Olivia Jade and Val Chmerkovskiy will dance another week. In a gut-wrenching elimination, Melanie C and Gleb Savchenko were sent home after head judge Len Goodman made the deciding vote to save Olivia and Val. Olivia and Val spoke with reporters, including HollywoodLife, about what those last seconds before Len called their names were like.
“I was whispering to him, I’m like, ‘My anxiety right now is not okay.’ I was just really nervous,” Olivia said. “I already knew how much I loved being here and then being put in a situation where, in one vote, it could all go away. It was terrifying.”
She said being in the bottom 2 has “put into perspective though how much I do want to be here.” Olivia and Val kicked off the night with a gorgeous foxtrot that earned them all 9s from the judges. Despite the scary moment, Olivia isn’t letting the bottom 2 situation get her down. “I think that, honestly, it’s just those types of moments will push me so much harder and make me want to do even better,” the beauty vlogger said.
Val is staying positive and looking ahead to Halloween Night. “Presently speaking, we’re in the competition. We’re moving on. And that’s what I’m focused on,” Val said. “Not getting too high, not getting too low. I’m really proud of our performance as a thing. I don’t want this moment to take away from such a great night that she worked really, really hard for. It just, again, we were kind of becoming one little family. Melanie C is kind of like our everyday buddy, if you will, so it just sucked in that regard. But you know, we’re here and we’re excited to dance next week.”
Val’s wife, Jenna Johnson, earned the first perfect score of the season with partner Jojo Siwa. Val gushed that he was “very proud” of Jenna. Olivia added, “They killed it and they deserved those scores. They were amazing.” Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays on ABC.