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Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Vito Coppola couldn’t have looked more disappointed during a ‘harsh’ moment on It Takes Two, when he found out that he’d missed out on securing the winner’s title for this year’s pro dance challenge.
However, it turns out the moment was planned behind the scenes and the dancer himself found it highly amusing, rather than it being a ‘cruel’ scripting mishap, a conclusion some viewers came to after watching it play out live.
On tonight’s programme, presenter Janette Manrara, 39, welcomed Vito, 30, into the studio, after he attempted to not only win the pro challenge of achieving as many Charleston kick steps as possible in 30 seconds, but also vied to break a Guinness World Record in the process.
After watching the pre-recording segment of Vito carrying out the challenge in front of judge Craig Revel Horwood and an adjudicator, Janette revealed to him live in the It Takes Two studio that he had managed to do a brilliant 18 Charleston kick steps, matching Lauren Oakley on the top of the leaderboard.
The Italian dancer jumped up from his seat in excitement, high fiving Janette as she asked him how he felt about his impressive achievement.
But in a crushing moment, the presenter then informed Vito, after listening to her earpiece, that he’d actually only managed to achieve 13 kick steps, having had five disqualifications, meaning he actually wasn’t in the joint first place spot.
Vito couldn’t have looked more excited by his score, which turned out to be incorrect (Picture: BBC Two)
Janette even gave Vito a high five after making the announcement (Picture: BBC Two)
His face then dropped when he found out his actual score (Picture: BBC Two)
Vito looked shaken as his face dropped at the revelation, before speculating that a female dancer will win the challenge.
Metro.co.uk understands that the moment was planned, and Vito found it hilarious and was laughing about it in the aftermath.
However, several fans expressed how upset they felt for him, after watching his immense happiness be immediately dashed by disappointment.
‘Getting in the queue to comfort Vito after that. So mean!’ one person wrote.
Another said they found it ‘harsh’, especially given Janette also gave Vito a celebratory high five before he found out his actual score, while someone else called the moment ‘cruel’.
‘Omg Vito’s poor little face when Janette told him he had disqualifications,’ one person tweeted.
However, Vito still did better than plenty of the participants, given some scored nil points due to disqualifications for their technique.
Fleur and Vito are hoping they’ll do enough to earn a spot in the Strictly final (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)
This Sunday, Vito and his partner, singer Fleur East, will take to the dancefloor in the semi-final, during which they’ll perform two routines.
The duo will be taking on two extremely different dances – a Charleston to Tu Vuo’ Fa L’Americano by Fiorello and a Paso Doble to The Time Is Now by Moloko.
Strictly – It Takes Two returns tomorrow at 6.30pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
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The dancer might have looked devastated – but the moment was planned.
