RACHEL STEVENS - VIEWERS NOT TO BE REFUNDED AFTER STRICTLY TWIST

VIEWERS NOT TO BE REFUNDED AFTER STRICTLY TWIST

Viewers who voted in Saturday night's Strictly Come Dancing semi-final will not be refunded, even though none of the couples were voted out of the competition.

In a surprise twist, Lisa Snowdon, Rachel Stevens and Tom Chambers all progressed to the final show after producers decided to put everyone through when two of the couples were left tied after the judges' scoring.

That meant that whatever happened in the audience vote, Chambers and his dancing partner would have had to face the dance-off and that was deemed to be "unfair" by the show's producers.

Viewers were assured the votes they cast last night would be included in the final show next Saturday.

The BBC released a statement following the live show last night clarifying the situation.

"Due to the unprecedented outcome of the judges' vote... the audience vote could not have saved one of our couples from the dance off," the broadcaster claimed.

"We took the decision that all the votes cast tonight should stand and be carried through to next week's final.

"So the audience has had the usual chance to vote on the performances of all our semi-finalists. All the votes cast tonight will be rolled over. Tonight's vote has been independently verified."

While viewers of the dance show were able to claim refunds after John Sergeant left the show last month, they will be unable to claim their money back this time round.

"Viewers were asked to vote for their favourite dancer and they will all be going through," a BBC spokesman said, adding: "Nobody's vote has been disregarded, in fact, quite the opposite."

The BBC's controller of entertainment production, Jon Beazley, described the situation as "really unfortunate" but claimed there were "exceptional circumstances at play".