In a dramatic Saturday night episode of SABC2's
Strictly Come Dancing, musician
Tamara Dey suffered a nasty injury courtesy of an "exploding knee", as host
Ian von Memerty described it.
About 20 seconds into her rumba routine with partner
Brandon Eilers, Dey appeared to slip, and although Eilers caught her she was unable to continue.
After a brief interview with von Memerty, Dey was urged by the host to "limp over to
Sandy Ngema" - as if she wasn't in enough pain already.
Dey told Ngema she didn't know what had happened, but it felt as though her knee had "popped out". She was sent backstage to get medical attention and never completed her routine.
Later on - during the following contestant's interview with Sandy - viewers could clearly hear Dey howling in agony over her microphone, which the production crew somehow forgot to turn off.
The judges scored her 27 for the 20 seconds of routine they did get to see, and in another bizarre twist four other contestants also got scores of 27, making it the most number of contestants on a tied lowest score in the history of the show - international versions included.
Here's the sequence as it happened:
Babalwa Mneno was the first celeb eliminated after a combination of her previous week's scores from the judges and the viewer voting which ensued during the week.
This meant Dey got to stay for at least another week.
But after an exploding knee, will she be able to perform the physically-demanding Tango next week?
TVSA called her management, Showorx, and asked representative David Bloch for comment on her condition. This is what he said:
"Tamara stayed at Mill Park hospital on Saturday night just for observation and the orthopaedic surgeon came round on Sunday morning - there seem to be no torn ligaments, which they find quite unbelievable, so we don't know the extent of the damage. It could be that literally her leg popped out and popped back in again - almost instantaneously.
"Hopefully the damage is minimal. It could just be sprained and bruised and in a nutshell dislocated, but with no major damage to the surrounding area.
"She'll hopefully start with physio sometime on Monday and with any luck she could be dancing next week. We don't know yet, it remains to be seen, but she's in good spirits and she's got a lot of support from the cast.
"We've been hearing from all the cast members how brilliant the Rumba was to be - the 20 seconds we saw of it, it would have been stunning.
"Tamara has a habit of knocking herself out. She expects a lot from herself and she puts herself under a lot pressure to deliver, but she's alright. She's at home now so we'll see.
"She also got a fright - she expected to see her leg dangling there. She literally felt like her knee had popped sideways. She would have gone back to dancing today if she could.
"She's scheduled to do the Tango next Saturday and she said: 'Listen, I can learn the Tango in two days so if it means I have to rest and have copious amounts of voltarin etc this week then so be it.'
"She made a graceful entrance on Saturday night and an equally as gracious exit - although the microphone was on backstage - but needless to say her exit was still gracious and she was still the lady."
The best couple was actor
Freedom Hadebe and partner
Mary Martin, for the second week running.