Strictly Come Dancing star Chris McCausland’s potential downfall in the BBC competition has been exposed after he sparked fears he could exit the show. The comedian, who is the show’s first blind contestant, is the runaway favourite to lift the Glitterball. However, his lack of confidence could be his undoing.
Body language expert Judi James said: “Unlike most of the other contestants, he doesn’t take himself too seriously and clearly underestimates his own popularity with the viewers as well as his own chances of winning.
“When Dianne tells him he’s ‘doing a great job’ his reply is, ‘Whatever’. He’s an ego-free zone in a show where egos usually only come in XXL size.”
She added that Chris’s “respect for the show is obvious from the graft he is clearly putting into his routines”, but he still worried about how the dances turn out.
Nevertheless, Chris’s “self-effacing approach” and “lack of cheese” have largely made him so popular with viewers.
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Judi continued: “Chris has single-handedly brought the blast of down-to-earth honesty the show needed. While long-term fans of the show can almost recite the pre-loved lines the celebs are going to use before they say them, like ‘I’ve found a friend for life’ or ‘I’m doing it for my nan’ etc, Chris’s interjections have been genuinely fresh and funny.
“Chris will have brought in a whole new raft of fans who would have previously found Strictly an un-cool watch.”
According to Coral Bookmakers, Chris is the 1-2 favourite to lift the Glitterball, followed by Tasha Ghouri at 5-1 and Sarah Hadland with odds of 6-1.
Last week, Chris shared his concerns about potentially leaving the show after performing a Halloween Samba to Staying Alive.
The Liverpudlian admitted his nerves, saying: “We’ve lost four people so far this series, two of them on Sambas. And we’ve had four dance offs and three of them have had people who’ve gone on first so the maths is against us this week.”
Instead, Dr Punam Krishan and Gorka Marquez were voted off after a dance off against Shayne Ward and Nancy Xu.
Shayne is the 7-4 favourite to be eliminated this weekend ahead of Sam Quek, who is 3-1 to be the latest contestant to exit the show, while JB Gill is 7-2.
Strictly Come Dancing airs 6.30pm on BBC One.
