We might not have much news right now about the upcoming season of Dancing With The Stars, but we’ve still learned some behind-the-scenes tidbits from some professional dancers on the show, like who Witney Carson considers the best and worst competitors in the show’s history. Now, Season 28 contestant Ally Brooke is opening up about her time on the show and why she at one point wanted to leave even before she was eliminated.
Ally Brooke and professional Dancing with the Stars partner Sasha Farber placed third overall in the competition in 2019 after making it all the way to the finale, but their appearance in the finale was divisive, as they were advanced out of the semi-finals by the judges over James Van Der Beek and his pro partner Emma Slater. That elimination was a shocker, to say the least, as Van Der Beek had been a fan-favorite contestant all season long, and on top of that, his wife Kimberly had just suffered a miscarriage. In a recent episode of her YouTube series The Ally Brooke Show, she reunited with Farber and spoke about the elimination of Van Der Beek:
Him having the strength to still go on the show and perform and dance. To me it just did not make sense. I’m like, this does not make sense that he’s not through. There’s no way. I know America is rooting for him. It was just a bunch of mixed emotions. I thought, 'Oh, I'm definitely not going to the finals because they're going to choose him.’
Ally Brooke and Sasha Farber were in the bottom two in the semi-finals with James Van Der Beek and Emma Slater, and Brooke herself thought that there was no way the judges would save her over Van Der Beek after the emotional night. The judges were evidently more impressed with Brooke's dancing, and advanced her to the finale with Farber. But after the judges saved the singer, she and Farber received a lot of backlash and hate online from fans who thought Van Der Beek deserved to be in her place. Brooke explained how that made her feel, telling Farber on The Ally Brooke Show:
After the show, I wanted to quit. Did I ever talk to you about that? [I said] I’m going to give this to James. I don’t want to be here. I was done. It was such an emotional punching bag for me. And then on top of that, I got a lot of hate because the judges saved me, and I think you did too.
But James Van Der Beek refused to allow her to give her spot in the finale to him, as much as she wanted to, and Ally Brooke and Sasha Farber went on to place third in the finale the following week, after the winner Hannah Brown and runner-up Kel Mitchell.
We don’t yet know the contestants or professional lineup for this upcoming season of Dancing With The Stars, or really much about Season 30 in general. We know that it will premiere on Monday, September 20 on ABC, but we don’t even know if Tyra Banks will return as host after her debut in Season 29. Fans thought that longtime host Tom Bergeron might be returning to the show after a vague tease, but he dashed our hopes right away.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated when more information is revealed about this upcoming season of the competition series, but until then, you can check out our fall 2021 TV schedule for more television shows to check out.
