Star of Strictly Pete Wicks was in tears after finding out he had made this year’s semi-finals after an ongoing backlash.
The former TOWIE star has been sailing through the competition week by week with his dance partner Jowita Przystal. On Saturday (November 30), the pair performed a Waltz to Somewhere from West Side Story for Musicals Week.
Even though Pete and Jowita found themselves at the bottom of the leaderboard with a score of 26, that didn’t stop viewers at home from picking up their phone and voting.
Strictly star Pete Wicks secures place in semi-finals
During Sunday night’s (December 1) results show, host Tess Daly revealed that the first couple to make this year’s semi-finals was Pete and Jowita.
Jowita appeared immediately excited by the announcement and expressed how happy she was. Pete, on the other hand, was stunned and appeared immediately emotional with tears in his eyes.
When talking to Claudia Winkleman about the results, Pete stated that he is “speechless every week but especially this week”.
As for the public voting for him every week, Pete joked they might be making a “cruel joke on me”. He added: “I couldn’t be more thankful, I’m so humbled by it.”
When realising he has to perform two dances next week, Pete further joked: “That’s another thing to cry about.”
‘Time to ditch the public vote’
On Sunday, Johannes Radebe and Montell Douglas were eliminated from the competition, leaving many viewers disappointed. They landed themselves in the bottom two alongside Aljaz Skorjanec and Tasha Ghouri, who had the second highest score of the night.
Following the results, viewers demanded for a change in the way the public can vote for contestants.
“I’m so [bleep]ed. How the [bleep] is Pete still in Strictly? Ban the public vote and let Craig Revel Horwood decide who goes through,” one user wrote.
“Dear @BBC_HaveYourSay Time to ditch the public vote on Strictly if you want to keep people watching,” another person shared.
“I feel like the public vote needs to make less of a difference to who gets thru because this is getting ridiculous,” a third remarked.
“Why don’t we just have the judges vote rather than the general public who clearly haven’t a clue,” a fourth shared.
“Pete scoring 26 and being a semi finalist is [bleep]ing embarrassing. Montell is as much as a novice as him and far superior,” a fifth wrote.
For all the latest Strictly Come Dancing news head to our dedicated Facebook page here.
Do you agree with the Strictly results? Tell us on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix.