Outraged Strictly viewers blast racist voting after Ugo and Rhys dance off

Ugo Monye and Rhys Stephenson found themselves in the bottom two of Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday night.

And some fans of the show were outraged at the shock result.

While Ugo was bottom of the leader board with partner Oti Mabuse, Rhys and Nancy Xu have consistently found themselves nearer the top during the competition so far.

Rhys' most recent performance earned him an impressive 32 points. His American Smooth to Michael Bublé's I've Got The World on a String landed him in sixth place of the ten remaining couples.

Head Judge Shirley Ballas expressed her surprise, saying: "I'm absolutely in shock that you are in the bottom two, you turned in a very, very good performance when you danced."

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One viewer shared four pictures of Ugo and Rhys, along with Judi Love who has found herself in the bottom two twice before having to miss a week due to Covid-19 and Nina Wadia, who was first to leave the competition.

They wrote on Twitter: "Can we call a spade a spade now with how the public vote given who has ended up in the bottom two each week? #Strictly".

Another wrote: "You really think it's coincidence that every week there has been at least one non-white celeb in the bottom two?"

Others added: "Could you say that Strictly is a bit racist…" and "Why is Rhys in the bottom two on #Strictly? He's absolutely amazing. Was there a racist block vote to push him out? Seriously, I can't think of any other reason for him getting so few votes."

While one fan predicted the result of next week: "Ugo and Rhys in the bottom. Hmm… Guess if Judi comes back next week she'll be out. Hmm…"

Others disagreed with this sentiment. One viewer responded to a tweet suggesting the voting public was racist saying, "Can we call playing the race card playing the race card? And note that the top two couples every week have a member who is black, which completely obviates your point?"

AJ Odudu and Kai Widdrington scored 35 with their Argentine Tango taking fourth place, while John Waite and Johannes Radebe took the top spot with their 38 point Charleston. Neither of the pairs have been in the dance off.

Another wrote, "Your race card is declined. Stop making it about skin colour."

OK! has reached out to the BBC for comment.

Anita Rani who competed on the 2015 show has spoken out about the subject.

“I still find myself wondering whether I would have got into the final if I didn’t have a brown face," she told the Radio Times.

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“There are various points in my career where I wonder what would have happened if I was blonde-haired and blue-eyed.

“Sometimes I don’t think things would have played out the same way if I was white.”

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