BBC Strictly fans outraged as Tess and Claudia introduce new format shake-up at semi-final stage: ‘Why change it!’
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman caught several Strictly Come Dancing fans off-guard on Sunday night after revealing a shake-up to the show’s format.
While fans had already been left dismayed by the fact the pre-recorded results show meant spoilers leaked online, others were more perturbed by the running order of Sunday’s episode.
With just five couples remaining to learn whether or not they’d made it to next week’s final, BBC viewers discovered they’d be waiting a while to see who’d landed in the dance-off first.
Usually, Winkleman and Daly take a look back at Saturday night’s highlights before revealing the first couple in the dreaded head-to-head.
For the semi-final stage, however, the BBC presenting duo instead introduced singer Becky Hill to perform as the first of two musical segments.
This meant fans were left waiting longer than usual to learn Tasha Ghouri was the first celeb who’d landed in the dance-off.
It didn’t take long for fans to slam the decision, with some accusing bosses of “dragging out” the show while others claimed it “threw them off”.
On X, one fan fumed: “Just get on with telling us who’s through instead of all this padding #strictly.”
“Why is there a music performance first #Strictly,” a second questioned before a third said: “OMG they are holding back the result – why change the format on the last results show of the series? #Strictly #StrictlyComeDancing.”
“why have we got a music performance before any of the announcements what #strictly,” another queried before a fifth asked: “Why tf is the music performance first #Strictly.”
“The different format has properly threw me off #strictly,” a sixth echoed.
Later in the show, it was revealed Pete Wicks faced Ghouri in the dreaded dance-off to see who’d end up in the grand finale.
The Strictly semi-final saw the five remaining couples perform two routines each on Saturday night, with two perfect scores awarded by the judges.
The competition reached new heights as the celebrities battled for a place in next week’s final, with musical choices ranging from Metallica to Aretha Franklin.
JLS star Gill and partner Oakley topped the leaderboard after delivering one of the first perfect Salsa scores in six years on the show.
In the first round, Gill scored an impressive 39 points, whilst Hadland and Coppola earned 36, and Ghouri and Škorjanec received 35.
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The second round saw both Gill and Oakley’s Salsa to Red Alert and Ghouri and Skorjanec’s Waltz to (You Make Me Feel) A Natural Woman achieve perfect scores of 40.
McCausland and Buswell’s Viennese waltz to Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters earned them 36 points, matching Hadland and Coppola’s second performance.
Wicks and Pzrystal closed the show with their Bittersweet Symphony routine, scoring 33.
The final leaderboard saw Gill and Oakley leading with 79 points, followed by Ghouri and Skorjanec on 75, and Hadland and Vito with 72 points.
McCausland and Buswell secured fourth place with 69 points, while Wicks and Pzrystal finished with 65 points.