BBC Breakfast host Dan Walker has become the 10th celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing.
The popular presenter was axed from the show after his tango with partner Nadiya Bychkova failed to impress enough to earn them a place in next weekend’s semi-final.
Dan and Nadia faced AJ Odudu and her partner Kai Widdrington in the dance-off after they suffered the after-effects of making some very obvious mistakes during their performance on Saturday.
Aj and Kai then secured the majority vote of the judges to secure their place in the semi-final.
As the reveal was made Dan, 44, backed the decision telling Tess Daly: “By the way, I would have saved AJ and Kai as well. The last 11 weeks have been absolutely amazing, I’ve genuinely loved every second of it.
“When I go back to the first day when I was asked to dance in front of some glitter balls, at that point, if there had been a fire exit, I’d have just walked away.”
He then thanked Nadia for all her hard work teaching him, when he isn’t a natural on the dancefloor.
He said: “I’m not a dancer, but she showed me that I can dance, and that for me, this has been an absolutely incredible experience.
“Thank you to the judges, your feedback every week has been brilliant, and really constructive and helpful, and everyone over there, my fellow competitors, have been brilliant.”
After the results were revealed, Strictly fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on Dan.
One fan said: “Look I’m sure Dan is a lovely man. But there was no competition between him and the other dancers there. Sorry.”
Another penned: “I haven’t been the biggest fan of@mrdanwalker @NadiyaBychkova throughout #Strictly but this week I thought Dan had a brilliant Tango and should have been saved based on that amazing dance-off performance!”
(Image: BBC / Guy Levy)
While a third said: “I’m going to miss Dan the Man. Joking to the end.”
Dan, 44, has regularly shared negative comments made about himself made by social media users throughout his time in the competition after claims were made he had made it so far because he was a BBC presenter and it was a “fix”.
He continued: “The standard has been amazing, it’s been a pleasure for me to watch them dance each week, and thank you to all the pros for being so kind, caring and encouraging.”
Nadia then added: “Like he said, sometimes the right person walks into your life at the right time and that’s what happened. You always encourage everyone, you always have time for everyone, it just inspires me to be a better person myself. Thank you.”
(Image: BBC/Guy Levy)
The pair were then played a montage of their highlights as an emotional Dan gushed: “I’ve loved it, I don’t think I’ll dance all the time, but the one thing that will be different is that I won’t ‘not dance’ anymore. So thank you for having me, it’s been brilliant.”.
Just four couples now remain in the competition – Aj and Kai, John Whaite and Johannes Radebe, Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu and fan and bookies favourites, Rose-Ayling Ellis and Giovanni Pernice.
Strictly Come Dancing’s semi-final airs on December 11 at 7.05pm with the results show on December 12 at 7.20pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
