and Giovanni Pernice, Joe McFadden and Katya Jones, Gemma Atkinson and Aljaz Skorjanec) will battle it out for the Strictly glitterball trophy in the show's grand final.
The Strictly Come Dancing live grand final starts 6.30pm Saturday
