Strictly Come Dancing's Pete Wicks suffers 'crushing' blow right before BBC live show

Pete Wicks has been dealt a 'bitter' blow to his prospects on Strictly Come Dancing, with experts claiming that last week's lowest scoring star is 'guaranteed' to leave the show this week, despite never being in the bottom two before.

Having been labelled the dark horse of the BBC show's new series after just a few weeks, Pete and pro partner Jowita Przystal got a huge boost the week before last, when their moving Couple's Choice routine, in honour of his late nine, got them their highest score so far - 36 out of 40. However, after the highs of November 9, the couple suffered a setback last weekend, when they got to perform at Blackpool's famous Tower Ballroom, but saw their score fall sharply to just 27, leaving them adrift at the bottom of the leaderboard.

No-one one looked more surprised than Pete, when he defied the odds to make it safely through to another week, with the stunned looked on his face during Sunday's Strictly results show, absolutely priceless. Last week's dance-off was contested by Wynne Evans and Montell Douglas, with Wynne leaving after the judges unanimously saved his rival.

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And now, although he and Jowita have never been required to fight for their place in the competition at all, bookies are convinced their time on Strictly is up. In the latest odds from Betway, released Friday afternoon on the eve of the latest live show, Pete was at 4/6 to go, with Montell nearest to him on 3/1.

JLS star JB , who has been in the bottom two twice before, is in third on 10/3, with Jamie Borthwick on 5/1. Way behind everyone else are the the stars everyone is expecting to make the final, with Sarah Hadland and Tasha Ghouri both at 66/1 to be eliminated this week and favourite to win Chris McCausland even higher at 100/1.

Earlier this week, Pete had a few word for his critics, when he took to Instagram to write: "Humbled. Overwhelmed. Grateful. I’m well aware I’m not a good dancer, but I am trying. Every week @jowitaprzystal and I just want to make the most of what we can. We take it day by day, week by week. I know VERY little about dancing but what I have learnt is that it’s about letting go and throwing yourself at it no matter what level of skill/talent you may or may not have. I know I make mistakes, I know I don’t have rhythm and I’m wooden but I won’t stop trying."