The October 21 episode of Dancing With the Stars officially marked the halfway point of the season. Sailor Brinkley and Val Chmerkovskiy were sent home, which made fans extremely confused about the new voting for this season. As part of the changes, the judges decide who gets sent packing between the bottom two couples. The stars who are up for elimination are chosen by the popular vote and a combination of the judges’ scores from last week and the current week.
This week, Ally Brooke and her partner, Sasha Farber, were also on the bottom, despite being one of the frontrunners all season. In addition, Sailor and Val received a 27 our 30 — one of the highest scores of the night — with their jive to “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham!. Even Carrie Ann Inaba was won over by their latest performance. “To be animated is your thing! … I had a blast watching you do the jive,” she gushed.
Basically, fans didn’t see why either duo was up for elimination in lieu of Sean Spicer and Lindsay Arnold — they have continually gotten low scores every week. “Me sitting at my desk at work tomorrow thinking about how Sean Spicer hasn’t been in the bottom two once on this season of #DWTS,” one person wrote on Twitter. Someone else added, “Wasn’t this supposed to be the season where there was going to be NO SHOCKING eliminations???” Another fan admitted, “Sailor Brinkley Cook deserved better. Heartbreaking.” A different user echoed, “These two did not deserve bottom 2 at all #DWTS.”
Sailor stepped in for her mom, Christie Brinkley, after she was injured during rehearsals. She has been improving each week but sadly it was too little too late.
As for the other couples, James Van Der Beek and Emma Slater once again got rave reviews and scored 27 for their samba to “Light It Up [Remix]” by Major Lazer. A big jump in scoring came from Kate Flannery and Pasha Pashkov, who also received a 27 from the judges. Their Viennese Waltz to “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston was truly beautiful.
Unfortunately, fan favorite couple Hannah Brown and Alan Bersten took a tumble on the leaderboard this week with a score of 24 for Carrie Underwood‘s “Southbound.” Bruno Tonioli advised, “You have to soften your leg and ease yourself into the rhythm.”
Fans are a bit salty after the most recent elimination but time will tell what happens next week!