STRICTLY star Dianne Buswell has spoken for the first time since Dev Griffin’s axing from the show, saying she was “shocked” and “upset”.
The Radio 1 DJ unexpectedly faced a dance-off with Viscountess Weymouth and Aljaz Skorjanec, after the judges’ scores were combined with viewers’ votes.
Speaking on Strictly spin-off It Takes Two, Dianne told host Rylan Clark-Neal: “I was in a lot of shock. I didn’t think that Dev would be in the bottom two for a while, if at all.
“I think he did an amazing job on Saturday night. I thought his dance-off dance was ever better.
“I’m so proud of him but I’m really upset that he was in the bottom two and we happened to leave the competition.”
Dev added: “When I woke up that day, I didn’t think I’d be in the bottom two, but you can never tell, can you?”
However, the 34-year-old added: “Every single week is so different, I don’t think you can ever take your position from the previous week for granted.”
Dev and Dianne were scored 27 out of 40 for their Cha Cha Cha by the judges, leaving them tenth out of 13.
All the judges opted to save the viscountess in a shock decision, which left those watching at home furious.
Former Strictly dancer James Jordan tweeted: “HOW DARE THE JUDGES SAY THEY ARE TRULY SHOCKED!!!! LIARS!!! AND ITS YOUR FAULT! FACT!
“Why can people not be more honest in the world….The public have been watching long enough to call bulls**t!”
He added: “Just mark what you see and then let the public decide… just do your job!”
And some fans branded the BBC hit a “fix” as they claimed they were unable to vote for Dev because the phone line wasn’t working.
Aussie professional Dianne even responded to one fan alerting bosses to the problems on Twitter — but later deleted her reply.
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Fan Kirsty Powers, from South Wales, said: “The voting phone line ain’t working for Dev and Dianne!!!! Works for some and not for others!!! Strictly sort it out!”
Dianne retweeted the post with a sad face emoji on Saturday evening, minutes after the elimination was recorded.
BBC insiders said the phone line blockages impacted all contestants equally — and that the likelihood of getting through was not dependent upon the celebrity fans wanted to vote for.