Brendan Cole has defended the Strictly Come Dancing judges for opting to save Montell Douglas for a third time from the dance-off, arguing she has “outperformed everybody she’s been up against”.
The Gladiators star, 38, and pro dancer Johannes Radebe, 37, went head-to-head with EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick, 30, and his partner Michelle Tsiakkas, 29, last weekend.
Both couples performed their routines again with Borthwick and Tsiakkas dancing their Foxtrot to Stand By Me by Ben E. King. Then, Brown and Radebes performed their Quickstep to Get Happy by Ella Fitzgerald.
After both couples had danced a second time, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke all chose unanimously to save Brrown and Radebe.
Head judge Shirley Ballas confirmed that she too would have voted the same way.
While some have argued it wasn’t fair that Borthwick - who won the 2023 Strictly Christmas special - had only been in that one dance-off, but former Strictly pro Cole says otherwise.
Speaking to The Standard on behalf of Sky Vegas, Cole - who served as a professional dancer on the hit BBC dance competition from from 2004 until 2018 - explained: “So far, she [Montell Douglas] has outperformed everybody she's been up against [in the dance-off]. On the Sunday night results show, she out-danced Jamie [Borthwick] – she's saving her position on the show.
“I've had it before with Lisa Snowdon – we were in the dance-off [lots of] times – it's awful, but you pick yourself up, you go out, smash the dance-off, and hopefully stay in the competition. It's there as a nice little buffer, otherwise, she probably would have gone home five weeks ago, and we wouldn't have seen the amazing stuff that she's actually been able to do.”
