TV and radio star Vernon Kay praised Strictly over the weekend, even after the show suffered an awkward on-air blunder on Saturday night involving his wife Tess Daly (September 27).
During the show’s first live episode, all 15 couples performed in hopes of remaining in the competition when the lines open this weekend.
For the most part, the programme went ahead as planned. However, ahead of La Voix’s performance with Aljaz Skorjanec, an issue occurred off-camera.
Strictly suffers awkward blunder
At the time of the issue, host Claudia Winkleman was speaking to EastEnders actor Balvinder Sopal. When she tried to hand back over to co-host Tess Daly, it became clear to viewers that she wasn’t ready.
Being the pro that she is, Claudia improvised on the spot and began awkwardly talking to the soap star again.
Luckily, Claudia was given the all-clear and was able to return to Tess properly.
After La Voix’s performance, which was an American Smooth to Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan, it was later revealed that the former Drag Race star was supposed to come onto the dancefloor on a pony.
Instead, La Voix’s performance began with her sitting on the carousel-style pony.
Vernon Kay defends Tess Daly
Speaking about Saturday’s show with Sara Cox, Vernon expressed: “We’ve done our fair share of live tele, and live tele is really difficult because anything can go wrong at any time.”
“Are you talking about La Voix as well on Saturday night?” Sara asked. “There was an issue with La Voix’s pony, she was supposed to be descended from the ceiling and slowly lowered.”
Defending the situation, Vernon replied: “Nobody knows until someone says, ‘Oh the pony was supposed to go up’, nobody would’ve known any different.”
“It was brilliant because Claudia went back to Tess and then she was like, ‘Oh not now, hang on a minute, in a minute,’ but it was a lovely bit of live tele and they just handled it brilliantly,” Sara added.
While Sara had nothing but good things to say about Tess, viewers online insisted she should be replaced.
‘I’d love this show to evolve beyond Tess’
“2026 needs to see La Voix taking over from Tess presenting. I said what I said,” one user wrote on X.
“I’d love for this show to evolve beyond Tess Daly,” another said.
“Awful…and the amount she gets paid is disgusting,” a third remarked.
However, many came to her defense, with one person writing: “I like her. She lets the stars shine and doesn’t make it about her. Her low-key approach works especially with the big personalities that the judges have.”
“She’s really good as a duo with Claudia though,” another declared.
“I find nothing wrong with her,” a third stated.
Read more: Vernon Kay hits back at Jeremy Vine as he defends his parenting method
What do you think of this story? You can leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know. We want to hear your thoughts!