The ending of the Oct. 22 episode of Dancing With the Stars featured the jaw-dropping elimination of Sailor Brinkley Cook and Val Chmerkovskiy. When it came down to the judges’ save, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli chose to save Ally Brooke and Sasha Farber, who were also in the bottom 2. The bottom 2 reveal took everyone by surprise, considering Ally and Sailor had earned some of the highest scores. Ally opened up about nearly being sent home after the taping. “That was such a scary feeling,” Ally told reporters, including HollywoodLife. “Especially because we’ve worked so hard and even though we were kind of at the top of the leaderboard, anything could happen. So that was so scary. And then to be in that position against my friend is heartbreaking. I adore her and I believe she should have stayed in this competition longer, but I’m so freaking proud of her.”
Ally also admitted that she was a “little bit” surprised she was in the bottom 2. But it’s not going to get her down. “I gave my all out there and now it’s going to make me want to work harder. And now, I’ve channeled my fans a lot to vote. I’m like nonstop, but I guess I’ll do it even more.”
The judges being able to save one of the couples in the bottom 2 is a new format change in season 28. Sasha believes the new change is “incredible.” He added: “I think that’s what saved us tonight because we don’t know the votes, but something like that I think is great for the public to realize that you’ve got to vote for your favorite. We’ve had this happen many times in the seasons where people have had 30 out of 30 and went home that week. It’s just really important, you got to have the votes and vote for your partner.”
In addition to Ally and Sasha, the remaining couples include Kel Mitchell and Witney Carson, James Van Der Beek and Emma Slater, Kate Flannery and Pasha Pashkov, Sean Spicer and Lindsay Arnold, Hannah Brown and Alan Bersten, Lauren Alaina and Gleb Savchenko, and Karamo Brown and Jenna Johnson. Dancing With the Stars season 28 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
