Continuing the trend of complete and utter predictability on
Season 4 of
Strictly Come Dancing, Ashley Hayden became the fifth celebrity eliminated from the show last night.
Only three couples remain, and to be fair - for once they are the three best dancers in the competition.
Ashley and partner
Muntu Ngubane were capable enough, but no match for the talents of
Emmanuel Castis,
Trevor Noah and
Tanya van Graan, who have consistently been the top three celeb dancers.
This week all couples danced one Ballroom dance and one Latin dance.
Ashley and Muntu kicked off the evening with their ballroom dance, which was little better than average. They scored 24, which was always going to put them in the red considering their competition.
Trevor and saucy partner
Hayley Hammond upped the ante by scoring 28 for their ballroom number, but Tanya and the perennial
Brandon Eilers went one better and scored 31 for theirs.
Emmanuel and
Lindsey's Tango set the tone for the evening, however, as they sashayed up and down the dance floor to ABBA's "Money, Money, Money".
Lilian, who gets visibly hotter under the collar each week when Emmanuel takes to the floor, awarded them a 9, saying: "You’ll never have to worry about money with talent like that. Great top, great passion, great style."
Dave scored them a 10, for an overall score for the first round of 35.
Then came the Latin portion of the show, and once again it was Ashley and Muntu who dusted the floor, with a Jive which earned them a big improvement, a score of 29. It wasn't enough to save them from the dance-off however.
Dave was more impressed with Ashley the second time around. "Ashley you’re a dancing blonde bombshell," he enthused, a hint of madness in his eye.
"Just a word of advice - work on your own strengths and forget about the others. If they want to do the tricks, let them do the tricks. Your strengths are your attitude and performance."
Trevor and Hayley also performed the Jive as their Latin number, scoring 31 from the judges.
Tyrone, looking more and more like a Mexican bouncer with his ever-growing, greasy ponytail, was impressed, but offered earnest advice to Trevor ahead of the finals.
"You’re dancing well for Season 1, Season 2 or 3 - Season 4’s steaming hot - please push it push it. 24 hours non-stop rehearsals. Vamos, compadre."
Tanya and Brandon were next up with the Jive, but this time only managed a score of 29, and a moment of madness from
Salome.
"Timing, timing, timing. Timing, timing, timing Tanya. I cannot say it more. Timing, timing - please. That’s your downfall. If you get it right you are A for away."
She would have carried on about timing had
Ian von Memerty not abruptly ended her rant, in that specially rude little way he does.
That left one more dance for the night: Emmanuel and Lindsey's Cha Cha Cha. They managed two perfect 10's from Dave and Lillian, with 9's from Salome and Tyrone giving them the season-highest score of 38/40.
Each couple's scores were added together, giving us the following leaderboard:
Emmanuel and Lindsey: 73
Tanya and Brandon: 60
Trevor and Hayley: 59
Ashley and Muntu: 53
Although Trevor ended up in the bottom two, audience voting allowed him to switch positions with Tanya. The dance-off was thus between Tanya and Ashley, and that was never going to be a real contest.
Tanya might have struggled with her timing, timing, timing, but her natural dancing talent, technical skill and consistently good performances over the season saw her saved by the judges.
Next week it’s the semi-finals and the following week the final showdown.
Should Trevor be the next contestant eliminated we have a juicy prospect for the grand finale: boyfriend vs girlfriend. Emmanuel will be forced to concede the title to Tanya, or face the very real possibility of sleeping on the couch for the rest of his natural life.
However, we suspect it will be Trevor who goes through to the finals with Emmanuel, based purely on the indication of audience voting this week.
Either of those two could win it. Heck, we'd be happy for
Mark Williams to have won it. Anyone, anyone but
Nutsman.
This week's TVSA Blogger to attend the live show was
Toxic - look out for her coverage of the evening which will be coming soon.