Strictly Come Dancing viewers have hit out at the BBC's casting team after the elimination of Chris Appleton, arguing that 'you can't just cast a random hairdresser and call him a celebrity'.
The celebrity hairdresser and Welsh professional dancer Amy Dowden became the first couple to leave the 2026 series on Sunday 4 October, after landing in the dreaded dance-off alongside 2025 winner Carlos Gu and his partner Jaime Winstone during Movie Week.
Both couples performed their routines again: Appleton and Dowden danced their Cha Cha to 'I'll Be Ready' from Baywatch, while Winstone and Gu performed to 'Oh, Pretty Woman' from Pretty Woman. Judges Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke all chose to save Winstone and Gu, meaning Appleton and Dowden were eliminated. Craig Revel Horwood, who held the deciding vote, said he would also have saved Winstone and Gu.
Speaking afterwards, the 36-year-old Dowden said: 'Obviously I'm heartbroken, this seems to have been my luck the past few years but you know what, my heart is only breaking because I don't get to dance with you (Chris) on Monday.' It is the second year in a row that Dowden has been the first professional voted off, having departed first last year with The Apprentice's Tom Skinner.
The elimination triggered a furious debate on Reddit about Appleton's casting. The hairdresser joined the line-up because of his links to A-list stars including Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande, plus a large social media following. 'Sad for Amy, but a lesson to the producers. You can't just cast a random hairdresser and call him a celebrity. Of course he'd be in the dance off, literally no one knows who he is,' one viewer wrote.
Another added: 'I can't imagine he has a big fan base. I don't know if he does content creation as well but I genuinely only know him because he was married to Lukas Gage.' A third wrote: 'I think you have to be a young person fully absorbed in social media to know who he is. I genuinely hadn't a clue who he was before this.'
Others pushed back, arguing that Appleton is hugely famous among younger audiences and a major influencer in his own right. The BBC has not commented on the casting criticism, but the row has reignited the annual debate about what makes someone a 'celebrity' in the age of social media fame.