22 October 2023 , 18:55
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The fourth celebrity to leave this year's Strictly Come Dancing competition has been revealed by BBC1 following a tense dance-off.
Sunday's results show saw Eddie Kadi go head-to-head with Zara McDermott with the former unanimously voted out of the contest by judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke. Comedian and presenter Eddie found himself in the bottom two alongside professional dance partner, Karen Hauer, after finishing bottom of the leaderboard with just 24.
Former Love Island star Zara, meanwhile, faired slightly better with Graziano Di Prima, scoring 28, only to find herself in the bottom two following the public vote. Both couples performed their routines again - Eddie and Karen with a Samba to Calm Down by Rema and Selena Gomez, with Zara and Graziano dancing an American Smooth to Can’t Fight The Moonlight by LeAnn Rimes.
After both couples had performed, the judges delivered their verdicts with Craig choosing to save Zara and Graziano. said: "For me, the quality of dance in this couple was far superior and the couple I would like to save is Zara and Graziano."
Eddie Kadi is consoled by Karen Hauer during Sunday's Strictly results show (BBC/Guy Levy)Motsi agreed: "For me, it was extremely close. The quality was actually very, very close. It came down to details and I would love to save Zara and Graziano." Anton added: "Well, I thought that was an excellent dance-off. I thought both couples danced very, very well but for me with a slightly cleaner technique, I’d like to save Zara and Graziano."
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With three votes already in their favour, Zara and Graziano knew they were safe before Head Judge Shirley revealed she too would have saved them. Asked by presenter Tess Daly about his experience on the show, Eddie said: "I’ve really enjoyed this, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do – I love dancing.
"This has been the highest moment of my career – it’s the happiest I’ve ever been, but not just for me – my family - my little baby girl is at home doing the Men in Black dance. More importantly, this little African boy, I just wanted my culture to shine. Everything I stand for, when it comes to my comedy when it comes to my presenting, is based on my culture, is based on my upbringing and I wanted that to shine most importantly."
He continued: "Even more importantly this wonderful Queen [to Karen], there are two parts to this show – we want to entertain, I believe that God has brought this to me, I just want to make people happy and this gem over here has kept me happy – I love you so much God bless you."
Karen was then asked by Tess about how proud she was of Eddie, she said: "You are a treasure, I’m going to miss you [to Eddie] – well I’ll see you tomorrow! We’re going to take up Congolese dancing. I just want to thank you so much for being so positive and bringing such light and smiling, just a beauty to all of us, I want to thank you so much."
The remaining 11 couples will take to the dancefloor when Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday 28 October for its Halloween Special at 6.40pm on BBC1.