STRICTLY Come Dancing fans were devastated to see a favourite celebrity narrowly miss out on place in the quarter-final.
Actor Alex Kingston was booted off the show after a dance-off against EastEnders star Balvinder Sopal.
Both couples performed their routines again; Alex and Johannes performed their Cha Cha to Anita Ward’s Ring My Bell, before Balvinder and Julian Caillon performed their Jive to Right Back Where We Started From by Maxine Nightingale.
This week’s leaderboard was a culmination of last week’s Blackpool Special votes and judges’ scores, as well as extra points from Saturday night’s brand-new Instant Dance challenge, where a maximum of six marks were available for the performance that impressed the judges the most.
After both couples had danced a second time in the dance off, the judges delivered their verdicts, with Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse choosing to save Balvinder and Anton Du Beke deciding to save Alex.
Head Judge Shirley Ballas, who this week had the casting vote, decided to save Balvinder and Julian, securing their place in Strictly’s Musicals Week.
When asked by Tess about her time on the show, Alex said: “I had never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would last this long.
“It’s been just the most incredible journey for me.
“I feel quite proud of myself because I’ve loved the process, I mean 100%, you can tell by my smile.
“Everyone always says that their dance partner is a friend for life, but JoJo really will be.”
When asked by Tess about their brilliant partnership, Johannes said: “I’ve never grinned as much as I have in the last few weeks.
“Thank you Alex for being a trooper, I will hold on to the memories.
“As far as the dancing goes, I think we’ve achieved what we wanted to achieve.
“These memories are just the beginning for us, we can say that we are very much a Strictly family.”
Sunday’s results show featured a dramatic Rumba professional group number to Wicked Game by Grace Carter, choreographed by Oti Mabuse and Marius Lepure.
Myles Smith also gave an incredible performance of Stay (If You Wanna Dance) accompanied by professional dancers Kai Widdrington and Karen Hauer.
The remaining five celebrities – Balvinder, Amber Davies, Lewis Cope, George Clarke and Karen Carney are through to next weekend’s Musicals Week quarter-final which will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 6.50pm on Saturday and 7:45pm on Sunday.
Musicals Week will also see the couples take part in another Strictly first: a brand new high-stakes dance challenge.
