Melanie Walters left Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday night after vote strictly sent her and Aljaz Skorjanec out in the second dance-off of the series. The result cuts the competition to 13 couples and removes one of the season’s early strugglers after two straight weeks in the bottom two.
Walters, 64, had already been carrying thin scoring room. She opened the contest with 15 for a cha cha cha, then matched that 15 the next week with a waltz to Edelweiss from The Sound of Music during Movie Week, before improving to 17 for Saturday night’s Charleston to Ooh Ahh... Just A Little Bit by Gina G.
Judges split on Sunday night
The Sunday dance-off paired Walters and Skorjanec against Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alexis Warr, whose quickstep to I'm A Believer by The Monkees also brought a score of 15. Motsi Mabuse wanted to save Walters and Skorjanec, but Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood chose to keep Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alexis Warr in the contest, so the vote was decided 3-1 against Walters.
That split matters because it shows Walters was not universally dismissed by the panel even after two weeks in the bottom two. Craig Revel Horwood had said he didn't love their Charleston, while Mabuse had told Walters to keep going, a rare case where the judges’ feedback and the final vote did not line up neatly.
Walters and Skorjanec's exit
Walters said diolch yn fawr iawn as she said goodbye to her fellow cast members. The farewell closed out a run that had put her back in the dance-off twice in succession and ended a partnership that never found enough scoring lift to escape the danger zone.
For Walters, the practical consequence is immediate: she will now appear on It Takes Two on Monday, while the remaining 13 couples move on to icons week. The scoring pattern is the sharper story here — 15, 15 and then 17 was enough to show progress, but not enough to beat the two couples still left standing on Sunday night.
icons week awaits 13 couples
Walters is best known for playing Gwen West in Gavin and Stacey, a role she first took from the show's launch in 2007 and returned to for the 2024 Christmas special. On Strictly Come Dancing, though, the numbers were less kind: two bottom-two appearances, one judge willing to save her, and a final panel split that left her out before icons week even began.
