Former Strictly Come Dancing pro Brendan Cole says he has been “impressed” by Pete Wicks this year and would “like to see him win”.
Cole - who served as a professional dancer on the hit BBC dance competition from from 2004 until 2018 - declared the 36-year-old former The Only Way Is Essex star as “what the show is about”.
Speaking to The Standard on behalf of Sky Vegas, he said: “I'm still really loving Pete [Wicks] and Jowita [Przystał]. They're doing some really cool stuff. He's what the show is about, coming from [a non-dancing background] and actually getting into it and getting better every week. It's lovely to see that journey.
“Whereas, Jamie [Borthwick], Tasha [Ghouri] and Sarah [Hadland] are all very good dancers. They started high, and they'll continue to get high scores and do really good numbers. He [Pete] started [with low scores] and now he's pretty much middle of the table. To be able to achieve a lovely Viennese Waltz at this stage, is quite good for him. I was impressed - I'd like to see him win."
The New Zealand-born ballroom dancer, 48, also weighed-in on Chris McCausland receiving his lowest scores from the judges to-date.
The 47-year-old comedian is the first blind contestant to take part in the BBC dance competition and up until now had been touted by the bookies as a contender to lift the glitterball trophy.
Performing a samba to Stayin’ Alive by The Bee Gees with pro partner Dianne Buswell last weekend, the couple struggled with the judges awarding them just 26 out of a possible 40 points.
While they managed to avoid the dance-off, Cole feels the Liverpool-born star’s visual impairment would have made the dance a lot harder, especially in the limited time in which he had to learn it.
He explained: “It [Chris McCausland being joint bottom] was about right on his dancing. The judges have been loving him so far, he could almost do no wrong. They're starting to mark the dancing for what it is and that was a pretty average samba.
“It's a really hard dance to learn and if you're not learning through visuals, trying to understand it would be near impossible in a short space of time.”
