Strictly Come Dancing fans were concerned for Nikita Kuzmin as he seemed to disappear after he was accused of doing an illegal lift by the judges.
The BBC One Latin and ballroom show aired a special celebration last night to mark the BBC's 100th birthday, with Nikita and his celebrity dance partner Ellie Simmonds dancing to the theme tune of The Apprentice. The pair made their way into next weekend and will compete alongside all the other safe celebrities in the Halloween special.
Nikita and Ellie impressed with their routine, but their lift was deemed illegal by the judges. Fans rushed to social media to slam the judges over their comments, as they rushed to clarify what they meant.
Head judge Shirley Ballas said: "Your laser vision at the very beginning, I could see that you were totally into this, you brought a lovely sense of mood. I only have one little complaint. I do, I'm so sorry. I do have to deduct one point for an assisted lift at the beginning because that's not allowed. But other than that you were absolutely phenomenal."
Craig Revel Horwood insisted it was an "illegal lift" rather than an assisted lift. He said he understood if someone was being assisted to make it to the floor, but said they held on and spun around for too long for it to be deemed an assisted lift and it was, therefore, illegal.
One fan wrote on Twitter : " #Strictly Shirley and craig telling Ellie and nikita off for having an illegal lift when there's NO OTHER WAY TO GET DOWN WTF," as another added: "I saw no illegal lift. Nikita was merely helping Ellie down. That’s my line and I’m sticking to it."
A third shared: "I think it's absolutely lousy penalising Ellie and Nikita for an illegal lift, they clearly have to adapt their dances to accommodate Ellie's needs, it's such poor form penalising them for that, Jesus Christ #Strictly."
Other fans were concerned for Nikita as he appeared to 'disappear' from viewers' screens following the performance as fans struggled to spot him during the part of the show on Saturday.
"Anyone know if @nikita__kuzmin is ok haven't seen him on set all night," one fan said, clearly worried about the dancer.
However, Nikita cleared things up insisting he was fine. "Just ripped my pants because of this paso [crying laughing emojis]. So had to get them sown for the 3rd time! Thank you," he wrote alongside a red heart emoji.
*Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday 29th October at 6.50pm for its Halloween special.
