Strictly Come Dancing 2019 has already seen two stars of this year’s line-up eliminated from the BBC dance show, therefore, viewers were eager to put in their votes to ensure the couples they believed performed the best stayed in the competition. However, as flocks of fans took to the phone lines to make their decision, they were hit by huge technical difficulties as the lines seemed to crash.
After the remaining 13 celebrities had finished performing, host Claudia Winkleman, 47, revealed which couples were top and bottom of the leaderboard.
Karim Zeroual, 25, and his professional dancing partner Amy Dowden, 28, were at the top having scored 38 out of 40 from the judges, with Alex Scott, 34, and Strictly star Neil Jones, 37, at the bottom.
The judges scores don’t determine the fate of the celebrities however, with the votes from viewers possibly turning the whole game on its head.
Claudia then announced the voting lines were open with viewers able to make their decision either by landline, mobile or online and only had 25 minutes to do so.
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Phone lines are the most popular way for fans to vote and with so many people trying to save their favoured couples from elimination, it can sometimes lead to technical difficulties as a result of such a surge.
Taking to Twitter, the official account for the dance show addressed the issue in a post which read: “There’s a high volume of calls tonight, so if you don’t get though first time keep trying! And remember you can vote online.”
Fans were not happy and quickly responded to the phone lines crashing as they descended into meltdown on not being bale to get through.
One viewer posted: “@bbcstrictly ridiculous carry on you should be able to handle the volume of votes.”
Following last night’s performances, former England footballer Alex is the favourite to leave in tonight’s results show.
So far, double gold medal winning Olympian James Cracknell, 47, and television presenting veteran Anneka Rice, 60, have be sent home as they failed to make an impression with judges and viewers.
According to latest odds from Coral bookmakers, the sports pundit’s position on the leaderboard puts her in dancer of being the third to be eliminated.
The sportswoman is at evens to be booted off as former footballer David James’, 49, chances of leaving look some what better.
Having dominated the favoured spot to leave for the first three weeks of the competition, the celebrity contestant is at 6-1 to leave tonight.
Coral spokesperson John Hill said: “Alex Scott is under the most pressure to survive this weekend according to our odds.
“It was a great night for David James who produced arguably the most surprising performance and the betting suggests he will avoid the dance-off this weekend for the first time.”
On the other end of the spectrum, former Emmerdale star Kelvin Fletcher, 35, is storming ahead with his chances of winning the show at evens.
Strictly Come Dancing 2019 continue tonight at 7.15pm on BBC One.