Dancing With The Stars fans outraged over 'unfair' elimination: 'Robbed'

Dancing With The Stars viewers are outraged following Sunday night’s surprising elimination which saw a fan-favourite contestant leave the competition. Despite receiving positive feedback from the judges and a score of 27 for his rumba performance, which placed him in the third position on the leaderboard, MasterChef star Hayden Quinn landed in the bottom two alongside comedian Nikki Osborne after the in-studio audience cast their vote and shifted the rankings.

The pair then went head-to-head in an elimination dance-off, with Nikki performing the Charleston and Hayden dancing the waltz. Judges Craig Revel Horwood, Helen Richey and Sharna Burgess all voted to save Nikki, which meant that Hayden was sent home.

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“I’m absolutely stunned because your performance tonight was incredible,” host Sonia Kruger remarked following the decision. “I just never ever thought we would see you here.”

“It was an amazing night,” Hayden responded. “This whole experience has been incredible. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be standing next to Lily [Cornish] throughout it. She’s an amazing teacher, she’s an incredible, powerful, strong young woman, so a big round of applause to her.”

Viewers accuse the show of being 'rigged'

Fans took to social media following the episode to share their frustration with the “unfair” result, arguing that the audience shouldn’t have a say in who goes home and the bottom two should be determined by the judges’ scores.

“Obviously the votes aren't for the best dancer, just the public's/audience's favourite celebrity - disappointing!” one person wrote, followed by another who added, “Funny how we don't see the public vote. Hayden was top 3 and then all of a sudden he's in bottom 2 and eliminated”.

“How did Hayden get eliminated? He was great. This show is rigged,” a third remarked.

“This show is so rigged. No need to watch anymore,” someone else shared, while others asserted Hayden was “robbed”.

'Conspiracy'

Meanwhile, plenty of people declared that Olympian Nova Peris should’ve been in the elimination dance-off considering her combined score from the judges put her at the bottom of the leaderboard.

“This was totally wrong, Hayden should never have been voted out. Nova should have gone, it’s ridiculous,” one viewer commented.

“Not into conspiracy but tonight just showed how it's a stitch-up. Nova with extremely low score gets saved,” another added, with someone else writing, “Wrong move for Nova to still be there. She definitely should've gone tonight!”.

“Nova wasn’t in the dance-off because randoms are voting, not people who actually know technique like the judges,” a different user remarked.

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With Hayden eliminated from the competition, the remaining celebrities are AFL legends Ben Cousins and Shane Crawford, MasterChef star Julie Goodwin, Home and Away actor James Stewart, actress Lisa McCune, singer Samantha Jade, Better Homes and Gardens presenter Adam Dovile, Olympian Nova Peris and comedian Nikki Osborne.

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