'Strictly Come Dancing': Shamed couple Seann and Katya escape elimination

Controversial couple Seann Walsh and Katya Jones have managed to defy the odds and stay in Strictly Come Dancing for another week despite hitting the headlines for their love rat behaviour.

Many Strictly fans have been baying for them to be kicked out of the squeaky-clean family show all week after they were filmed drunkenly kissing in the street on Seann’s now-ex-girlfriend Rebecca Humphries’ birthday, whilst she sat at home alone.

But proving that you can never predict what the public will vote for, the disgraced pair’s week took something of an upward turn when they were told that they were safe from elimination.

They both looked completely shocked after a nervous wait where they seemed to be expecting to be told they were in the bottom two, and Katya hid her face in her hands with relief.

Sean(n) and Katya had danced a pizza-themed Charleston that was rumoured to have been changed last minute from the more romantic number that had been planned.

Despite it being pretty chaotic and littered with mistakes and timing issues, the couple somehow garnered some of the judges’ highest scores of the night to total 28 points, bypassing much more skilled dancers who were marked down.

One of those was Charles Venn, who found himself and his partner Karen Clifton in the dance off for the second week running against Katie Piper and Gorka Marquez.

Some viewers of the Saturday night show had been outraged to see Seann his usual chirpy self after a strongly-worded open letter from ex Rebecca, which accused him of treating her terribly throughout their relationship.

Pro dancer Katya did look a little more uncomfortable than the comedian, but in their post-dance interview on Saturday most people couldn’t tear their eyes away from Katya’s husband Neil Jones, one of the Strictly troupe, lurking menacingly in the background.

Viewers were also quick to spot that the pairings in the opening group dance for Sunday’s show changed in what surely couldn’t have been coincidence.

Strictly presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman were careful to avoid any reference to the kiss all weekend, and in Sunday’s brief interview Claudia only asked Seann what his favourite dance character had been, leaving no leeway for awkward discussion.

This week, the actual eviction got totally swallowed up by the furore going on around the show, but Katie and Gorka were the unlucky pair to be sent home.

After Seann and Katya’s incredible overmarking, it did seem like Katie and Gorka were the unfortunate sacrifical lambs to keep the buzz around Strictly going as fans wait to see whether Seann will manage to stay in next week, too.

But as Katie acknowledged, Charles was the far better contestant in the dance off and deserved the unanimous vote of confidence from the judges.

She said: “Charles was the better dancer out of us two and there are some brilliant dancers in this competition and sadly I don’t think I was one of them.”

We also got a blast from the past with a performance from the Backstreet Boys who sang a medley of their greatest hits.

So Seann and Katya live to dance another day, but will we have to endure a romantic routine from them next weekend?

They only revealed that Seann would be playing “a busker”, but we bet Neil is hoping it won’t be a Rumba…

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