Tavis Smiley and partner Sharna Burgess became the latest victims of the “Dancing with the Stars” axe on Tuesday night, getting kicked off the show in week 2 of Season 19.
Despite the early exit, the talk show host kept a positive attitude.
“So this is not about anything other than the art of dance is a very difficult thing to perfect and like anything — your job, my job, it takes time to get good at it,” he continued. “And if you don’t have the time, you’re not going to nail it, that’s just, that’s what it boils down to.”
Tavis – whose cha cha with Sharna landed him in the second-to-the-lowest spot on the leaderboard Monday – said he knows he and his partner didn’t prepare enough due to his grueling book tour schedule, and no matter what, he’s grateful he made a new friend.
“I loved the opportunity to do something I’ve never done before. To learn, and to listen, and to laugh and to love, and all those things happened in this experience,” he said. “And I think I’ve made a new friend, for life. And I’m excited about that.
“So it, I had no regrets, it was a wonderful, wonderful experience,” he added.
While his “Dancing” run wasn’t successful, Tavis’ book tour was not in vain.
“I’m happy to say that while this didn’t work out today, my book hit the best seller list today,” he said. “So we’re very, so we’re very excited about that. So I gotta continue with what I do, try to empower people with information that can hopefully help them live better lives.”
And the author shed an impressive amount of weight during his short time on the show.
“[Dancing] is the best workout plan in the country,” he said. “America, if you want to lose weight, hire Sharna to teach you how to dance. I got on the scale this morning – [I lost] 26 pounds.”
“Dancing with the Stars” continues Monday at 8/7c on ABC.
— Erin O’Sullivan
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