The next Strictly Come Dancing 2023 elimination has occurred, with Eddie Kadi becoming the fourth celebrity to exit the competition.
The comedian and his professional partner Karen Hauer danced a Samba to Rema and Selena Gomez‘s Calm Down on last night’s edition of the BBC series.
The duo received a score of 24 out of a possible 40, placing them at the bottom of the scoreboard the same week Amanda Abbington was forced to withdraw from the live event with her partner Giovanni Pernice due to a medical condition.
Eddie and Karen were forced to compete in the dance-off against former Love Island contestant Zara McDermott and her partner Graziano Di Prima, who got a score of 27 for their American Smooth to LeAnn Rimes’ Can’t Fight the Moonlight.
Eddie and Karen were the first to perform during the results presentation, before the judges announced their decision.
Craig Revel Horwood 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.’
Motsi Mabuse followed, stating: ‘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.’
The third judge to speak, Anton Du Beke, agreed with his peers, announcing: ‘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.’
While Anton’s vote sealed Eddie and Karen’s fate, top judge Shirley Ballas admitted that she, too, would have voted the same way.
When questioned about his time on Strictly, Eddie told host Tess Daly that he’really loved’ it.
‘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,’ he shared.
‘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.’
Eddie then turned to Karen, describing her as a ‘Queen’.
‘Even more importantly this wonderful Queen, 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.’
When it was Karen’s turn to speak, she referred to her famous companion as a “treasure.”
‘You are a treasure, I’m going to miss you – 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,’ she said.
There are now 11 couples left in the competition, who will return next Saturday after Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin topped this week’s leaderboard with a score of 39 out of 40 for their epic Salsa.
Strictly Come Dancing returns next Saturday at 6.40pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
