The elimination of Sabrina Bryan and Louis van Amstel on Tuesday night’s “Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars” came as a great surprise to fans of the show – especially because the pair were at the top of the leaderboard two weeks in a row. Also left wide-eyed by the news? The cast.
“It’s always shocking. It’s the history of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ that you’re shocked,” Kirstie Alley told Access Hollywood after the show. “This game was created by ABC and the game is fan base and dancing, and sometimes the finale is filled with the best dancers and sometimes it’s not. Fan base is a great thing, and being a great dancer is a great thing, but we each have our own story and we each have our own journey.”
Addressing the fan base factor, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Kirstie’s professional partner, said his friends back home on the East Coast – many of which were unable to see the show — voted for the pair despite Hurricane Sandy.
“I’m from the East Coast, so I feel close to those people and I’ve got slew of messages [from] Twitter and otherwise. You know, ‘We don’t have power, but whatever. [We still have] battery [power] on the phone [and are] still voting for you guys. You guys are amazing,’” Maks recounted. “And it was heartbreaking that these people are in that environment, and still looking out for us and thank you so much.”
Apolo Anton Ohno and his partner, Karina Smirnoff, were placed in the Bottom 2 on Tuesday, and although they were saved to dance again, the Olympian couldn’t find the right words to say goodbye to the departing team.
“Honestly, nobody knows what to do, how to react, because it feels surreal that you see somebody go home and you’ve been with them for the past couple of months,” Apolo said. “You build bonds and friendship together and it makes it very difficult. You never want to say goodbye to someone on the show. You wish everybody could stay on the whole time.”
“Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars” continues on Monday at 8/7c on ABC.
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