‘Dancing With the Stars’ Semifinalists React to Jenna & Val’s Shocking Elimination

Jenna Dewan (The Rookie) and three-time Mirrorball trophy champion Valentin Chmerkovskiy were eliminated on the November 10 episode of Dancing With the Stars, failing to make next week’s Semifinals. Despite the couple scoring 28 points for their jazz routine to Janet Jackson‘s “All For You” and picking up an extra two points in the dance-off, the duo was sent packing.

TV Insider was on the post-show press line right on the ballroom floor to talk to the six Semifinalists about Dewan and Chmerkovskiy’s surprise exit, and their thoughts on proceeding to the next phase of the dance competition.

“There isn’t any predicting what will happen,” Mark Ballas, also a three-time mirror ball champion, says. The man speaks from experience. In his first year on the show (Season 5 in 2007), he was paired with Sabrina Bryan (The Cheetah Girls). The couple achieved a perfect score of 30 in Week 4 doing a paso doble, but two weeks later, they were voted off.

“This has been kind of the vibe since the show’s inception,” notes Ballas about shocking exits for high-scoring couples. “I’ve seen many. It happened in my first season. The eliminations are always hard.”

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His Season 35 partner Maura Higgins adds, “You know, we all hang out in the rehearsal rooms together. We always pop in to say hello everyone where the snacks are. Everyone’s chatting. Yeah, it’s hard.”

As couples exit week after week, Higgins points out that “things get really quiet in the studio.”

Higgins shares that she’s doing much better, despite suffering injuries over the course of the season. “The show, as well as Mark, have been amazing looking after me,” Higgins reports. “I’m so happy that I could continue on in the show.”

Olympian Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov are advancing to next week’s Semifinals and it wasn’t lost on the duo that they earned the same score this week that Dewan and Chmerkovskiy did (28 points for their individual dance and an addition two points for winning their dance-off).

“Of course, we were surprised,” Pashkov shares of Dewan and Chmerkovskiy’s departure, while Glenn, referencing the importance of viewer voting, explains, “At this point, it’s not fully in our hands, which is hard, especially for athletes. We’re used to seeing our score as our result.”

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Pashkov also weighed in on his recent crowning on People’s Sexiest Man Alive list. “Honestly, I was shocked and surprised,” Pashkov admits. “I had no idea how this all [came] about. You saw my face when I learned about the nomination. Then, winning was a shock. I’m very fateful to the fans who took the time to go online and vote and I appreciate it. I do feel a lot of love and support from the online community through comments and everything. I’m very grateful for it.”

While Chmerkovskiy won’t be going into the Semifinals with his wife, Jenna Johnson, who is paired with Grey’s Anatomy star Harry Shum Jr., there is a husband-and-wife duo advancing in the competition: Pashkov, and his wife, Daniella Karagach, who is competing with Olympian Ezra Frech.

“It’s the most special thing that [Pasha and I] get to do this together and support each other through the whole process,” Karagach says of advancing to the Semifinals alongside her husband.

Going into the second to last week of competition, there are three pros who have won the coveted Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy (Johnson, Karagach, and Ballas), and three who have not (Pashkov, Rylee Arnold, and Jan Ravnik).

Semifinalist Connor Wood, who’s paired with Arnold, says that he’d love to win the Mirrorbaall not for himself, but for his pro partner. “It’d mean the world,” Wood says. “That’s what I’m doing this for. There’s no one else I’m dancing for except Rylee in that final. She deserves the Mirrorball. She’s worked so hard. That’s my goal.”

Dancing With the Stars, Season 35, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC and Disney+