Craig Revel Horwood defends Strictly result after shock exit

Craig Revel Horwood has defended Sunday night’s Strictly Come Dancing result saying the judging panel have to make a decision based on the dance off and not a contestant’s previous performance.

Soap star Catherine Tyldesley and her partner Johannes Radebe became the fifth couple to leave the BBC One series after facing Mike Bushell and Katya Jones in the dance off.

Revel Horwood opted to save Bushell and Jones, as did head judge Shirley Ballas who had the deciding vote.

Speaking on Heart Breakfast, he said: “For us the judges, we have to judge the dance off only, not what happened previously or what is to become and you can only judge what you see in that one minute 30 and in my opinion Mike had the cleaner dance.

“It’s quite simple and you know if it was another day or if Catherine was doing a rumba for instance, against his tango, then she would have won it.

“But you know it’s what happens on the day”.

Tyldesley and Radebe performed a cha cha to Scared Of The Dark by Steps in the Halloween-themed week of the competition.

Following their exit, which caused some viewers to share their upset on social media, the former Coronation Street actress shared a long post on her Instagram page alongside a photograph of her with Radebe.

She said her confidence when she started the dancing series was “low”, adding: “My belief in what I could achieve on the show was extremely low.

“The expectations on my humble body, beyond low.”

Thanking Radebe she wrote: “What @johannesradebe gave me was priceless. Confidence, Belief, Love- and Laughter beyond words! This man is a gift to the world”.

Sunday night’s elimination episode was watched by an average of 9.6 million viewers, and had a peak audience of 10.5 million, according to the BBC.