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Dame Sarah Storey and Julian Caillon are the third couple to leave Strictly Come Dancing 2026.
The Paralympian, 48, and her dance partner ended up in the dance-off during Sunday night’s results show, along with House of the Dragon’s Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu.
On Saturday night’s show, Storey and Caillon received a total of 21 points for their Tango to the sounds of Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much”, putting them bottom of the leaderboard. Antonia and Xu placed third from bottom, after their Cha-Cha-Cha – danced to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” earned them just 27 points.
Saved by the viewer vote was the couple who placed second to bottom: Dani Dyer and Nikita Kuzmin, who received 25 points for their Rumba.
Three of the Strictly judges – Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse – chose to save Bethany and Nancy, meaning head judge Shirley Ballas was able to skip making a decision. She did say, however, that she would also have chosen to save Bethany and Nancy.
Sunday night’s results show saw the professional dancers of Strictly deliver a show-stopping tribute to Madonna, with dancers recreating the fashions of a number of her iconic music videos from over the years, including “Hung Up” and “Vogue”. There was also a tribute performance to the late Dolly Parton, who died in August. Singer Belles sang Parton’s classic song “Jolene”, accompanied by a performance from dancers Amy Dowden and Kai Widdrington.
Twelve couples remain on Strictly to fight it out for the final trophy, with next week potentially marking the return to the dancefloor of singer Delta Goodrem, who had to pull out of this week’s episode due to a rib injury.
Writing on her Instagram, Goodrem said she was “gutted” to be missing a week of Strictly but that she hopes to be “back on that dancefloor very soon”.
Last night’s episode of Strictly saw the top spot on the leaderboard shared between two couples. Cach Mercer delighted the judges by showing his smooth side with a Foxtrot to Frank Sinatra, while Jaime Winstone wowed with her dramatic David Bowie-themed Paso Doble.
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Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One next Saturday at 6.30pm.