The race for the mirrorball trophy in Dancing with the Stars Season 28 is on, and the competition has been fierce... for the most part. Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was a divisive addition to the roster of celebs, and he went on to become a divisive performer. Spicer was consistently one of the lowest-scoring performers, but audience votes kept him in the running all the way through to Week 9. Despite Spicer outlasting some objectively better dancers -- after all, wouldn't the panel of judges know? -- the other celebs apparently were nothing but supportive.
Considering the looks on some of the other celebrity dancers' faces when Sean Spicer was declared safe from elimination in the November 4 episode of Season 28, I wouldn't have been surprised to hear that there was some distance or coolness between Spicer and the other dancers. After all, politics aside, stars were watching Spicer remain in the running with much lower scores than the dancers he was outlasting. When asked if the other couples had anything to say to him when he was getting to stay while higher-scored dancers were being sent home, Sean Spicer said this to EW:
I enjoyed every day that I was on the show. And the beauty of it was quite the opposite. They, the other cast members, the pros, the crew were, to a point, unbelievably supportive and encouraging. And I think where Lindsey and then Jenna continued to help me focus was to say, 'Look, this is a competition that is half judges and half people. And there are people out there that want you to continue. And you need to remember that that counts just as much, and that these people want you to stay on. And we need to work hard to show that we want to be there.'
While Sean Spicer may not have been the best dancer in Dancing with the Stars history, the other people at the show evidently never made him feel out of place. Originally partnered with pro dancer Lindsay Arnold, Spicer began to dance with Jenna Johnson after Arnold needed to take some personal time off, and Spicer credited both with helping him focus on audience votes rather than judges scores.
The judges, on the other hand, may not have felt so encouraging toward Sean Spicer as the weeks passed. Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli were visibly dismayed when Spicer remained in the mix a couple of weeks ago, and they opened up about their disappointment and frustration with how the season was going and so many good dancers were getting the boot.
All things considered, Sean Spicer seems to be taking his elimination pretty well, and he'll be back for the finale. The judges didn't exactly need a lot of time to decide whether to send home Spicer or Lauren Alaina with pro dance partner Gleb Savchenko, and not just because Alaina dazzled even NSYNC's Joey Fatone with her dance to Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way."
Who will be the next celebrity dancer to be eliminated, now that the judges' least-favorite has been sent home? Find out in new episodes of Dancing with the Stars on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
