Giovanni Pernice has responded to claims he's thinking of quitting Strictly Come Dancing after he made an early exit from the competition last weekend. The Italian dancer and his celebrity partner Richie Anderson found themselves in a shock bottom two during Sunday's results show.
The pair went up against Fleur East and Vito Coppola and had to dance again for their survival in the BBC One dance contest after the second public vote of the 20th series saw both couples receive the fewest votes from the public. They had to reprise their third-week dances again, with Richie and Giovanni performing their head-turning samba to Hakuna Matata from the much-loved Disney movie The Lion King.
They donned Lion King costumes for their performance. BBC Radio 2 host Richie dressed as mischievous meerkat Timon, while reigning champ Gio, 32, was dressed as warthog Pumbaa. Meanwhile, former The X Factor contestant Fleur, 34, re-performed the American smooth to Part Of Your World from The Little Mermaid with her dance partner, new Italian pro Vito. And it was their performance that was enough to save them from elimination with the judges almost unanimously voting to save them.
