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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
Entertainment
Alex Evans & Sophie Buchan

BBC Strictly Come Dancing viewers demand format change as 'worst dancers' escape elimination

BBC's Strictly Come Dancing has been causing some controversy in recent time with people taking to social media to complain each week.

One of the complaints has been about the spoilers with people asking the show to air the results on the same night with some members of the public under anonymous ' Strictly Spoiler ' accounts tweeting who left the show before Sunday's episode.

But now sobbing Strictly viewers are calling for a change to the BBC contest's format entirely after a crying Ellie Simmonds was eliminated on Sunday night's results show.

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The five-time Paralympic gold medallist and broadcaster alongside her dance partner Nikita Kuzmin danced their lively Charleston to Too Darn Hot from Kiss Me Kate again in a bid to impress the judges.

However as reported by Yorkshire Live, on Sunday night Ellie was unanimously voted off by the judges after a dance-off with pop star Molly Rainford. But it wasn't enough to save her with the 27-yera-old then crying whilst praising her dance partner.

In light of this, viewers were angry and called for a change to the way voting works for the future after 'worse dancers' than both Ellie and Molly avoided the dance-off while a seriously emotional Ellie was eliminated.

Craig Revel Horwood said: “Well the couple I’d like to save are a couple that I think danced better than they did on Saturday night in this particular dance-off, and that couple is Molly and Carlos.”

Motsi Mabuse praised both couples, saying they “danced exceptionally well”, and Anton Du Beke said it was a “terrific dance-off”, but both felt Rainford and Gu had the edge.

With three votes to Rainford and Gu, it meant they had won the majority vote and would be staying in the competition regardless, but head judge Ballas also said she would have saved the pair.

Talking to Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman about her time on the show, Simmonds said: “I’ve literally had the time of my life. It’s been the most incredible experience – life-changing really.

“I want to thank Nikita ever so much. I’m going to miss him – he’s changed my life and confidence.”

She praised the Strictly team, including the pro dancers, saying: “I’ve literally loved waking up every single day and dancing, I’m going to dance forever.”

Turning to Nikita, she added: “He's changed my life. We’ve had the most amazing days. We’ve had not just dancing days – but days we’ve just spoken for hours.

“And the confidence you’ve given me – I seem confident but you know what I’m like, I worry about everything so, so much and we’ve literally represented everything. We went out there and danced our life out every single night and I loved it so much.”

Kuzmin admitted he was “a bit disappointed” to be leaving as he wanted Simmonds to have more time on the show, but added that he was “really happy” that this journey had been with her.

“She has taught me so, so much, so much empathy, just so much, I’ve learnt so much in these seven weeks,” he added.

“I really wanted to go with you to Blackpool, I think we should go there for the rides? I love you Els, I just want to tell you every single person in this room loves you.

“That is just to say how much of a beautiful human you are, you spend time to go to each person inside this room, you care about everybody, you are just such a wonderful human and I am so glad I’ve had the chance to dance with you.”

Strictly viewers were not happy with Tony Adams escaping the dance off again, while they also felt emotional watching Ellie cry on stage.

Some even went as far as demanding a change to the show's format in future with on Twitter user writing: "Why is tony still getting through …such a smack in the face to all the good dancers lol #Strictly"

Another added: "How has Tony made it through his dance was dreadful the public who’s voting need to have a word with themselves"

"Ellie S definitely shouldn't have gone and neither of them should've been in the dance off. I will miss seeing Ellie S and Nikita dancing together on" wrote a third.

Meanwhile a fourth tweeted: "I know it's the format, and I know it's *entertainment* and I know it happens *every* year, but we've now officially entered the couple of weeks of #Strictly where it stops being a *dancing* competition until the actual poorest dancer (sorry Tony) ends up in the dance off."

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC1 on Saturday, November 12.

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