Giovanni Pernice refused to share a secret chat with Shirley Ballas from his final Strictly Come Dancing routine of the 2022. Giovanni, who was partnered with Richie Anderson on the BBC One dance contest, was grilled by Rylan on Monday's episode of spin-off show It Takes Two.
On Sunday night Giovanni and Richie became the second coupling to be eliminated from the competition after a shock dance-off with singer Fleur East and her partner Vito Coppola. They joined Rylan on the It Takes Two sofa where they chatted about their exit.
Rylan wanted to know the story behind a conversation that appeared to be taking place between Giovanni and head judge Shirley Ballas during Saturday night's live performance. Rylan replayed a clip of the duo performing their samba to Hakuna Matata from Disney's The King.
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The dance started with Giovanni and Richie standing at the judges' desk in their cuddly Lion King costumes. Moments after beginning their dance, Richie attempted to raise a smile from sharp-tongued judge Craig Revel Horwood. The camera then cut to Giovanni conversing with Shirley behind a giant leaf. Shirley then appeared to throw up her hands and roar with laughter.
Intrigued to know more, Rylan said: "We're going to look at this again. Actually take a look at this. What was actually going on here Gio? This is what I want to know, when you were chatting to Shirley."
He pressed jokingly: "What were you actually saying to her? And was that the reason for an eight, that's all I want to know?" And Giovanni replied: "You will never know."
Giovanni and Richie were sent packing on Sunday's results show, calculated through a mix of audience vote and panel scores, after three out of four judges decided to save Fleur. Craig, Anton Du Beke and Motsi Mabuse all voted for Hits Radio presenter Fleur, meaning she stayed in the competition by majority vote.
But Shirley said she would have saved Giovanni and Richie. Queen of Latin Shirley said: "Well with the two couples the public put in the bottom two I would have saved Richie and Giovanni.”
Richie and Giovanni donned elaborate cuddly costumes for their performance with Richie dressed as mischievous meerkat Timon, while reigning Strictly champ Gio dressed as warthog Pumbaa. Strictly fans flocked to social media to blame the costumes for them getting the chop so early in the competition. @liv_liv_liv__ tweeted: "The stupid outfits didn’t help Richie and Giovanni one bit #strictly."
@EllenCook4 commented: "Genuinely gutted for Richie and Gio, but they were done so wrong by those outfits." @2610ami1 fumed: "Why was Giovanni having to wear that ridiculous panto outfit? So demeaning for the current champion. It was as if he and Richie were set up to fail #Strictly." And @racherivi added: "Richie never stood a chance with that dance and those outfits."
Pointless star Richard Osman tweeted: "Strictly is like the London Marathon, no-one dressed in an animal costume has ever won it." But Giovanni said on It Takes Two: "It was fun, the whole concept was fun, dancing to Hakuna Matata, dressed like that, we did it for the kids. The technical bits were there, overall it was a good performance."
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