Tyra Banks was at the center of an extremely uncomfortable moment during the Oct. 5 episode of Dancing With the Stars. As host of the show, she was announcing which couples were safe from elimination, and had it down to three pairs: Anne Heche/Keo Motsepe, Chrishell Stause/Gleb Savchenko and Vernon Davis/Peta Murgatroyd. It turned out that there was a mishap, though, and a couple who had already been called safe — Monica Aldama/Val Chmerkovskiy — was actually in the bottom two. With just minutes to go in the live broadcast, Tyra had to frantically call Monica and Val back to the stage for a possible elimination.
“Wowzers. Live TV,” she tweeted after the episode. “Wrong name on cards. So challenging to deal with moments like these. But we power through.” In the end, it was up to the judges to decide which of the bottom two couples (Monica/Val and Anne/Keo) would be sent home. The vote was unanimous for Monica and Val to stay, which meant that Anne and Keo were eliminated.
However, the entire situation was extremely chaotic, as it was a race against time following the mishap. Obviously, Monica and Val got the short end of the stick on this one, as they had a brief moment of celebration before finding out they were really in jeopardy. “It is what it is,” Val told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “We got to roll with the punches. Keep moving. We’re here. We get to laugh about it now, thankfully.”
Another DWTS pro, Artem Chigvintsev, also discussed the snafu during an interview with HollywoodLife and other media outlets. “I have never witnessed anything like it,” he admitted. “I think it was the first time in the history of Dancing With the Stars. Bruno [Tonioli] did say it happened on the UK version of the show, but I wasn’t part of that season. It’s a shame. It’s a shame because once you tell someone that they are through, and then you have to bring them back….it’s a tough realization. I hope they don’t feel upset because, luckily, they didn’t go home. I hope they are in better spirits [now] that they were in the final moments of the show.”
Tyra replaced Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews as the DWTS host this season, and some fans have been very vocal on social media with their criticism of how she’s been doing. Recently, she defended herself against the haters who’ve been calling her out. “Tonight I hosted the second episode of Dancing With the Stars….and, yeah, it wasn’t perfect,” Tyra said on TikTok on Sept. 23. “Yeah I had a lot of fun, but I messed up, I said the wrong words, but I kept, kept going.”
She added, “We’re gonna keep on going and going. So forgive yourself when you mess up, stand the heck up, and keep going.” Dancing With the Stars airs on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. on ABC.