BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Chris McCausland's cheeky response to Sama-Thon after outrage from fans

Chris McCausland has cheekily addressed the return of the Dance-A-Thon on Strictly Come Dancing after it sparked outrage from fans on his behalf.

The comedian had another impressive weekend in the ballroom alongside professional dance partner Dianne Buswell. It came as the pro's parents were in the live studio audience having waited seven years for her mum, Rina, and dad, Mark, to watch her perform in person on the BBC One dance contest.

They watched Chris and Dianne deliver a fiery paso doble for their Strictly performance, which brought Dianne's parents to tears after they travelled to the UK from Australia just last week to visit her.

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Their performance to El Gato Montes by Manuel Panella secured them a score of 33 out of a possible 40, with Motsi Mabuse saying she "loved the commitment" in the dance.

It was then during Sunday night's (November 24) results show that Chris and Dianne's fate in the competition was confirmed as it was revealed the pair have made it through to week 11 of Strictly's 20th-anniversary series, which will be the show's annual Musicals Week.

Following the news, Dianne took to Instagram with snaps of the pair in action on the ballroom floor and said: "THANK YOU all so much for the votes. We never take any of this for granted and are still taken away by your support every week. QUARTER FINALS seems like a dream saying that.

"Last week was tough in terms of learning the dance but in true Chris style he wanted to show that it’s not impossible. And it was BRILLIANT. Again thank you for allowing us to dance again for you all. Partner let’s get ready for musicals week. I’m going to annoy you with my singing all week..."

Chris was quick to respond, and referred not only to their performance but also to the Samba-Thon which saw all the couples take to the floor at the same time to deliver their best Samba moves before being eliminated one by one, with the first couple eliminated earing one point and the winning couple earning seven points to add to their weekend total.

The 47-year-old wrote in the comments section of Dianne's post "I was really proud of our dance on Saturday, and as for the Sambathon…. [zipped mouth face emoji] ….Well thank you so much for all of your votes. You really did help us survive double Latin! See you tomorrow partner, I'll be bringing earplugs."

He also took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and said: "I was very proud of our dance on Saturday, and as for the Sambathon…. Well thank you everybody for your votes, you really did help save us from double Latin! Lots of love and thanks to you all! #Strictly."

It comes after Strictly fans were concerned for Chris he was eliminated first in the Samba-Thon, earning only the one additional point, leaving them towards to bottom end of the leaderboard.

@kelly_xm_ commented: "To be fair that must have been extremely hard for Chris and Dianne not only having to continually dance a Samba but avoid bumping into the other Dancers. Cut him some slack #strictly." @thatsmypeachx said: "I find it shocking they chose this year to bring back the sambathon when Chris cannot see any of the other couples/be spatially aware of other couples. Like of course he's gonna get voted off first? Not in good taste in my opinion #Strictly @bbcstrictly."

@mishcamucka shared: "I’m disappointed . That was so weighted against Chris , really felt unfair. He couldn’t see Dianne or the others, and had to cope with extra noise and sensory issues. I really hope he doesn’t end up going because of that early elimination now. #StrictlyComeDancing." @strictlylmx added: "They didn’t even give Chris a chance… he literally cannot see and still managed to do that well with 6 other dances going on."