Strictly the Truth is about for another breakdown with former pro, James Jordan! In this week’s episode, James once again joins HELLO!’s Digital TV Editor Emmy to discuss the competition at length - and this time we’re discussing whether Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu were the right couple to leave, which star looks like they are struggling with anxiety, and why Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell’s performance was so touching.
James also opened up about Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin finding themselves in the bottom two alongside Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu, and revealed why it might be the best thing that could happen to the pair. He explained: "He's not necessarily getting as much support as other people because he's so good.
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"Please, Layton and Nikita, do not take it personally. Don't think that it's an attack on you as individuals. It's because you're so good. And that's not his fault."
Every Strictly Come Dancing winner so far
- 2004: Natisha Kaplinsky (partner Brendan Cole)
- 2004: Jill Halfpenny (partner Darren Bennett)
- 2005: Darren Gough (partner Lilia Kopylova)
- 2006: Mark Ramprakash (partner Karen Hardy)
- 2007: Alesha Dixon (partner Matthew Cutler)
- 2008: Tom Chambers (partner Camilla Dallerup)
- 2009: Chris Hollins (partner Ola Jordan)
- 2010: Kara Tointon (partner Artem Chigvintsev)
- 2011: Harry Judd (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2012: Louis Smith (partner Flavia Cacace)
- 2013: Abbey Clancy (partner Aljaž Škorjanec)
- 2014: Caroline Flack (partner Pasha Kovalev)
- 2015: Jay McGuiness (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2016: Ore Oduba (partner Joanne Clifton)
- 2017: Joe McFadden (partner Katya Jones)
- 2018: Stacey Dooley (partner Kevin Clifton)
- 2019: Kelvin Fletcher (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2020: Bill Bailey (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2021: Rose Ayling-Ellis (partner Giovanni Pernice)
- 2022: Hamza Yassin (partner Jowita Przystał)
- 2023: Ellie Leach (partner Vito Coppola)
Layton and Nikita were saved by three members of the judge's panel after they received a mixed response to their American Smooth. The actor opened up about being saved in the dance-off on Instagram, writing: "That was close! SO grateful to be through to Musicals Week! Being in the bottom two has given me a [fire] up my [bum]. Big love to all of our supporters. PS - @angelascanlon I love you x100! The last vid just sums you up. Pure joy."
© BBCJames continued: "I feel sorry for the guy because he seems like a really nice guy. And when they were standing in front of the judges knowing they were going into the dance-off, he really did look deflated… When he's standing there, he now knows that people haven't picked up the phone and voted for him. And I felt really sorry for him. I wanted to give him a cuddle because I really looked at him and thought he didn't deserve that. No one wants him to feel awful."
Speaking about how being in the bottom two will help Layton and Nikita going forward, James continued: "I've said every single week he's the best dancer Strictly [has] ever seen. It's starting to look like that is to his detriment. People wanna see a journey, people want to see you struggle. I actually think him going into the bottom two this week has done him a favour. It might see him get to the final."
© Guy LevySo, his advice to Layton? "Mate, keep your chin up because he's created dances which should have clearly been 40," James said. "So just keep going. Just keep doing what you're doing and enjoy Strictly for what it is!"
