Strictly Come Dancing held its semi-final over the weekend, which saw the remaining four contestants perform two dances each as they vied to keep their place on the hit show.
Ultimately, it was television presenter Rhys Stephenson and his partner Nancy Xu who departed from the competition, after placing bottom according to judges’ scores and finding themselves in the dance-off against John Whaite and Johannes Radebe.
That said, it was a close call, with 9s and 10s across the board on Saturday night’s show, while the results programme saw even steely judge Craig Revel Horwood agonise over who to save.
“This has been one of the most amazing dance offs I’ve ever witnessed. Both couples are equal and both couples deserve to go through and I just want to put both couples through,” he said.
Still, a decision had to be made, with Craig opting to save John and Johannes, a decision backed by his co-judges Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas.
According to a poll conducted by RadioTimes.com, the majority of viewers agree that this was the right course of action, with 75 per cent of participants believing that the right person went home.
Of course, that means roughly one-quarter felt someone else from the Strictly Come Dancing line-up should have left, having clearly been impressed by Stephenson and Xu’s final performances.
For week 12, the couple took on the challenge of learning both a Samba to It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Stasera) by Michael Bublé and a Tango to One Vision by Queen, scoring a strong 36 and 38 points respectively (out of a possible 40).
The presenter was later moved to tears by a heartfelt video message from his father, who could not attend the semi-final in person with the rest of his family.
With Stephenson gone, the remaining contestants heading to the Strictly Come Dancing final are EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis, television presenter AJ Odudu and dance-off survivor Whaite.
Strictly Come Dancing: The Final kicks off at 7pm on Saturday 18th December. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.