Wynne Evans and Katya Jones are in serious danger of being banned from Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday, bookmakers’ results show – a week after their awkward ‘hand incident’.
The dance partners have spent the week defending their awkward altercation during Saturday night’s live show.
Viewers saw the moment Katya removed Wynne’s hand from her waist and rebuffed his attempt at a high-five with her.
Opera singer Wynne, 52, – who was once front-runner for the Glitterball Trophy – is sent off at just 5/1 from the competition this week, after being 25/1 in the same market last week.
Elsewhere, Paul Merson will once again enter Saturday’s show as favorite for the boat at 11/10, while Punam Krishan is 5/2 in the betting as things stand.
Wynne Evans and Katya Jones are in serious danger of being banned from Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday, bookmakers’ results show – a week after their awkward ‘hand incident’
They’ve spent the week defending their awkward altercation during Saturday night’s live show, when viewers saw the moment Katya moved Wynne’s hand from her waist.
Ladbrokes’ Alex Apati said: ‘Wynne’s chances have taken a huge hit in recent days, with punters convinced he will be in a dangerous position on the leaderboard this weekend… a stark contrast to where he was this time last year . week.’
Wynne and Katya have been hard at work this week, in between defending interactions, but they seemed far from their usual bubbly selves on Tuesday when they stepped out together.
Katya and Wynne showed excitement on their faces and weren’t smiling as they walked to their training studio in Wales.
The appearance came hours after the pair made an emotional appearance on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two.
Katya has defended her famous partner, declaring that he has been ‘portrayed as someone he is not’, while the pair insist that his ‘wandering hand’ incident was a lame joke.
On Monday night’s TV appearance, Wynne admitted that he had watched back the footage of the incident and admitted: ‘I understand how people misinterpreted it.’
While clinging to his arm, Katya said she “can’t bear” the fainting her co-star gets and was empathetic that there was no wrongdoing.
She said: ‘The idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended in any way is complete nonsense, and for those who doubt, you are wrong. Hopefully this is the end of it and you’ll continue to make me laugh.’
She added: “I can’t sit here and watch this man being portrayed as someone he’s not. In fact, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
“So I have to make it very clear that this whole incident, with the hand and the high five on Saturday night, was an inside joke between Wynne and me. Was it a lame joke? Yeah, was it a bad joke? Yes.’
The incident caused such concern among BBC top brass, who had spent months battling firefighting allegations of misconduct in previous series, that a welfare investigation was carried out.
A source said: ‘The Strictly welfare team checked on the couple individually to confirm there was nothing wrong and that both were happy to continue working together.
Opera singer Wynne, 52, – who was once front-runner for the Glitterball Trophy – is sent off at just 5/1 from the competition this week, after being 25/1 in the same market last week
Alex Apati of Ladbrokes said: ‘Wynne’s chances have taken a huge hit in recent days and punters are convinced he will be in a dangerous position on the leaderboard this weekend’
Wynne, who has starred in the GoCompare adverts for more than a decade, claims he is ‘heartbroken’ by the fallout after some Strictly fans called for him to be axed from the show.
“Training room researchers have been meticulously tracking what happens during rehearsals between each celebrity couple, and Wynne and Katya are no different.”
‘If there had been any misconduct or cause for concern it would have been noted by the welfare team.
“That did not happen and they consider the matter closed.”
The BBC confirmed that no further action is planned.
Wynne, who has starred in the GoCompare adverts for more than a decade, claims he is ‘heartbroken’ by the fallout after some Strictly fans called for him to be axed from the show.
Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, where he presents a daily show, Mr Evans said: ‘I am absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day.
He said: “I am absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day.
The duo emerged as the surprise favorites to win this year’s Strictly, scoring 34 out of the judges’ 40 points for their tango on Saturday.
‘It’s not fun to live in those times, but actually Katya and I are very close and very good friends, and on Saturday evening we made a stupid joke.
‘It was a stupid joke that went wrong, okay, we thought it was funny. It wasn’t funny. It has been completely misinterpreted.
‘Everything is on Katya’s socials. She’s talked about it. She explained it was a joke. She wasn’t offended in the least. She doesn’t feel uncomfortable.
‘We have a brilliant friendship, an absolutely close friendship, and I’m sorry if anyone was offended by that, but it was a joke and yeah, that’s all there is to it, there’s no real story really.
“And it feels weird to apologize because I feel like I didn’t actually do anything.”
He admitted he ‘misjudged’ when he was interviewed on Radio Wales Breakfast before starting his own show on the channel, and confirmed he was ‘definitely still up for’ Strictly.
He said: ‘I’m having the best time of my life. I just don’t want this to be the piece that people remember.”
On Sunday, Evans and Jones released a video on Instagram saying they were “just messing around in the ‘Clauditorium'” the night before and just wanted to say sorry. It was a lame joke.”
And in response to several users on X, formerly Twitter, the dancer said: “You picked up on our joke!”
At another point on Saturday night, Jones appeared not to want to give her famous partner a high five.
A caption for their video explained that “high fives are a running joke.”
But viewers of Sunday night’s results show were unconvinced by the statement, claiming they saw Jones appearing to ‘stare’ at her famous partner.
During the show, Claudia asked Evans how he was feeling, noting that he looked shaken.
Wynne responded, “I’m shocked because I didn’t think I would survive the first week, so to be here after doing a tango is really exciting.
‘And I had such a good time and thanks to Katya’s clever choreography.’
As Evans gave his response, fans noticed that Katya remained stony-faced and even appeared to wince as the opera singer assessed his performance.
The pair seemed to be doing extremely well in training and were third on the leaderboard with their sensational Tango for week four
On Sunday, Evans and Jones released a video on Instagram saying they were “just messing around in the ‘Clauditorium'” the night before and just wanted to say sorry. It was a stupid joke
Supervisors have been appointed for Strictly during this year’s rehearsals after the BBC launched a review after Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington made complaints about her 2023 professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice.
The BBC apologized to Abbington, saying: “We have reviewed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all, of the complaints.”
Pernice has always denied the allegations and said he was “happy” after the investigation cleared him of most of the abuse allegations.
The BBC outlined the show’s new duty of care measures in September, saying: ‘In July we introduced new measures for training and rehearsals, which are in place for this year’s show.
‘For example, there was always a production team member present in the training room during rehearsals; two new roles in the show dedicated to wellbeing support: a celebrity wellbeing producer and a professional wellbeing producer for dancers (both started working in August); and additional training for the professional dancers, production team and crew’.