Strictly Come Dancing lost another couple this weekend following Musicals Week, with former Emmerdale star Lewis Cope being the latest celebrity to be voted off the show. Despite consistent high scores, and two perfect 40s, since he began, Lewis lost out to Love Islander Amber Davies in the dance off.
His West Side Story scored 35 points, with judge Shirley Ballas saying "it wasn't your best dance, for me, by far" and Craig Revel Horwood adding "We have seen you dance better."
The judges unanimously voted to save Amber after her Guys and Dolls Charleston scored a perfect 40.
Appearing on It Takes Two, pro dancer Katya Jones was visibly upset about the exit, and started to cry as she gushed about Cope.
"Looking back, obviously, I can't help but think I could have done things differently to make things better for him," she said to host Fleur East.
"He can only do what I've asked him to do, and he didn't just do that this time. He did that every single time. We were in a tough position expected to deliver these almost-perfect, show stopping routines every single Saturday, which you did. I don't know how you did. But you did."
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She added: "I've just been searching for a partner who can keep up with me and at last I've discovered one. Throughout my life I've been told, 'less Katya, less'. Never! More is more!"
Many viewers took to X following the results show, to say the bottom two had been decided as both Amber and Lewis have previous dance experience and missed out on having "a journey".
Cope previously responded to claims he'd been a professional dancer after appearing in Billy Elliot as a child, and being a runner up on Ashley Banjo's Sky show Got to Dance in 2013 as part of a hip hop group.
He told OK: "It's strange to hear that I'm some kind of 'professional dancer'. It's been so long since I danced, and I never trained professionally. I did Billy Elliot The Musical when I was 11, but I wasn't good enough to play Billy Elliot, so I played Michael and just did some tap dance.
"After that, I joined a hip-hop dance crew where I did hip-hop with a group of six lads back in Hartlepool, we did amateur competitions. Then I went on to train to be an actor and I've only ever acted since."
Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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Catherine is an Evening News Editor at Digital Spy, and was the site's News Editor between 2018 and 2024. Prior to that, she worked at OK! Online, and has interviewed a slew of celebrities across her career in entertainment news, including Tom Hanks, Cheryl and Noel Fielding. Catherine also has specialist knowledge in all things drag, interviewing a huge portion of RuPaul’s Drag Race stars, and getting her own drag makeover for Channel 4's show Drag SOS. LinkedIn
