Jody Cundy is third celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing 2023

Jody Cundy CBE has become the third celebrity to depart the dance floor in Strictly Come Dancing 2023.

The Paralympic gold medallist and his professional partner Jowita Przystal found themselves at the bottom of the leaderboard after last night’s show, scoring 19 points out of 40 for their Salsa to ‘Samba de Janeiro’ by Bellini. They faced comedian Eddie Kadi and his partner Karen Hauer in the dance-off, who scored 24 for their American Smooth to ‘Sex Bomb’ by Tom Jones.

After both couples performed their routines again, presenter Tess Daly asked the judges who they would like to save. Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke all chose to save Eddie and Karen, meaning that Jody and Jowita were eliminated from the competition. Head judge Shirley Ballas was not required to vote, but said she would also have saved Eddie and Karen.

When asked by Tess about his time on the show, Jody said: “You know what, when I signed up for this I thought what an 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. This person’s got so much energy, every morning like 9 O’clock we’ve got, start of training and she’s like BAMMM, like this, she comes into the room like an absolute cannonball and she just doesn’t stop the whole day. And she doesn’t lose any faith, doesn’t lose anything, motivates me on to do more and more. So I’ve had an absolute blast.”

Tess than asked Jowita if she had any words for her partner. She said: “I cannot even describe how proud I am of you Jody, cause from Day 1 till now, it’s enormous improvement. And I hope from now on, when you go out, when you hear the music, you’re not going to hide anywhere. You’re going to go on that dancefloor and you’re going to give it all. And I hope, one day when you look back at all of this, you will say to yourself I’m proud of myself, because that will be my biggest achievement.”

The results show also opened with a beautiful love story from Strictly’s troupe of professional dancers, and the incredible Beverley Knight performed in the ballroom singing ‘I’m on Fire’.

The remaining 12 couples will be back on the dancefloor again next weekend when Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday 21st October at 6.35pm, with the results show on Sunday 22nd October at 7:15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Jody and Jowita will be joining Fleur East and Janette Manrara for their first exclusive televised interview live on Strictly It Takes Two on Monday 16th October at 6.30pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.