COMEDIAN Seann Walsh avoided the dreaded dance-off on Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday night.

Walsh, who was brought up in Brighton and took his first tentative steps into comedy in the city, found himself caught up in a media storm over the past week after being pictured kissing his professional dance partner Katya Jones, who is married.

They subsequently issued a public apology on Strictly: It Takes Two, hosted by Ditchling’s Zoe Ball.

Many predicted the duo would be voted off the programme by the public in light of the media storm, but that didn’t prove to be the case.

Instead, Katie Piper became the third celebrity to leave the hugely popular BBC1 programme as she faced Charles Venn in the dance off.

The judges’ scores were combined with the results of the viewers’ votes to decide the lowest scoring two couples facing the dance-off.

That proved to be Piper and professional partner Gorka Marquez, and Venn and his partner Karen Clifton.

Both couples performed their routines again. Piper and Marquez performed their jive to Why Do Fools Fall In Love by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and Venn and Clifton performed their salsa to Use It Up And Wear It Out by Odyssey, in a bid to impress the judges and remain in the competition.

After both couples had danced a second time the judges delivered their verdicts with the often acerbic Craig Revel Horwood choosing to save Venn and Clifton.

Revel Horwood said: “The best dance for me. Charles and Karen.”

Darcey Bussell also chose to save them and said: “The couple I would like to save for a stronger performance is Charles and Karen.”

Bruno Tonioli agreed and added: “The couple that stood out for me, so I would save them, is Charles and Karen.”

Head judge Shirley Ballas agreed and said she would also have chosen to save them.

There was also good news for another Sussex contestant as investigative journalist Stacey Dooley also progressed to the next round of the competition.

However, there was not such good news for fellow Sussex contestant Susannah Constantine who became the first contestant to be eliminated from the show.

Background

The remaining twelve couples will take to the dancefloor next week when Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday at 6.45pm.

The popular results show will be held on Sunday at 7.45pm on BBC1.

There has also been good news for the BBC in the ratings battle with ITV.

ITV’s flagship weekend entertainment show, X Factor, has been trailing in the ratings despite bringing in Robbie Williams to spice up the judging panel along with his wife Ayda Field, and the former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson.