If only they had more time. Dancing With the Stars’ Maksim Chmerkovskiy opened up in a new interview about his partner Heather Morris’ shocking elimination from the hit ABC series.
The ballroom champ, 37, shared his thoughts about Morris’ unexpected exit from the show during a Tuesday, April 25, interview on SiriusXM’s Conversations with Maria Menounos.
“I just hope that Heather’s elimination isn’t going to be, like, sort of shoved under the rug,” Chmerkovskiy said. “She is an uber-talented person. I just wish that we got to show it.”
According to the TV personality, he believes people thought that Morris, 30, would be safe, given her dance experience — she used to dance for Beyonce! — and her high scores from the judges. As viewers saw on the Monday, April 24, episode of DWTS, the Glee alum gave a showstopping performance that earned season 24’s first perfect score, but she still got voted off the show.
While he was disappointed in being booted from the competition, the new dad — who shares son Shai, 3 months, with wife and fellow DWTS star Peta Murgatroyd — told Menounos that he is staying positive.
“There’s no hard feelings, obviously, because the show is great. We understand now what it is, what it’s not. And it’s an opportunity for people from different walks of life to come in together, do stuff,” he said. “That’s been happening for, like, you know, we’re on 24 seasons. I don’t know anything that’s out there for 24 seasons that involves reality television like that.”
Chmerkovskiy added, “It pushes us forth, it pushes dance’s agenda. We started Dancing With the Stars and have giant billboards above Sunset [Boulevard]. … We can’t be not proud of where we’ve come from and where we are and it’s all because of dance. It’s all because of Dancing With the Stars.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
