Ellie Taylor is bookie's favourite to be eliminated – despite topping the leaderboad

Ellie Taylor might have topped the Strictly leaderboard at the weekend – but she has become the bookies favourite to be booted of the show this weekend.

She and dance partner Johannes Radebe  scored 35 out of a possible 40 points from judges on Saturday  with their couples choice dance to I Put A Spell On You from the hit Disney film Hocus Pocus. 

The couple tied at the top of the leaderboard with radio host   Tyler West and his pro partner Dianne Buswell.

Nevertheless, the comedian’s  odds of being sent home this weekend currently stand at 2-1, according to William Hill.

Coronation Street star Kym Marsh is next most likely to be eliminated, according to the bookmaker, with her odds currently standing at 5-2. 

The favourite to win the show is currently Wildlife presented Hamza Yassin with his odds at 8-13, followed by Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton fat 9-2 and Tyler West.

Lee Phelps, head of sponsorship PR at William Hill, said: ‘It is a very tough competition this year - even though Ellie came joint at the top she will need to keep this up to avoid elimination.

‘Many of the couples are getting consistently high scores and praise from the judges, Ellie will have to make this a more common occurrence if she wants to avoid elimination.’

Taylor this week said that being on Strictly taught her to embrace being ‘weird’.

She explained: ‘I haven’t had confidence. I have never wanted to watch myself dance. "I have never felt comfortable dancing in front of other people because I have always felt quite physically awkward.

‘Jo is so great with me about that because I’m like, "I just look weird. I don’t look sexy, I look weird". And he says, "Embrace your weird." And it’s true, all I can do is be myself."

And even if she ends up leaving the competition this week, she added: ‘I feel like it is such a big positive for me to realise I’m not as physically horrific as I thought I am to look at, to dance.’

Published: 1 Nov 2022