Strictly last tango for Christine

5:21pm Monday 1st December 2008

Television presenter Christine Bleakley has performed her last tango on Strictly Come Dancing after the judges unanimously agreed it was her turn to leave.

Bleakley, who presents The One Show on BBC One, became the 12th celebrity to get the boot after she lost the dance-off against singer Rachel Stevens.

Viewers gave the two women the lowest number of votes after Saturday night's show, forcing them to go head to head in front of the judges.

Bleakley and her partner Matthew Cutler performed a salsa and a tango, repeating the tango for the final dance-off.

All four judges voted to save Stevens and her partner Vincent Simone who had performed a waltz and a paso doble.

After hearing the bad news, Bleakley admitted she had not expected to survive for so long.

"I thought I would go in the first week," she said. "It's been absolutely incredible. I can't thank people enough for their support, in Northern Ireland and over here.

"I'm going to miss him (Matthew) every day more than anything."

Singer Estelle performed on Sunday's results show.

A peak of 11.2 million people watched Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night. The figure was half a million down on the number who tuned in last week when veteran broadcaster John Sergeant performed a farewell waltz after choosing to leave the showThe average number of viewers for Saturday night's show was 9.8 million.