Mild spoilers ahead for Dancing with Stars Season 29 semi-finals.
Dancing with the Stars Season 29 entered the semi-finals on Monday night’s show, which featured the remaining celebrities and their pro dance partners tangoing and foxtrotting their butts off in the hopes of avoiding elimination. While Justina Machado and pro dancer Sasha Farber wowed the judges during their contemporary dance, Farber reportedly suffered a pretty serious back injury right before the show.
Several injuries have befallen celebrities and the pro dancers throughout Dancing with the Stars’ extended run. A few weeks ago, Cheryl Burke fell during rehearsals with Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, sustaining an injury to her head where she hit it on the ballroom floor. Most recently, Sasha Farber is said to have suffered a back injury during Monday’s dress rehearsal with One Day at a Time’s Justina Machado. Here’s what a source told Page Six about the unexpected injury:
We were not sure if Sasha was going to be able to dance, he managed to hurt his back, and he already has a slipped disc, he was in agony.
Ouch! That definitely sounds pretty painful. Despite the reported injury, Sasha Farber took to the ballroom floor with Justina Machado. The pair had two dances lined up during the semi-finals: the tango and a contemporary dance. Both of the performances garnered very high praise from all three judges, with their final dance of the night earning them a perfect score.
However, these dances could have turned out very differently if Sasha Farber’s injury had kept him on the sidelines. The source reports that pro dancer Brandon Armstrong, who was previously partnered with fashion expert Jeannie Mai in Season 29 before her own exit, was preparing to take Farber’s place in the case that he couldn’t dance during the live show. According to the source, Armstrong was rehearsing the two dances that Farber had planned with Justina Machado right up until airtime.
I suppose that Sasha Farber’s ability to dance in the semi-finals could mean that his back injury pain got less agonizing in the hours after it happened. Either that, or Farber managed to hold it all together just long enough to make the dances happen. Whatever the case may be, I hope that he sees a doctor before he and Justina Machado begin rehearsing for next week’s Dancing with the Stars finals.
The semi-finals proved to be a close call for Justina Machado and Sasha Farber. The dancing duo landed in the bottom three by the end of the two-hour show. While host Tyra Banks announced that figure skater Johnny Weir and his pro partner Britt Stewart wouldn’t be going to the finals, Machado and Farber were left to face the judge’s decision. Ultimately, they decided to send Skai Jackson and her pro partner Alan Bersten home ahead of the finals, leaving Machado and Farber in for next week’s big Season 29 finale. Here’s hoping Farber has a full recovery in the meantime.
The Season 29 finals of Dancing with the Stars will air on Monday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC. For more on what to watch, be sure to check out our 2020 fall TV schedule, as well as our 2021 winter and spring premiere guide.
