Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas spilled all the juicy details about their time on Dancing With the Stars following their shocking elimination.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star, 32, and the professional dancer, 39, appeared on the Wednesday, November 26, episode of Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
“I think that day, we kind of had a gut feeling to be honest,” Ballas said of getting eliminated during the semifinals on November 18, recalling how he had told Leavitt, “Let’s just go out. Let’s let’s enjoy ourselves. Let’s have fun. Go for it. Like, let your hair down. Enjoy this.”
Leavitt and Ballas were frontrunners throughout season 34 of Dancing With the Stars, so many fans were surprised when they were sent home. (Five couples advanced to the Tuesday, November 25, finale: Robert Irwin and Witney Carson, Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy, Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa, Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten, and Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach. Irwin, 21, and Carson, 32, ultimately won the mirrorball trophy.)
While some Dancing With the Stars contestants are understandably eliminated for their two left feet, other entrants are sent home far too early. The voting system got an overhaul for season 28, following the controversial victory of radio host Bobby Bones one season prior, but the changeup didn’t stop formidable competitors from leaving the ballroom. […]
“My strategy is always, ‘Do your f***ing best,’” Ballas said. “Come out swinging. Do the best you can. Because the reality is, I’m gonna tell you right now: This is not the first time that someone who is an amazing, incredible, dynamic performer has been eliminated early. It happened to me in season 5 with Sabrina Bryan. But this is the first time I feel like it’s happened with this new TikTok, Instagram hype.”
During their last time performing together on the ABC competition, “I felt our dances were solid,” Leavitt said. “Like, that Viennese waltz that we did was one of my favorite dances that we’ve done. It just felt off. It didn’t feel like the other Tuesdays that we had had.”
Ballas explained, “I’m a over rehearser. I like to rehearse to the point where it’s just so ingrained in your body. I hate leaving things to chance. Might be old-school, but that’s how I was raised when I was dancing. It’s just, you rehearse it, rehearse, rehearse it so you don’t have to think. And in between our first dance and second one, we were [backstage] running it through.”
He noticed at the time that Leavitt was getting “emotional.” As a result, “I kind of had to go into football-coach mode, where I was like, ‘You can do this!’”
Ballas “was starting to get worried that she’s going to go out there and black out.”
Leavitt had an ominous feeling, “like this was our last dance, which in turn, made it a little bit more emotional.”
Cooper, 31, reminded the duo that they had received “one of the highest scores that night,” with a 58 out of 60 for both of their performances. She asked for their take on why they didn’t get the viewer votes to remain on the show.
“I don’t know,” Leavitt said. “I mean, if I was speculating, I’d say, ‘Yeah, maybe ‘Secret Lives.’ Because it was such a huge divide. Like, you either really loved me for that, or you really hated me for that. So, maybe it swayed some people.”
Weighing in, Ballas said, “Sometimes this s***t happens … with such a stacked cast and really great talent. Great talent, all-around.
Leavitt previously reflected on their Dancing departure in the days afterward.
“I am just gonna speak from the heart and share what I’m feeling. I share the good, I share the bad, I share the ugly, so I’m just gonna keep doing that,” she said in a Thursday, November 20, TikTok video. “When you’re cast on Dancing With the Stars, you are seeing these people [for] hours every single day. Then it just stops. It genuinely feels like a breakup. It feels like I’m going through withdrawals right now.”
As she adjusted to her new normal without the long-running series, Leavitt grew visibly upset.
“Today just felt so weird. It felt so weird not going into the studio and meeting with Mark and learning a dance,” she added. “It just felt weird and it made me sad.”
Leavitt also emphasized the strong bond she formed with Ballas during the season.
Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas are still hoping to find a way to thank their fans after being forced to pause their Dancing With the Stars giveaway plans. “It was a mishap,” Leavitt, 32, told Us Weekly exclusively after the ballroom competition’s Halloween Night episode on Tuesday, October 28. “[It’s] something we wanted to do […]
“It’s so important to surround yourself with people who believe in you, who want to see you achieve your delusional dreams, as cheesy as that sounds,” she said through tears. “Mark is that friend to me. I will forever be so grateful for that friendship.”
While Leavitt insisted that she “loved every bit of” her Dancing With the Stars experience, she noted, “The one thing that I have loved the most that I wasn’t expecting was getting a lifelong friend.”
Meanwhile, Ballas shared a similar sentiment in his and Leavitt’s post-elimination Good Morning America interview.
“We’ve had a great time and had some really fun moments on this show. And that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “And yes, it sucks to fall at the last hurdle, but you have a stacked finale. Great couples. It’s gonna be an amazing show next week. And I made a friend for life. It’s not the end, you know? But this happens sometimes. It’s OK.”