Strictly Come Dancing bid farewell to one couple on Sunday night ahead of the show’s 2024 final next week.
In the latest episode, Pete Wicks and his professional dance partner Jowita Przystal found themselves in the dreaded dance-off for the first time, up against Tasha Ghouri and her pro partner Aljaz Skorjanec.
Each couple performed one of their routines again, with Tasha and Aljaz dancing their Waltz to (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin.
On the other hand, Pete and Jowita danced their Argentine Tango to Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve. After both couples had danced a second time, the judges delivered their verdicts where Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke all chose to save Tasha and Aljaz.
With three votes in favour, it sadly meant that Pete and Jowita were eliminated from the competition and failed to secure a spot in next week’s final. Giving her feedback, head judge Shirley Ballas also agreed and said she would have decided to save Tasha and Aljaz, reports the Mirror.
When asked about his time on the show, Pete gave an emotional three-word response: “It’s been beautiful!” He continued: “It’s been wild. I’ve been quite honest about the fact that I didn’t necessarily want to do this [Strictly] in the first place, but everyone else wanted me to do it, and I am so, so glad that I did it!”
He said: “You don’t always have to be the best, but if you enjoy something then why shouldn’t you have a go at it? I’ve tried my best from day one, I said I was in for a penny, in for a pound and I’ve done it, it’s been beautiful.”
He also praised his dance partner Jowita: “There’s a lot of things I’m going to take away from this, but one of the most special things is you [to Jowita] and I mean that, because you’re one of the most incredible people – not just as a dancer – but as a person.
“You’ve been a ray of sunshine for me. You’ve helped me through things in the past three months that I didn’t think I could do and you made me believe in myself and that means more to me than anything.”
Jowita responded: “I just want to say thank you, thank you for the trust you have given me since day one. I know it wasn’t easy, but with your hard work, your commitment and your heart, which is the most amazing thing, you were winning every week!
“For me, every dance was special… even the Cha Cha in Blackpool! Remember on day one you said ‘I’m not going to stay long in this competition because I cannot dance’ but now I can say to you, yes you can.”
This now means that the Strictly Come Dancing 2024 finalists are Tasha and Aljaz, Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell, Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola, and JB Gill and Lauren Oakley.
Taking to Twitter, now X, viewers were left ‘gutted’ to see Pete go after his incredible journey and also argued that it was the ‘wrong’ choice to have Tasha and Aljaz in the bottom two, especially after they scored 35 and 40 on Saturday night landing them second on the leaderboard.
One person said: “I’m gutted! Pete has done so extremely well”, a different account wrote: “Tasha being in the dance off is wrong!”, another put: “So pleased for Chris and Diane though, gutted for Pete” while another added: “Tasha shouldn’t have been any where near the dance off!”
The Strictly Come Dancing Grand Final returns live on BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday 14 December at 6pm.