Giovanni Pernice has addressed his earlier than expected exit from Strictly Come Dancing with a message to celeb partner Richie Anderson as fans have hit out at Sunday's result on their behalf.
It's been nearly 12 months since Italian pro dancer Giovanni took home the Strictly Glitterball trophy alongside Rose Ayling-Ellis, with the EastEnders actress making history as the BBC show's first deaf contestant. Giovanni and Rose bowled over both the judges and fans with their performances, most notably their Couple's Choice routine to Clean Bandit's Symphony, which saw them dance to 10 seconds of complete silence, in support of the deaf community.
Last year was Giovanni's first win on Strictly, after previously making the final with Faye Tozer in 2018 but his hopes of doing well in the ballroom this year have been extinguished already, after he and Radio 2 and One Show Richie became the second couple to be given the chop from the new series.
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Giovanni and Richie opened Saturday night's Movie Week with a Lion King inspired samba to Hakuna Matata, which aired them some decent scores and plenty of positive feedback from the judges. They ended the night in the middle of the leaderboard, but fell into the bottom two after the public voted, alongside Fleur East and her pro partner Vito Coppola.
After both couples reprised their routines in the dance-off, Fleur and Vito were kept in the contest, thanks to Craig, Motsi and Anton all opting to save them, with only Shirley backing Richie and Giovanni, once the result had already been determined.
Richie looked gutted to be leaving the show and, while Giovanni has yet to make his own Instagram post about their exit, he has commented on one Richie posted on Sunday night. The pro told his celeb dance partner: "Well done mate !! always choose dance and you def did be proud of yourself."
In the post, Richie wrote: "It’s been short, but sweet! Never did I think I’d be given the chance to attempt to cha cha cha, quickstep and samba live on television. I also got to meet some amazing people who will be friends forever! Can’t wait to cheer everyone on for the rest of the series. @ giovannipernice it’s been an honour to dance in the ballroom with you."
