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CALLED OUT
DEV Griffin has become the third celebrity to be eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing - and furious fans have called it a "fix".
The radio DJ and his professional partner Dianne Buswell found themselves forced to compete in the dance off against Viscountess Emma Weymouth and her partner Alijaz - but fans claimed they were unable to vote for Dev.
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Aussie professional Dianne even responded to one fan alerting bosses to the problems on Twitter — but later deleted her reply.
One fan 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.
Strictly bosses had tweeted the same night: "There’s a high volume of calls, so if you don’t get through first time keep trying! And remember you can vote online."
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But viewer Jo King said: "Please can I urge anyone who had issues with phone voting for last night’s Strictly to make a complaint here bbc.co.uk/complaints/com. Regardless of who you were voting for, this needs to be looked at urgently if we’re to have faith in a fair voting system."
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.
Dev and Dianne were scored 27 out of 40 for their Cha Cha Cha by the judges, leaving them tenth out of 13.
Alex Scott and partner Neil Jones were the bookies’ favourites to be eliminated at evens ahead of the weekend. Dev was 10/1.
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PIC-TLY BAN
STRICTLY producers have cracked down on photos being taken at the show’s studios after last year’s Seann Walsh and Katya Jones cheating scandal.
Fans are told not to use cameras on their phones at all while on site — with security even intervening to insist any pics taken are deleted.
A source said: “Someone being snap-happy sparked the Seann Walsh scandal, and nobody wants that repeated. They’re taking no chances.”
His exit comes after he dropped Dianne in rehearsals the previous week and she had to be taken to A&E.
All four judges voted to save Emma over Dev leading to the shock result.
When asked by Tess about his time on the show, Dev said: "I’m not going to lie I am absolutely gutted, but learning how to dance, hanging out with Dianne and the other pros and celebs… I’ve absolutely loved it."
Dev Griffin and Dianne Buswell dance the cha-cha-cha on Strictly Come Dancing
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Dianne was asked if she had any words for Dev, he said: "Dev has been absolutely amazing. His work ethic is insane. I see him everywhere practising and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.
"Thank you so much for all your time and your effort. This boy has so much talent, I’m really sad he won’t be able to show you guys any more of it."
This was also the third week running that Strictly suffered a leak with the elimination result appearing online early.
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