Struggling Strictly star admits shock they weren’t ‘eliminated after first group dance’-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

Nick Knowles has admitted he is surprised to still be on Strictly Come Dancing after escaping the first dreaded dance-off on Saturday.

The DIY SOS presenter, 62, joked that he thought he might be eliminated even sooner than that as he spoke about his experience on the entertainment show as a complete novice.

On Saturday, it was Olympic champion swimmer Tom Dean and Nadiya Bychkova who were sent home, after judges voted to instead save singer and actress Toyah Wilcox and her partner, Neil Jones.

Discussing how he felt after the first celebrity exit on Strictly companion show It Takes Two, Nick shared: ‘To be honest, for those of us who have never had any dance experience at all, I don’t think that you ever feel that you’re safe anyway.’

‘I was surprised I didn’t go after the first group number!’ he joked, before expressing his wonder over ‘still’ being part of it on Wednesday night.

Nick then added: ‘To see someone eliminated is really tough because everyone behind the scenes has become such a lovely family that you have to sort of commiserate with one person and congratulate another at the same time. It’s very odd.’

Nick Knowles is surprised to have made it to week three on Strictly Come Dancing (Picture: BBC)

The TV host has also had a hard time on the show of late, after injuring his arm severely enough that his future on the show was in question last week.

Luckily, he was given the medical all-clear and he and partner Luba Mushtuk performed their American Smooth routine to Blur’s Parklife after just 16 hours of rehearsal on Saturday.

This still earned them a score of 21, an improvement on their week one mark of 17.

At the end of the show, the couple were a few clear of the bottom of the leaderboard, above Toyah and Neil, Paul Merson and Karen Hauer and Punam Krishan and Gorka Marquez, while tying with Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystal.

The DIY SOS star injured his arm last week but was able to perform and then avoid the dance-off (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)

They were, however, comfortably below leavers Tom and Nadiya’s score – showing, once again, how dangerous the middle of the leaderboard can be.

Ahead of this Saturday, Nick and Luba are also among the favourites to leave the competition.

Coral Bookmakers has Toyah as odds-on to be eliminated this weekend at 10-11, topping the betting ahead of Paul Merson, who is 7-2, and then Nick at 9-2.

He and Toyah are also the least likely to win the whole show, with the bookmakers offering odds of 100-1 on each.

Chris McCausland is currently favourite at 5-4, with Tasha Ghouri second on 3-1.

Nick is set to dance a Charleston with Luba to Rain on the Roof from Paddington 2.

Nick and Luba are dancing a Charleston on Saturday (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC)

Comedian Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell are the current favourites to win Strictly’s 20th anniversary series (Picture: BBC/Ray Burmiston)

When asked who would be portraying everyone’s favourite marmalade-loving bear, he quipped: ‘Well, I’m bear shaped – so Luba.’

He will instead be playing Phoenix Buchanan, the villain portrayed memorably by Hugh Grant, and said that he had been trying to become ‘more jazz hands’ in preparation.

Strictly: It Takes Two air weeknights on BBC2. Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.25pm on BBC1.

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