Strictly Come Dancing: Fleur East and Vito Coppola caught up in ‘fix row’ after being allowed to restart dance

Strictly Come Dancing has received backlash today as it was revealed that a contestant was allowed to restart their dance routine.

The BBC competition airs live on a Saturday night, while the dance-off is pre-recorded and shown on Sunday night. Fleur East, 35, and her dance partner Vito Coppola were in the bottom two against EastEnders actor James Bye and professional dancer Amy Dowden last weekend.

It has since been claimed that the X-Factor singer tripped over a prop and fell on Vito while fighting to stay in the competition.

Producers made the decision to bring the medics in to check everyone was ok and then allowed the pair to start over again. The mishap was not shown when the show aired on Sunday night.

A source told The Sun that the incident was not Fleur or Vito’s fault and happened within seconds of starting their routine, which left the audience in shock.

The source said: “She came crashing down, taking Vito down too. They landed incredibly hard - it was quite shocking and the audience audibly gasped. Poor Fleur looked stunned and devastated, and no one really knew what was happening on or off stage.

“Eventually, the warm-up guy came on and addressed the audience while Fleur and Vito got checked out. They started their dance again and obviously, this second version was the one that aired. There was no reference to the fall by the judges either.”

Fleur and Vito made it through to the next week of the competition after impressing the judges with a Halloween-themed salsa routine to Beyonce’s Break My Soul.

A spokesperson for Strictly Come Dancing told the Daily Mail: “After an incident with a prop at the beginning of Fleur and Vito’s dance-off performance, the decision was made to halt proceedings to check they were not injured, as a matter of urgency.

“As they had not begun to dance before the incident occurred, it was decided they could start the performance again, once it was confirmed they were fit to do so.”

This comes after angry fans pleas to make the show live on Sunday nights and to stop pre-recording them.

Posting on social media, one viewer commented:  “Can Strictly Come Dancing stop this charade of pretending that the results are live when it was filmed last night?”

Another wrote: “They really just need to get rid of Sunday night and do a longer live show on a Saturday.”