Strictly Come Dancing fans have rushed to support professional dancer Dianne Buswell following Saturday night’s Samba with Chris McCausland.
The duo ended up with a rather underwhelming score of 26 following feedback from the judges, a score that left them at the foot of the leaderboard by the end of the evening.
Only Punam Krishan and Gorka Marquez scored as poorly as McCausland and Buswell, leaving them at risk of facing the dreaded dance-off.
It’s the first time this series McCausland has finished an evening at the bottom of the leaderboard and the disappointment was plain to see on Buswell’s face when the judges delivered their feedback.
Motsi Mabuse branded the Samba a “fun way” to start the show before pointing out the notorious difficulty of the routine. She added: “I feel like you nailed the character.”
Meanwhile, Shirley Ballas weighed in: “Now I never thought I’d say… but you actually overcooked the bounce a little bit.”
BBC Strictly: Dianne Buswell’s reaction prompted several fans to send her support
BBC
Turning her attention to the positive side of the routine, Ballas added that McCausland’s “content and characterisation was fabulous” before concluding: “All in all, you did incredibly well.”
Anton Du Beke said McCausland’s “bounce was probably too much” and that the performance “lacked a bit of fluidity”, something Craig Revel Horwood agreed with.
“There was a bit of hopping involved which is not great. I’d like to see more stretch in your upper body,” Revel Horwood said, before also pointing out a lack of “fluidity”, “raised shoulders”, and “no hip action”.
The mixed feedback left Buswell looking rather deflated as she made her way to speak to Claudia Winkleman – and fans spotted one particular moment that they believe proves she was left “fuming”.
On X, one concerned fan began: “Dianne doesn’t seem too happy bless her, I hope she remembers how much support her and Chris have #strictly.”
And a second pinpointed the fact Buswell forgot to let McCausland know about the stairs, saying: “I thought that too. She didn’t smile until she got to claudia, then it looked very ‘smile for the camera’, and she forgot to tell chris about the step, you could see in amy’s face she could tell Dianne was upset.”
“Dianne is fuming with the score this week #Strictly #StrictlyComeDancing,” a third weighed in, before a fourth similarly claimed: “Dianne looked so disappointed after the judges comments tonight on #strictly.”
“Dianne looked so sad/worried #strictly,” another added with a sad emoji while a sixth blasted the judges’ scores: “Chris was massively underscored, he deserves so much higher than that, what he’s doing is simply AMAZING and dianne is an insane teacher #strictly.” (sic)
Meanwhile, dozens of other viewers flooded social media with their pleas for fans to vote for McCausland and Buswell so they don’t lose their spot in the contest.
Soon after they’d performed, the BBC Strictly Instagram account shared a clip of Buswell and McCausland behind the scenes where they reflected on the Samba.
BBC Strictly: Dianne Buswell and Chris McCausland finished joint-bottom of the Halloween leaderboard
BBC
“It’s a horrible dance to learn and remember,” a disappointed McCausland began. “And going on first… I mean, I just, I think I had a little panic and tried to overcompensate.”
Buswell tried to reassure her partner: “You did, you did have a little panic. that’s alright.
“Look, great job, you did a great job. Sometimes dances suit us, sometimes they’re a bit harder to understand. And this particular week, it was a little harder for us. That’s fine. Onwards and upwards.”
In the comments of said post, Buswell’s disappointment was plain to see once more as she penned: “We tried our best,” followed by a love heart emoji.
