First celebrity eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing after unanimous judges’ decision
Here’s who had to hang up their dancing shoes this week…
Susannah Constantine has become the first contestant to leave Strictly Come Dancing, with the presenter and fashion expert eliminated after her foxtrot failed to impress the judges.
A combination of the judges’ scores and the public vote landed Susannah and her partner Anton Du Beke in the bottom two, where they faced a dance-off with Blue’s Lee Ryan and his partner Nadiya Bychkova.
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Afterwards, all four judges opted to save Lee and Nadiya, making Susannah and Anton the first couple to be sent home in the 2018 series.
“I know it has gone a bit quick, but you know what I just feel so lucky to have had three weeks learning to dance with Anton and to have met all these amazing people,” Radio Times Strictly columnist Susannah said after her elimination.
“And for me they are the most important and I feel really privileged to have met them all, and it has been amazing. And thank you (judges) you’ve made the right choice you guys, Lee and Nadiya were brilliant but Anton is still the king!”
“It’s just all too brief, I have had the most fabulous time with Susannah, she is going to be a great loss to the show,” Anton added.
“Sadly someone’s got to go but I wish it wasn’t you because you’re wonderful to be with. I’m going to miss spending time with you in the studio, we’ve had a great time, we’ve had enormous amounts of fun and you’re wonderful and thank you very much indeed.”
Susannah and Anton found themselves at the bottom of the leaderboard following a less than successful first fortnight.
Their week one Samba failed to impress the judges, though viewers did rather enjoy Anton’s luminous orange ensemble and Susannah’s fruity headdress. The costumes couldn’t improve the scores though, with Craig Revel Horwood awarding them just one point for their efforts.
In Week 2 they switched from Latin to Ballroom with a Foxtrot to the tune of Frank Sinatra, but Susannah’s footwork was found wanting by Strictly’s fab four and once again, Craig pulled out the dreaded ‘one’ panel.
Tonight, when explaining his decision Craig said it was a “no brainer” to save Lee and Nadiya, while fellow judge Bruno Tonioli agreed it was “obvious”.
“To my eyes Lee and Nadiya were the winners,” Bruno said.
“I have to say that both couples made a great improvement tonight, thank you,” Darcey Bussell added.
“But the couple I would like to save on a more rounded, stronger performance is Lee and Nadiya.”
Head judge Shirley was not required to cast her tiebreak vote, but confirmed she would have chosen Lee and Nadiya as well.
Now, fourteen couples remain to compete in next weekend’s Movie Special, which will see them break out dances inspired by the magic of cinema.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC1 next Saturday at 6.30pm
