Strictly Come Dancing star pulls out of appearing on live show at the last minute
Strictly Come Dancing's Paul Merson wasn't able to make it in person for It Takes Two, the Strictly Come Dancing spin-off show, as he had unexpected "dad duties". This left his partner, Karen Hauer, to grace the studio solo on that Wednesday evening. The ex-Arsenal ace couldn't make it to the studio for the popular spin-off's Wednesday night show, but he joined in via video to chat about their upcoming routine and reminisce over his Quickstep from the previous week.
It was revealed by host Janette Manrara: "Paul you're on dad duties this evening. So you can't be in the studio this evening, that comes first." The host switched gears to discuss Paul's previous performance which saw him seamlessly evade the dreaded dance-off, earning himself a round of applause from the judges and love from fans. Now gearing up to shimmy through a samba set to 'Car Wash,' 56 year old Paul admitted it's like "back to reality."
Reflecting on just how far he's come, Paul mused: "Amazing. Just to get a nice dance." Also the trio discussed the array of themed performances Paul has done, and he said: "Obviously, a BBQ, a vindaloo, and footballs are coming in, and he looks like someone who works on a ship. Yeah, it was nice to dance. I thought Karen deserved that as well, to be fair."
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Reflecting on his quickstep, he shared: "It felt nice when I first took up the chance to come on to the show. This is what I thought it would be roughly, you know what I mean? So it was nice to get one of those dances in."
And Janette acknowledged: "You feel like you've got the whole Strictly experience with this dance under your belt now." Paul confessed: "Yeah, but now it's back to reality again this week."
Strictly fans are less than impressed with Paul being pigeonholed into comedic numbers, yearning to see him take on more serious routines. The frustration bubbled over again on It Takes Two as viewers aired their grievances.
One fan expressed their irritation on X, saying, "It makes me annoyed to see Paul and Karen talking about how much he loved being Fred Astaire during the quickstep, and that's what he always expected #Strictly to be, not the silly stuff. And then this week they have a samba to Car Wash, back to being the joke again."
Echoing the disappointment, another chimed in with: "#Strictly Please listen to Paul and Karen! The expectation when signing up was to learn to dance, with all the associated elegance, not silly songs and silly themes."
A third posted: "He's quite right....They need to stop all these stupid dances they give to ex sports people. It's embarrassing and never works properly. Paul's dance was far better with the correct music and outfit," while another user agreed, saying: "Stop with the joke dances. #ittakestwo #strictly."
