Les Dennis first to leave Strictly Come Dancing 2023

Les Dennis has become the first celebrity to leave this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Tonight, the Beeb aired the first results show of the series, hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. A combination of the viewer vote and judges’ scores placed Les and his professional partner Nancy Xu in the bottom two along with Nikita Kanda and her partner Gorka Marquez.

Both couples performed their routines again; Nikita and Gorka performed their Charleston to Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyoncé. Then, Les and Nancy performed their Samba to Rock The Boat by Hues Corporation in a bid to impress the judges and stay in the competition.

The judges then delivered their verdicts with Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke all choosing to save Nikita and Gorka.

According to Craig, Nikita and Gorka’s performance was “most improved” of the two, Motsi said they were “extremely better” and Anton agreed they did the “best job”. Though her vote could not affect the result, head judge Shirley Ballas said that she was in agreement with her fellow judges.

When asked by Tess about his time on the show, Les said:

“I’ve had the best time, this lady has been amazing, a great teacher, she’s really put me through my paces. (To Nancy) I did as well as I could for you, I hope! That lot up there, I’m going to miss you so much. I really appreciate and understand the judge’s point of view, thank you so much (To Shirley) for giving me a 10 for entertainment. I hope I’ve entertained, that’s what I came here for. Strictly is the best and the people who put this on, you’re just all amazing!”

Nancy added: “This is such a short but a sweet journey. A lot of challenges we all know, but to see you (to Les) every day improve yourself. I respect you so, so much.”

Tonight’s results show saw the professional dancers perform to a medley in tribute to the iconic Tina Turner. There was also a show stopping musical performance from singer songwriter Jorja Smith with her song, Try Me.

The remaining fourteen couples will take to the dancefloor again next Saturday in a Movie Week Special at 6.20pm on BBC One.