Strictly Come Dancing viewers have slammed the show’s ‘unfair’ decision to revive one element of the show, putting a specific contestant at a disadvantage.
In a diversion from the usual format, tonight the remaining couples had to compete in a Samba-Thon, which follows the original chaotic Lindy-Hop-A-Thon in 2018.
The dance challenge offered the stars a chance to flip the leaderboard on its head, as the top scorers were awarded seven points, while the bottom scorers received just one point.
After taking to the ballroom floor and dancing the samba like their lives depended on it, one by one pairs were asked to leave the floor until only two remained and a winner could be declared.
The erratic nature of the challenge has been widely criticised by viewers, who believe Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell were doomed from the start, given that all seven couplings had to dance at once.
Taking to X, audiences accused the segment of being ‘not in good taste’, given that Chris is blind and has no concept of spatial awareness.
Viewers argued the Samba-Thon was particularly unfair as the celebrities were even actively encouraged to ‘move around’ the floor by judge Craig Revel Horwood beforehand.
‘I find it shocking they chose this year to bring back the sambathon when Chris cannot see any of the other couples/be spatially aware of other couples. Like of course he’s gonna get voted off first? Not in good taste in my opinion’, wrote X user thatsmypeachx.
‘Isn’t it a little unfair to do a sambathon with Chris in the competition? It must impact his dancing when there’s other dancers potentially entering his space’, added missp606.
She added that Chris’s pro partner Dianne ‘looked really stressed’ throughout the challenge, as she ‘kept him in hold rather than doing something fancy’ to ensure his safety.
SallyBriars wrote passionately: ‘I’m sorry but the sambathon was very discrimatory against Chris, he had no perception of where the others were and he wasn’t able to do half the moves the other couples were doing because he had to be connected to Dianne, very poor from @bbcstrictly’.
‘Can’t help but feel Chris and Diane never stood a chance with the Sambathon!’, agreed JackBailey2.
Chris and Dianne were the first couple asked to leave the floor tonight, meaning one point was added to their total, placing them second to bottom of the judges’ scoreboard.
The loveable duo took it in their stride, though, as when their names were called as the bottom-placing pair, Chris let out a comical cheer as Dianne beamed.
Jamie Borthwick was asked to leave next, followed by Pete Wicks. Sarah Hadland was next off, while Montell Douglas placed third.
This left just two couples: JB Gill and Lauren Oakley, and Tasha Ghouri and Aljaz Skornajec.
But there could be only one winner, with JLS pop star JB declared the Samba-Thon champion, taking him to a whopping 46 points.
This meant he and Tasha, who achieved the first perfect 40 of the series this weekend, were in joint first place.
Meanwhile, it was an emotional night for comedian Chris and Dianne, as her parents had travelled from Australia to watch her dance live for the first time in seven years.
They delivered a fiery paso doble for their performance tonight, which brought Dianne’s parents to tears and earned them 32 points.
Speaking ahead of their couple’s choice routine two weeks ago, Chris, who has made it clear he doesn’t want ‘sympathy votes’ from the public, explained that he signed up for Strictly to do something ‘scary’.
‘I came into this thinking, “This could be a bit of a disaster,” but here we are,’ he said.
‘I’m surprising myself as well as everybody else.’
Chris and Dianne’s routine had the nation weeping once again, as it included a Strictly first when, mid-way through, the studio blacked out to mimic Chris’s own experience as a blind person.
The BBC has been contacted for comment.
Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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