Who left Strictly Come Dancing tonight? Recap week 10 exit as Alex Kingston leaves
Strictly Come Dancing has eliminated yet another star after the ‘Instant Dance’ challenge - recap! 💃🕺🚨
- Strictly has waved goodbye to yet another star.
- A Doctor Who favourite has waltzed away from series 23.
- But what happened in the dance-off tonight?
A fan favourite has become the latest to leave Strictly Come Dancing this year. It comes after the show introduced a ‘series first’ challenge last night.
The remaining celebs took on the ‘Instant Dance’ and viewers were loving it. A manic few minutes, it proved to be some seriously entertaining TV.
But who became the latest celebrity to leave - and miss out on next week’s quarter-final? Here’s all you need to know:
What did the leaderboard look like on Strictly?
The scores from the judges this week were combined with the totals from seven days ago, due to no elimination taking place. La Voix’s injury exit meant that the dance-off in Blackpool was scrapped.
Not only did the leaderboard combine the judges scores from week nine and ten, it also included the points from the Instant Dance challenge as well. It looked like this:
- Lewis and Katya - 82
- Karen and Carlos - 80
- Amber and Nikita - 80
- George and Alexis - 75
- Balvinder and Julian - 66
- Alex and Johannes - 61
How did the Instant Dance challenge work?
Strictly added a ‘series first’ new twist last night (November 29) as the celebs had to take on a dance with no prior preparation.
The celebs had selected envelopes with a previous dance last week in Blackpool, but were left unaware of which it would be. After finding out which one they would be taking on, they had mere seconds to select a wardrobe and just 10 seconds to decide on the moves for it.
After all six Strictly couples had danced, the Strictly judges then ranked them and award their extra marks accordingly. A maximum of six marks were then awarded to the couple whose Instant Dance performance impressed them the most, right down to one point for the couple whose dance impressed them the least.
Head Judge Shirley Ballas said: "Instant Dance has the power to change everything for our couples, and will challenge them in ways they have never been challenged before. With standards so incredibly high this year and the competition so close, there's a lot resting on it.
“The dance styles, costumes and music might not be revealed until the night, but what we can be sure of right now is that it's going to be a whole lot of fun. I cannot wait!"
How are the bottom two decided?
Due to the elimination being cancelled last week, the scoring for week ten was based on a combination of scores from seven days ago and this weekend. It meant that the leaderboard had some seriously high totals!
Just as throughout the previous weeks of the competition, the bottom two is not solely based on the judges scores. The public still have the opportunity to influence results with the vote opening at the end of the episode yesterday (November 29).
Votes from the public are converted into a score and that is combined with the judges leaderboard. Once all that is totted up, the celebs who were at the bottom of the overall table would face the dance-off.
Who was in the Strictly dance-off this week?
The bottom two once again reflected the judges scores in week ten with Alex Kingston and Balvinder Sopal finding themselves in the bottom two. However, they still had one last chance to secure their spot in the competition.
Alex and Balvinder took to the ballroom floor once more for the dance-off. With the former having a fresh go at the Cha Cha Cha to Ring My Bell by Anita Ward.
EastEnders star Bal once again performed a Jive to Right Back Where We Started From by Maxine Nightingale. But who would the judges save?
Who left Strictly Come Dancing tonight?
Doctor Who favourite Alex Kingston became the eighth celebrity to leave the competition, after the week ten dance-off tonight (November 30). It proved to be a tough decision for the judges, with a spot in the quarter-final at stake.
Anton Du Beke decided to save Alex, while Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse opted to pick Balvinder. It was the turn of head judge Shirley Ballas to have the deciding vote and she used it to save Balvinder.
Speaking after leaving the competition, Alex Kingston 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.”
Find out what viewers thought of the ‘series first’ Instant Dance challenge last night. Plus see who is the current favourite to win Strictly Come Dancing.