‘Dancing With the Stars’: Derek Hough Looks Back at His ‘Worst’ Moment Competing on the Show

Derek Hough is recalling an embarrassing moment he had during his first season as a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars. The moment he touched on was during his second dance on the show with partner Jennie Garth, and it’s enough to make him still cringe. However, he did note that while he may have had a cringe-worthy moment so soon, he said it was only “uphill” from there.

“In my very first season, my second dance, this is when I’m like, ‘This is my chance. I’m going to show what I got. This is my first time on TV doing this.’ And I dropped my partner, Jennie Garth, on live television,” Hough told Us Weekly. “Which by the way, dropping your partner and falling on live television […] but it was, like, the worst thing, but the good thing about that is I got that out of the way real quick. That’s the worst thing that could possibly happen, so it’s only uphill from here.”

In a recent interview with PopCulture.com, Garth opened up with a few more details regarding their time together on the show, including her need for hypnosis to cope with the spotlight. However, what made their experience even more challenging, was that it was Hough’s first season and everything moved so quick for the both of them, she admits they both didn’t really know what they were doing, they were just going with the flow. “It was still very new,” she said. “It was actually Derek Hough‘s first year as sa dancer.”

“He had been working in London and they brought him over and literally he got off of the plane and started rehearsing with me and he kind of didn’t know what he was doing as far as choreographing what the show needed and wanted.” While she’s famously known for her role on Beverly Hills: 90210, despite being in the public eye, something about performing in front of a live audience, judges and millions of viewers added pressure, making her a little nervous. “It put me way out of my comfort zone as far as being the center of the spotlight […] I actually had to go through some hypnosis in order to be comfortable in that sort of high-pressure environment, but I learned a lot from it.” Despite the nerves, fans were gushing over them both. In fact, Hough went on to win the competition six times.