Maura Higgins has been booted from this Sunday’s Dancing on Ice.
The 29-year-old Love Island star has become the latest star to leave the ITV ice dancing competition, after she and Alexander Demitriou found themselves in the dreaded skate-off against Libby Clegg and her professional partner Mark Hamretti.
Read more: Hamish Gaman pulls out of tonight’s Dancing On Ice
Maura battled tears as she was interviewed by hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby after the result, as she told them: “I really did want to stay.”
Alexander said: “This girl is, like, one of the greatest women I’ve ever met. She is genuine, she’s everything.”
The decision to boot Maura from the show came as judges Ashley Banjo and John Barrowman actually voted to save her, but Jayne Torvill opted to save Libby.
As there was no clear winner after three votes, the deciding vote then fell to Christopher Dean as this week’s head judge, and he voted for Paralympian Libby.
Speaking as he cast his vote, he said: “Both of you tonight really stepped up and skated the best you could skate.
“Maura, your performance tonight was really strong. Libby, you were consistent and strong as per usual.
“So I am saving what I believe to be the stronger skater, I’m saving Libby and Mark.”
In the judges’ scores, Maura was the lowest scorer of the six remaining couples, picking up 7.5s from all four judges for a total of 30 out of 40.
Libby was in fourth place before the public vote, with a score of 33.5, after scoring 8.5s from three judges, and an 8.0 from Christopher Dean.
At the top of the leaderboard were Diversity dancer Perri Kiely and his partner Vanessa Bauer, who scored an almost perfect 38 out of 40, with each judge scoring them 9.5.
Viewers were pretty cross with tonight’s outcome, with some feeling Maura had had a rough ride…
Doesn’t take a pro to distinguish that Maura’s skate was superior to Libby’s. Libby was unsteady and almost fell on at least one occasion. Search #DancingOnIce the majority of people agree that Maura was the clear winner of that skate-off. I suggest you rewatch.
— Conor (@conormckenna101) February 16, 2020
Are those judges insane? Maura clearly had the better skate and is the better skater all round. They need to stop over marking libby just because shes partially sighted. Yes shes amazing in spite of that but theres better skaters there that will go so she can stay. #DancingOnIce
— Amie (@AimehhGoesRawr) February 16, 2020
Wrong couple sent home tonight, actually gutted! Libby is constantly over marked and maura was by far the better skater! Knew as soon as we seen who was the skate off who was being saved. #dancingonice
— Leigh ❤️ (@McgibbonLeigh) February 16, 2020
Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby began tonight’s show with a tribute to Caroline Flack.
“Welcome to Dancing on Ice. We’d like to begin tonight’s show by taking a moment to remember Caroline Flack in light of yesterday’s awful news.”
As he faltered, Holly urged people to “be kind”.
Dancing on Ice will return next Sunday on ITV.