The results show also featured a surprise for presenters Tess Daly and Winkleman ahead of their departure.
Strictly Come Dancing’s 2025 finalists have been revealed after EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal became the latest contestant to leave the show.
Sopal, 47, and her professional partner Julian Callion lost in Sunday’s dance-off in the semi-final of the BBC programme to reality TV star Amber Davies and her dance partner Nikita Kuzmin.
In the dance-off, Sopal and Callion performed their salsa to Gloria Estefan’s Rhythm Is Gonna Get You and Get On Your Feet for a second time, before Davies and Kuzmin reprised their couple’s choice to Raye’s cover of Fly Me To The Moon.
All four judges voted to save Davies and Kuzmin.
Sopal and Callion had finished bottom of Saturday’s leaderboard with a joint score of 70 for their dances, while Davies and Kuzmin had finished second with a combined score of 77 from the judges.
Davies and Kuzmin will join former England Lionesses footballer Karen Carney and her dance partner Carlos Gu, and social media star George Clarke and his professional partner Alexis Warr in next week’s final to compete for the glitterball trophy.
Carney, who topped Saturday’s leaderboard with a joint score of 78 for her two dances, has now become the first footballer to reach the show’s final.
Sopal said of her time on the show: “Everyone’s been brilliant. The minute you walk into this building, it’s like a massive hug.
“Every single time. I’ve walked in, people have just held me and gone ‘you know, you’re all right’, it’s such a wonderful place to work.
“(To the judges) thank you, Claud(ia) (Winkleman) and Tess (Daly), I’m grateful that I got to be on the show on your last moment here as well, because you, for me, are what Strictly is about.
“You’re the era of Len Goodman and (Sir) Bruce Forsyth, and that’s when I started watching it, and that, for me, is really special.
“This year, it’s been full of so many serendipitous moments. I’m so lucky, and I’m really, very happy.”
She described Callion as “brilliant in every sense of the word” and said she had “never felt alone on this floor”, thanks to him.
Callion added: “I just think that Bal embodies what this competition is about.
“Her spirit is unbreakable, and (to Sopal) you have shown me that I’m actually dreaming too small, and Bal can inspire us that whatever any of us want in life, all you have to have is the desire to go after it.
“It took six dance-offs and a perfect score to take this lady out, so I am so so proud of you.”
The results show also featured a surprise for presenters Daly and Winkleman ahead of their departure from Strictly after this year’s Christmas special.
The pair were shown a highlights package of their time on the show, featuring new interviews from the judges, and footage from their early years working with Sir Bruce.
The judges, with help from Strictly professional dancer Kai Widdrington, then awarded the presenters with their own glitterball trophy.
Kylie Minogue also performed her festive single Xmas accompanied by the Strictly professional dancers on Sunday’s results show, while band James performed their 1991 hit Sit Down.
Strictly Come Dancing 2025’s grand final airs at 7pm next Saturday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Both of this weekend’s episodes are available to watch on iPlayer.
Sopal and Callion will be interviewed on Strictly: It Takes Two on BBC Two and iPlayer on Monday at 6.30pm.
