Strictly Come Dancing has been hit with “fix” claims after Sunday night’s dance-off.
EastEnders star James Bye and his pro dance partner Amy Dowden were sent home from the show after a dance-off against singer Fleur East and her partner Vito Coppola.
It has since been revealed that Fleur was allowed to restart her dance-off performance “due to an incident with a prop”.
A source told The Sun: “It was a deeply unfortunate incident, and not Fleur or Vito’s fault at all. About five seconds in, when she was meant to pull Vito along in the prop chair, the legs slipped.”
“She came crashing down, taking Vito down too. They landed incredibly hard – it was quite shocking and the audience audibly gasped. Poor Fleur looked stunned and devastated, and no one really knew what was happening on or off stage.”
“Eventually the warm-up guy came on and addressed the audience while Fleur and Vito got checked out. They started their dance again and obviously this second version was the one aired. There was no reference to the fall by the judges either.”
Taking to Twitter to react to the news, one fan wrote: “What a joke…Fleur fell so should go Shocking fix.”
Another tweeted: “Oh my gosh! @bbcstrictly your judges need talking to!!! Fleur buggered up her dance and James was flawless! They had their minds made up before the dance! James should have just gone nah I don’t need to bother! Things like this make me not want to watch the show! #fix”
Amid the backlash, a BBC spokesperson said the show had been stopped “as a matter of urgency”.
They said in a statement: “After an incident with a prop at the beginning of Fleur and Vito’s dance-off performance, the decision was made to halt proceedings to check they were not injured, as a matter of urgency.”
“As they had not begun to dance before the incident occurred, it was decided they could start the performance again, once it was confirmed they were fit to do so.”
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 7:00pm, with the results show on Sunday at 7:15pm on BBC One.
