Strictly Come Dancing: Victoria Pendleton voted off

Published on 26/11/2012 01:02

OLYMPIC gold medal-winning cyclist Victoria Pendleton has become the latest celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing.

• Victoria Pendleton and dance partner Brendan Cole lost the dance-off against Michael Vaughn and Natalie Lowe

• Pendleton had the lowest judges’ score on Saturday night.

OLYMPIC gold medal-winning cyclist Victoria Pendleton has become the latest celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing.

She and her partner Brendan Cole lost a dance-off against former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan and Natalie Lowe after the judges’ scores were combined with the results of the viewers’ votes to decide the lowest-scoring two couples in the latest round of the BBC show on Saturday evening.

Judge Craig Revel Horwod chose to save Vaughan, saying: “Well this couple completely smashed and I thought they were fantastic, Michael and Natalie.”

His colleague, Darcey Bussell, also chose Vaughan, saying: “Yes, I am going save Michael and Natalie.”

Meanwhile, host Tess Daly has vowed to keep her curves under wraps to spare her, and the nation’s, blushes.

The presenter said she was horrified when she gave viewers of the hit BBC1 weekend show an eyeful when she wore a low-cut red dress.

Her appearance in the plunging Suzanne Neville evening gown caused a stir among viewers who posted thousands of messages online about her busty look.

Daly, 43, told Hello! magazine she had no idea she had so much cleavage on display until she saw herself on screen.

“What happened was, the bra I had on didn’t fit the dress,” she explained, “So I wore one of those designs that has gel at the sides, which kind of pushes you up and, I guess, gives you an extra couple of cup sizes. I don’t usually show a lot of cleavage – it’s not in my comfort zone.

“That’ll be the first and last time. The people at home don’t want to see that, it’s distracting.”

The BBC1 dance show landed an average audience of 10.3 million on Saturday night – the second highest of this series and two million viewers more than ITV’s Saturday evening showcase the X Factor.

ITV1’s singing contest pulled in an average 8.2 million –including viewers of its +1 catch-up channel.

Ratings have slumped since Simon Cowell exited the UK programme for the States.