Strictly Come Dancing fans have expressed concerns over this weekend's show, believing the dance choices during Icons Week may lead to a controversial exit. On Saturday (October 16), the celebrities and their professional partners will perform routines to celebrate music's biggest legends and their biggest hits.
It comes after the elimination of Melanie Walters and Aljaž Škorjanec last weekend, with fans worried about who will land in the dreaded dance-off next.
Past Icons Week eliminations
Taking to Reddit, one viewer voiced their concerns about Icons Week in particular, noting that two strong celebrities have left during that week since it was introduced in 2024. Ex-hockey player and TV presenter Sam Quek and her professional partner Nikita Kuzmin were eliminated in 2024 after receiving the fewest votes alongside Gladiators star Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe.
In 2025, former footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Lauren Oakley were voted out after landing in the dance-off with Amber Davies and Nikita, who ended up making it to the final.
"I'm so scared for this week's dance off," the fan wrote on Reddit.
"As we've seen in the past two Icons Weeks, you can easily get screwed over by a poor song and dance theme, and both of the ones we've had so far resulted in an unfair dance off (alright so maybe it was Sam's time to go in 2024 but Montell should not have been in the bottom two), and moving it down to Week 5 last year and then Week 4 this year just increases the likelihood of shock early exits."
Couples at risk
With Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alexis Warr, who ended up in the dance-off last weekend, performing their Couple's Choice, the fan believes they could be safe.
However, they argued that if Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu, Dani Dyer and Nikita, Jaime Winstone and Carlos Gu, and Sarah Storey and Julian Caillon don't get high enough scores, they could be in trouble.
But the Reddit user specifically focused on Dani and Nikita, who are set to perform a Rumba to Hero by Mariah Carey.
"I feel like the odds are stacked against my faves in particular. I think Dani's vote will be tested this week since she has a dance that the judges are known for being very critical of, and if she gets an early slot... I fear Nikita's Icons Week dance off curse may continue," they went on.
Fan backlash
The Strictly fan added that if "the worst happens", they will stop watching the show altogether.
"If the worst happens then I'll probably stop watching the live shows and just watch the dances on YouTube for the rest of the series until the final, so I don't get as frustrated as I did in 2024 over my fave being sidelined for the rest of the series," they wrote.
Another agreed: "Yeah same too, especially after what happened last year, this is why I really don’t like icons week because they rarely pick actual icons or they give them a good song with the wrong dance choice. They are gonna run out of ideas of these so called ‘icons’ and that’s what also frustrates me, I really just want icons week to be scrapped im sorry to say."
