Yahoo News Strictly Come Dancing 2023: Third star is sent home by the judges
Jody Cundy follows Les Dennis and Nikita Kanda in leaving the show
What did you miss?
Strictly Come Dancing sent home its third contestant on Sunday night with Jody Cundy failing to impress the judges and viewing public.
The Paralympic gold medallist had finished bottom of Saturday night's leaderboard, scoring just 19 with his partner Jowita Przystal and he landed himself in the dreaded dance-off alongside radio presenter Eddie Kadi.
Both couples performed their dances again with Cundy going first, performing a Salsa to Samba de Janeiro by Bellin but the judges preferred Kandi's American Smooth to Sex Bomb by Tom Jones.
What, how, and why?
It was a unanimous decision among the judges over which couple to save with each of the four favouring Kadi.
Craig Revel Horwood chose first and said: “For improvement and musicality I would like to save Eddie and Karen.”
Motsi Mabuse also thought there was a big gulf between the two competitors: “For me it was a very clear decision, one couple was much, much stronger. I would love to save Eddie and Karen.”
Anton du Beke also revealed the basis for his decision: “Well based on the dance off and the dance off only, I thought one couple danced very well and one couple had a bit of an off night, there were a couple of mistakes there so I would like to save Eddie and Karen.”
With the first three judges choosing to save Kadi, Cundy would have been sent home regardless but head judge Shirley Ballas also added that she would have sent home the famed Paralympian swimmer.
Despite being the third celebrity to leave the dancefloor, Cundy had a very positive outlook on his time on the show, saying to Tess Daly: "You know what, when I signed up for this I thought what an earth am I signing up for and we did that first live show and I absolutely loved every second of it. And just being able to dance and do something I've never done before and get completely out of my comfort zone and with this amazing person."
Cundy was also full of praise for his professional partner Przystał: This person's got so much energy, every morning like 9 O'clock we've got, start of training and she's like BAMMM, like this, she comes into the room like an absolute cannonball and she just doesn't stop the whole day. And she doesn't lose any faith, doesn't lose anything, motivates me on to do more and more. So I've had an absolute blast."
What else happened on Strictly Come Dancing?
The musical guest this week was Wolverhampton's own Beverley Knight with the soul singer performing I'm on Fire from her upcoming ninth album The Fifth Chapter.
The professional dancers also performed an interpretive dance that told the tale of a love story.
Will we be back for more?
Cundy will be doing his exclusive exit interview with Fleur East and Janette Manrara on Monday night on Strictly: It Takes Two which airs on BBC Two at 6:30pm.
With three contestants down, the competition is hotting up with Bad Education star Layton Williams establishing himself as a frontrunner after finishing top of the leaderboard over three of the four weeks so far.
Four episodes in and the likes of Zara McDermott and Krishnan Guru-Murthy are among the favourites to be voted off next week.
The remaining twelve couples will take to the dancefloor next when Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday 21st of October at 6.35pm, with the results show on Sunday 22rd October at 7:15pm on BBC One.
