Marketer and socialite
Uyanda Mbuli was the third "celeb" voted out of
Strictly Come Dancing 4 on Thursday night, sparing us more of her wooden dancing.
Her dance-off against
Brenda Ngxoli was a no-brainer for the judges, although
Tyrone Watkins deserves to have his head examined for voting to keep her in the show. Your credibility is at stake, Tyrone.
His vote made no difference, however, as
Salome,
Dave and
Lilian all voted to keep Brenda and send Uyanda packing.
On an evening where dancers alternated between the Paso Doble and the Viennese Waltz, it was Isidingo star
Emmanuel Castis who impressed the most with his Paso Doble version of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Receiving a perfect 10 from Dave Campbell and Lilian Phororo, he achieved a total of 37/40, the highest score since
Tamara Dey's perfect 40/40 in
Season 2.
Kicking off the evening with a Viennese Waltz were
Trevor Noah and
Hayley Hammond, who scored a solid if unspectacular 29. After making the early running in the competition Trevor seems to be falling off the pace somewhat, despite not doing anything patently wrong.
His score was still good enough for third place, however, behind Emmanuel and
Tanya van Graan.
Next up was Uyanda and
Ryan Hammond, whose Paso Doble was reminiscent of a scene out of a marionette show - the way stiff Uyanda jerked about like a wooden puppet on a string was painful to watch.
For the third consecutive week she was bottom of the pack, with a mere 22 points. This time her marketing skills clearly failed her, as her rabid fan base (who would possibly be a fan of a marketing person?) seemed to desert her for the first time.
The third couple of the night were
Ashley Hayden and
Muntu Ngubane, who were solid if unspectacular with a Viennese Waltz. They scored 26, which put them second from the bottom, but were saved from a dance-off against Uyanda by the public voting.
Then came the scorchingly hot Paso from Emmanuel and
Lindsey Muckle, which had Lilian hot and flustered and Dave beaming so hard he looked a certain candidate for a coronary.
Emmanuel's girlfriend, model Tanya van Graan, continued her rapid rise up the ranks with yet another classy performance, scoring 32 for her Viennese Waltz.
Brenda Ngxoli and
Quintus Jansen went last, and managed a creditable 28 points for their Paso. Despite not being in the bottom two after the first round, Brenda is clearly struggling for fan support, ending up in her second consecutive dance-off after the round of public voting.
The end is nigh for the actress, it would seem.
Emmanuel has raised the bar for this season - it's all-out war from now.
This was how the judges voted in the first round, before public voting:
Emmanuel: 37
Tanya: 32
Trevor: 29
Brenda: 28
Ashley: 26
Uyanda: 22
TVSA blogger Segololo attended the live show last night - look out for her coverage of the event, coming on Monday.