Strictly Come Dancing's 5 biggest stories of the week: Fleur East's do-over drama and more

Another week, another Strictly Come Dancing drama - this time, over whether or not it was fair for Fleur East to get a second chance at the dance off over an "incident with a prop".

Get up to speed with the argument, as well as all the other gossip from the ballroom and beyond with our look back over the last seven days in the world of Strictly.

Strictly Come Dancing's 5 biggest stories of the week

Fleur East's dance off restart drama

Controversy kicked off over James Bye's eviction this week when it emerged that Fleur East, who he was up against in the dance off, had been allowed to restart her routine after "an incident with a prop".

Apparently, East slipped and fell while trying to pull Vito Coppola's chair along the floor but was allowed to begin again as she hadn't started dancing yet.

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A BBC spokesperson said: “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.”

Talking about it themselves on Loose Women, Coppola said: “Basically what happened, in the first few seconds of our number, I just fell down on the chair. Literally was a bad fall. Everyone was gasping, but I showed them I was okay and able to restart so thank you - I’m fine, I’m here today so all good.

“We were continuing, because we always say to each other, ‘If anything happens, let’s just keep going, keep continuing’ and literally I was trying to stand up and continue, and when I turned around she was spinning the wheel…”

East added: “I was ready. I was like, the show must go on. And then production decided to stop the music. We were like, ‘Oh, okay’.”

Craig Revel Horwood admits Strictly is a popularity contest

Of course, we like to think the best dancers always win through, but judge Craig Revel Horwood has admitted that the harsh truth is, it's often a popularity contest.

Speaking on It Takes Two, Janette Manrara said she was shocked to see East in the dance off again.

But Revel Horwood said: "Well, you have to remember, Janette, that it is a popularity contest, as much as..."

Manrara then chimed in to suggest that viewers were the "fifth judge".

Revel Horwood agreed and went on: "So you do have to canvas for votes. Now, how you do that is up to you, but I mean, you know, you do have to win the hearts and minds of the nation as well."

He added: "Let's not forget, other people like Alesha Dixon were in the bottom two for three weeks and then went on to win it. So even if she's in it again, you never know.

"And she went on to judge it!"

Will Mellor rules out more reality TV

Before the series began, Will Mellor admitted he'd been turned off by reality shows in the past, thinking they would negatively affect his career.

However, Mellor losing his father gave him a new perspective on saying yes to things he thought he'd enjoy - but does that mean Strictly has given him a taste for reality TV?

It doesn't seem so...

"This is it for me. If you're going to do one do the biggest one and I'm glad I've learnt a skill every week," he told The Sun.

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However, he still prefers it to the likes of Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity, as he added: "I couldn't sit on a show just waiting to be voted out, I'd rather at least learn a skill and put my hand to something and really get my teeth into it.

"I'm enjoying every minute of it and I don't want to just be in a popularity competition, this will be it for me, I think."

Feud...what feud?

Every year, there are rumours of a rift between the judges, but despite plenty of disagreement on Halloween week's scoring, the show's stars are insisting there is no feud.

As viewers started to question on social media whether the judges were enemies, a Strictly spokesperson told the Mail Online: "This story is completely untrue, Motsi and Craig adore each other."

Motsi Mabuse had accused Revel Horwood of being a "diva" in Saturday's show, but shrugged off rumours posting a photo of them together on Twitter, captioned: "Happy Halloween @CraigRevHorwood should we tell them??"

Ed Balls defends Strictly appearance as Matt Hancock joins I'm A Celebrity

A rival reality show hit the headlines this week when Matt Hancock revealed he would be starring in ITV's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!.

But despite Ed Balls having taken part in Strictly, he told Good Morning Britain he thought it was completely different for a sitting MP to be doing a show like I'm A Celebrity, and that he thought Hancock had chosen the wrong programme.

Balls said: "Strictly, nice, warm, fun programme. I’m A Celebrity is tough. And you know, the other contestants will be, you know, I think supportive.

“And if he gets the tokens and brings in the food, then he’ll be popular. But, you know, I mean, to eat an ostrich anus, live on television, while still a sitting MP and then ask the public do you want to see me do it again?

“I think they might want to see him do it. … I just worry for him that, wrong programme, wrong timing, wrong place to do it from, shouldn’t be doing it, but, you know, it’s gonna be fun, isn’t it? We’re looking forward to it.”

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 7pm on BBC One.

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