BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Shayne Ward struggling with 'horrible feeling' on show

Shayne Ward has admitted he's struggling to cope with being in the bottom two during his stint on Strictly Come Dancing. While the singer and actor has plenty of experience on reality TV shows - having shot to fame on The X Factor - he admitted he's not used to struggling to stay in the competition.

Shayne, who won the ITV singing competition in 2005, is currently competing in the BBC One dance contest with professional dance partner Nancy Xu.

Now halfway through the 2024 series, the former Coronation Street star has found himself dancing for his place in the competition with Nancy on two occasions.

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Shayne has said in a conversation with The Sun: "I never thought that, 20 years after 'The X Factor', I'd be listening to the same 'heartbeat' music that they played when I stood on the stage to win the show. I'm 40 and it brings back so much nostalgia. It's weirdly the same feelings I had when I stood on that stage at the age of 21."

"You grow so close to everybody you're working with, you see them pretty much every day. So you want everybody to do well. But then the realisation kicks in that somebody has to go home. The moment you hear that heartbeat, you're like, 'Oh, we're back to a competition again, aren't we?'"

He went on: "It's not nice being in the bottom two. It's a horrible feeling. You never know what the public are going to warm to, but I'm proud of the routine we did on Saturday (October 26). It fitted Halloween Week perfectly."

"Being in that bottom two, I was gutted, you know. In that moment, you're thinking, 'Is this the end of my adventure on Strictly?' We're just truly grateful to the judges for putting us through."

Shayne and partner Nancy found themselves in the dance-off in week four and again last weekend and he admitted it has affected his rehearsals.

He said: "It's hard not to let something like that come into the rehearsal room. But it definitely re-focuses you and reignites that fire to make you go, 'I really want this, I don't want this to be over. I want to keep dancing with Nancy'."