The BBC has defended its hit show Strictly Come Dancing after the departure of the second black contestant in as many weeks prompted accusations of racism.
Soap actor Tameka Empson left the show after losing a dance-off against TV presenter Laura Whitmore. They were in the bottom two after receiving the fewest viewer votes.
Empson is the second of three black contestants in a starting line-up of 15 to have left the show, in only the second week where viewers have been given a vote.
Radio DJ Melvin Odoom left last week after receiving the fewest public votes. His elimination was based on the voting figures alone after the usual dance-off was cancelled because of an injury sustained by singer Anastacia.
Empson’s departure left some fans alleging that viewers had been racist. David Barber wrote on Twitter: “Strictly voters at home show their racist leanings again. Two shows. Two black dancers eliminated.”
Matt Greer wrote: “Nothing shows how racist the UK is quite like Strictly.”
But student Emzie Langan wrote: “Those who think Strictly is racist because two black celebs have gone need to have a serious word with themselves. Idiots.”
And Robert Weaver added: “Is there a racist element to public vote on Strictly? We’ll know for sure if Ore [Oduba] goes next week.”
The BBC pointed out that it was up to the voting public to ensure their favourite contestants stayed in the competition. “Judges judge the dancing and the dancing alone, not anything else,” said a spokeswoman, adding that in all except three of the 14 previous series of Strictly, the winner or runner-up was black or mixed race.
The complaints do not seem to have affected the show’s popularity. The latest episode, which featured the former Labour MP Ed Balls dressed up as Jim Carrey in The Mask, attracted a peak audience of 10.6 million, well above the 9.2 million who watched the previous week and up a million from its first live show in September.
The departure of EastEnders actor Empson on Sunday provoked a reaction from celebrity fans. Miranda Hart tweeted her support.
Genuinely confused why @Tameka_Empson was voted off @bbcstrictly She was one of my highlights and why I was watching.So funny. And good.
— Miranda Hart (@mermhart) October 9, 2016
The Daily Mirror columnist Fleet Street Fox said that Odoom’s departure suggested that “people are racist” rather than the BBC.
Three mixed-race contestants – Alesha Dixon, Mark Ramprakash and Louis Smith – have won the show in previous years, and Colin Jackson, Denise Lewis and Simon Webbe are among six black or mixed-race contestants to have come second. In only three years – 2008, 2010 and 2015 – has there not been a single black or mixed-race person in the final as winner or runner-up.
A BBC insider said the programme’s record was “about as far from racist as you can get”.
The initial vote from the judges put Empson in the middle of the leaderboard; she fell into the bottom two after her score was combined with viewers’ votes. After the resulting dance-off, Craig Revel Horwood, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman opted to keep Whitmore, while Darcey Bussell voted in Empson’s favour.
The main beneficiary from Empson and Odoom’s poor performances in the public vote has been Balls, who has twice overcome low scores from the judges.
His banjo-playing charleston and his samba performed as the Mask on Saturday were both ranked at the bottom of the leaderboard by judges, but he avoided having to compete in a dance-off to keep his place on the show.
The former shadow chancellor, who lost his seat in parliament last year, said he found waiting to discover how Strictly viewers had voted more tense than the unveiling of results in a general election because contestants were not told who had won before it was announced in front of the cameras.
“No winks. No clues. Just a long wait, thinking we would probably have to dance our routine again. Which, for me, made the results even more tense than a general election,” he wrote in the Radio Times.
“When candidates to be MPs stand on stage to hear the returning officer read out the votes, they’ve already been told the results backstage – and have had a few minutes to prepare.
“Twice I’d enjoyed the feeling of winning – at Normanton in 2005 and Morley and Outwood in 2010 – but in 2015 it was different. We were called in to a side room and the returning officer read out the votes in alphabetical order. No spotlight, no dramatic pauses. It was so close there was a recount (I eventually lost), so I had time to compose myself and think what I’d say live on national television.”
However, Balls said his experience of election night stood him in good stead to ride out the tension. He added: “Of course, a huge amount hangs on the result of a general election. So when [his dance partner] Katya asked me why I seemed so calm as we waited, I told her that I knew what it felt like to win and to lose, and there was nothing we could do about it.”
