How Strictly Come Dancing’s Katya Jones was ALWAYS on the back foot

An expert has weighed in on Katya Jones’ Strictly Come Dancing exit and claimed that she’s had a ‘tough run’ on the show. 

The professional dancer, 36, recently broke down in tears on It Takes Two after she and her celebrity partner, Emmerdale’s Lewis Cope, 30, were eliminated from the competition in Saturday’s dance-off.

This meant that despite getting perfect scores each week, the duo lost out on a place in this year’s semi-final.  

Many fans claimed that the dancer had been ‘stitched up’ as a result and now PR expert Mayah Riaz has weighed in on the situation.

She told the Mirror: ‘[Katya] is one of the strongest and most creative pros on that floor, but she has absolutely been handed some tough partners. 

‘It has started to feel like she goes in every season already on the back foot.’

The PR expert added: ‘I would not call it a fix, but I would say it feels like she rarely gets a level playing field. And ironically, the one time she gets a genuinely strong partner again, he is labelled “too experienced” and punished for it. 

‘The optics are not great. It looks like she can’t win either way. Too weak a partner, she’s dismissed. A strong partner, she’s penalised.’ 

Speculating about what went wrong for the duo, the PR expert said that Lewis was a ‘victim of perception rather than performance’. 

The PR expert said: ‘If previous dance experience is such a problem, then it should be applied across the board. You cannot ignore theatre and musical training for one contestant and weaponise it against another. Viewers see that, and they do not like it.’

‘With Lewis, I think he became a victim of perception rather than performance. He was not voted out because he was the weakest. He was voted out because the story around him shifted. 

‘And once that happens, it is incredibly hard to fight back. Strictly is still beloved, but moments like this chip away at trust. And once viewers feel that the journey is being manipulated, the magic starts to fade.

Katya also had a difficult time on the show last year with her partner opera singer Wynne Evans, who was later axed from the Strictly tour over his use of foul language 

The comments come after Strictly fans speculated that Katya – who has been on the programme since 2016 – has already performed for the final time after appearing on Monday’s episode of It Takes Two.

Speaking with Fleur East on the BBC spin-off, Katya couldn’t contain her emotion as she opened up about how upset she was about their departure. 

Bursting into tears, Katya said: ‘Looking back, obviously, I can’t help but think I could have done things differently to make things better for him. He can only do what I’ve asked him to do, and he didn’t just do that this time. 

‘He did that every single time. We were in a tough position expected to deliver these almost-perfect, show stopping routines every single Saturday, which you did. I don’t know how you did. But you did.’

Lewis put an arm around her as he sweetly insisted: ‘Because of you!’

Those watching at home shared how worried they are that she might end up quitting Strictly on X.

‘In her 10 years on this show I’ve never seen Katya this heartbroken, it hurts that she’s blaming herself for Lewis going home.’

Then others replied to the post with: ‘I think she will walk away now! Sadly.’

‘I really hope she doesn’t. But 10 years in and going through this is a lot, she also puts her life on hold for the show. So I won’t blame her if she does leave.’

The Daily Mail contacted the BBC for comment.

Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday on BBC One and is available to stream on iPlayer.