"I absolutely loved every second of it"
The beloved BBC competition is well underway, with the celebrities and their pro partners making it to Week 4 – but while one partnership landed a new Strictly record with the earliest maximum score for a Cha-cha-cha in the show's history, it was time for the season's third couple to sashay away.
After the judges' scores were combined with the show's viewer votes, Paralympian Jody Cundy and partner Jowita Pryztal found themselves in the dreaded dance off against Eddie Kadi and Karen Hauer.
While Jody and Jowita performed their Salsa to 'Samba de Janeiro' by Bellini, Eddie and Karen fought to impress the judges one more with their American Smooth to 'Sex Bomb' by Tom Jones.
Unfortunately for Jody and Jowita, all four judges (Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and Shirley Ballas) voted to save comedian Eddie and his pro partner Karen, leaving the Paralympian to exit the dancefloor.
Speaking about his departure from the series, Jody thanked his partner for all her support, and touched on the benefits of Strictly.
"When I signed up for this I thought: 'What an earth am I signing up for?' and we did that first live show and I absolutely loved every second of it. And just being able to dance and do something I've never done before and get completely out of my comfort zone and with this amazing person."
He went on to credit Jowita for on her positivity and energy along the way:
"This person's got so much energy, every morning [at] like 9 o'clock, the start of training and she's like: 'BAMMM'. She comes into the room like an absolute cannonball and she just doesn't stop the whole day.
"And she doesn't lose any faith, doesn't lose anything, motivates me on to do more and more. So I've had an absolute blast."
For her part, Jowita heaped praise on the former gold-medallist, and expressed her hope for his future:
"I cannot even describe how proud I am of you Jody," she said. "Cause from Day 1 till now, it's enormous improvement.
"And I hope from now on, when you go out, when you hear the music, you're not going to hide anywhere. You're going to go on that dancefloor and you're going to give it all.
"And I hope, one day when you look back at all of this, you will say to yourself I'm proud of myself, because that will be my biggest achievement."
