Minutes into Sunday’s episode, Dancing On Ice delivered an update for viewers.
The show had released the unfortunate news earlier on Sunday, 26 January, that Josh Jones was forced to withdraw from the ITV skating competition following an injury sustained during rehearsals.
The official statement by Dancing On Ice said: “Josh Jones sustained an injury during rehearsals and has had to withdraw from Dancing On Ice. Josh and Tippy’s partnership will be greatly missed. We will be helping to support Josh and wish him well with his recovery.”
During Sunday’s live broadcast, hosts Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern took a moment to send their best regards to the injured 32-year-old comedian.
Holly, 43, said: “Now, you may have noticed Josh and Tippy are not with the others tonight” to which the audience shared their disappointed. Holly continued: “I know, sadly Josh sustained an injury in training this week which means he is out of the competition we all can’t quite believe it!”
Later in the episode, the show caught up with Josh, who revealed he had hurt his ankle by going over it in rehearsals, as the audience applauded the contestant for his journey on the show.
This development follows last week where Josh found himself at risk of elimination after landing in the bottom two alongside Chelsee Healey. The 36-year-old Hollyoaks star and her skating partner Andy Buchanan were previously placed at the end of the leaderboard in week one with a score of 22, following the performances of the first group of contestants, reports the Mirror.
After the rest of the celebrities skated last week, both Chelsee and Josh, who earlier scored 20.5 points for his performance, were left facing potential elimination.
With the combination of the judges’ scores and public votes for each routine ultimately tallied, Chelsee garnered the least points, leading her to be the first contestant to exit this season’s competition.
Viewers have since suggested that Chelsee should be brought back to the show now Josh has left. Taking to Twitter, now X, one person said: “Bring Chelsee back!”, a different account put: “Bring back Chelsea then”, another wrote: “That mean Chelsea can come back?” while a different fan added: “@dancingonice should bring @chelseehealey back now then instead as it seems unfair #DancingOnIce #DOI.”
Comedian Josh has appeared on shows including Jonathan Ross’ Comedy Club and 8 Out Of 10 Cats, and has hosted the BBC Three competition Fast Food Face-Off. Jones has also been nominated for best newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and has been a finalist for the BBC New Comedy Award.
Speaking when he was first announced for Dancing On Ice, Josh said: “I’ve not got any skating experience whatsoever, I did it once for a date years ago and I wasn’t very good, I was holding onto the railings the entire time and we aren’t together now. My dancing isn’t great either, for a gay man I have no rhythm, I struggle to clap along to a beat so this will be fun.”
Dancing On Ice continues on Sundays on ITV and ITV X.