Strictly Come Dancing 2023 says goodbye to its third contestant

It was a unanimous decision from all four judges

Jody Cundy is the third star to be eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing 2023.

After an eventful live show on Saturday (14 October), the English cyclist and former swimmer, 45, and his professional dance partner Jowita Przystal found themselves in the bottom two alongside stand-up comedian Eddie Kadi and Karen Hauer.

In the hopes of winning over the judges, Cundy and Pryzstal performed their Salsa to “Samba de Janeiro” by Bellini one more time, before Kadi and Hauer graced the dancefloor with their American Smooth to Tom Jones’s “Sex Bomb”.

It wasn’t quite enough to convince the judges, however, with all four judges voting to save Kadi and Hauer instead.

“For improvement and musicality I would like to save Eddie and Karen,” said Motsi Mabuse, who said it was a “clear decision”.

Similarly, her fellow judge Anton Du Beke chose the same, stating: “I thought one couple danced very well and one couple had a bit of an off night, there were a couple mistakes there so I would like to save Eddie and Karen.”

With three votes in their favour, Cundy and Pryzstal already knew their dreaded fate but it was set in stone by head judge Shirley Ballas who said she would have also voted to save Kadi and Hauer.

Speaking about his time on the programme, Cundy said: “You know what, when I signed up for this I thought what on earth am I signing up for and we did that first live show and I absolutely loved every second of it. And just being able to dance and do something I’ve never done before and get completely out of my comfort zone and with this amazing person.”

Jody Cundy performs the salsa (Strictly Come Dancing)

The eight-time paralympic champion, who praised his dance partner for “not losing faith” in him, added that he had had a “blast” during his short stint on the show.

Cundy is the third celebrity to be booted from the dancefloor after last week saw radio presenter Nikita Kanda eliminated. The week prior to that, presenter and actor Les Dennis became the first to go.

The results show on Sunday night (15 October) opened with a performance from the professional dancers, accompanied by singer-songwriter Beverley Knight who performed “I’m on Fire”.

However, Knight was forced to defend herself from false accusations about her performance shortly after it aired.

Jody Cundy (BBC)

Saturday night’s (14 October) episode was packed with tassels, torsos, and a few tears. An incredibly confident cha-cha to Whitney Houston’s 2009 song “Million Dollar Bill” earned musical theatre star Layton Williams and his dance partner Nikita Kuzmin the top spot on the leaderboard.

You can find the latest leaderboard from week four here…

The remaining 12 couples – who you can read about here – will take to the dancefloor once again next Saturday (21 October) at 6.35pm, with the results show following on Sunday (22 October) at 7.15pm on BBC One.