The 10th celebrity has been eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing, revealing this year’s final five.
On Sunday (1 December), Olympian and Gladiators star Montell Douglas became the latest contestant to be voted off the BBC competition after a dance off with Love Island’s Tasha Ghouri.
Both Douglas and Ghouri had to perform again after finding themselves in the bottom two following Saturday night’s episode, which was musicals week and saw praise heaped upon Chris McCausland and Ghouri supported after a mishap involving her cochlear implant.
All four judges opted to save Ghouri and her professional partner Aljaž Škorjanec from elimination, sending Douglas and Johannes Radebe home.
The Only Way is Essex star Pete Wicks proved his fandom is as strong as ever after sailing through to the next round despite being bottom of the leaderboard – something that has led to widespread condemnation from viewers.
Douglas praised her time on the show, saying it has “touched me in ways I never knew posible”.
She told host Tess Daly: “I’m an Olympian and a Gladiator, but I have honestly struggled with confidence my whole life and being on the show, with the beautiful crew, the judges, the cast has just been such an honour.”
Douglas thanked Radebe, stating: “I really have found a friend and a brother in this man. I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I hope he’s in my life forever because we have something very special.”
Radebe said he is “so proud” of Douglas for making it so far into the competition as she is “a non-dancer”.
He added: “But the one thing that you have done every single week is turn out beautiful dancing. So I want to say to you, thank you for respecting our art form of Ballroom and Latin. The way you handled it was like a true pro. You’re my winner.”
Douglas’s depature means that Ghouri, comedian McCausland, Wicks, Miranda star Sarah Hadland and JLS singer JB Gill have made it through to the semi-finals, which will air on 6 December.
The following week will see the grand final crown this year’s winner of the coveted Glitterball Trophy.
