This year strictly Come Dancing encountered accusations of racism in its early rounds as radio DJ Melvin Odoon and Eastenders star Tameka Empson made their departures in the first two weeks.
Twitter followers 'up in arms'
Fans of the show took to Twitter to voice their concerns over the show asking whether the viewers of the BBC show were racist because no white dancers had exited the show at that point. Odoon was due to be in a dance off against American singer Anastacia but doctors ruled the singer could not compete due to injury and the DJ was voted out as he had received fewer viewer votes.
Eastenders Tameka Empson made a tearful departure the following week prompting further backlash from social media.
Still in the pack were sports presenter Ore Oduba partnering Joanne Clifton and professional dancer Oti Mabuse partnering the mercurial and outrageously talented actor Danny Mac. Things looked set to take a turn for the better when Ore and Joanne performed their jive in week three of the series and were rewarded with the first 10 of the series, in fact the first three tens as they scored 39/40. This had to have gone some way towards appeasing the twitterati crying 'racism' but then TV presenter Naga Munchetty became the third successive ethnic minority to be voted off.
The dreaded 'Strictly' dance off
After his spectacular 39 Ore has found himself in the dreaded 'dance off' on two occasions against Laura Whitmore, Judge Rinder and being saved each time. Meanwhile , Oti Mabuse has had no such problems as she and Danny Mac forged ahead in the polls with a combination of brilliant choreography and artistry.
Unfortunately for them it came to an end on Sunday as they found themselves dancing off for the first time against Claudia Fragapane and AJ Pritchard. But with a diminishing pool of talent it was perhaps to be expected that one of the favourites would at some point find themselves in trouble.
The 'Strictly' finalists
After months of training for hours every day and competing live every weekend 'Strictly finally has its' three final pairs and they are Ore Oduba/Joanne Clifton , Louise Redknapp/Kevin Clifton and Oti Mabuse/Danny Mac.
So after crying ' racism' in the first three weeks social media fans now find themselves with not one but two ethnic minority dancers in the final.
'Strictly' winners
The racism call is not one that holds water in 'Strictly' as contestants from ethnic minorities have on the whole performed well and have produced three winners in Louis Smith , Alesha Dixon and Mark Ramprakash and generally there is no suggestion that Celebrities from ethnic minorities perform any worse than white celebrities.
