‘Dancing With the Stars’: Sharna Burgess and Jesse Metcalfe React to Their Surprising Elimination

Monday night’s all-new episode of Dancing With the Stars saw yet another dancing duo eliminated from the competition, bringing their fellow competitors one step closer to nabbing the Mirrorball Trophy. Following a series of dances to the theme of ’80s Night, Jesse Metcalfe and his pro dancing partner Sharna Burgess were sent home, bringing their time on the ABC series to a close, though they are both grateful for the journey.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight shortly after stepping off the dance floor for the last time, Metcalf admitted that it felt like “the journey was cut short a bit,” though he acknowledged that “everything that’s meant to be will be and this was the end of the road for me.” Speaking of the experience, he said that “it was just such an amazing experience” that was “challenging but incredibly rewarding.” According to Metcalf, his time on DWTS gifted him with more than just the benefit of new dance skills, as dancing not only resulted in him losing “10 pounds” and helping “my posture,” but his time on the series also helped him to “open up.”

Ahead of their dance Monday night, in the pre-package, Metcalfe opened up about his high school experience, admitting that he was not considered popular and looked to classic John Hughes films for comfort, which inspired to get into the industry. Metcalfe said that he “was actually looking forward to opening up even more, emotionally.” In the end, though, Metcalfe said “it’s all good. I thought it was an amazing night. I think the episode’s going to be very well-received. So, I had fun tonight.”

During Monday night’s episode, Metcalfe and Burgess performed a romantic tango set to “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears. The performance, however, did not win over everyone, with judge Bruno Tonioli acknowledging that while they “started well,” the dance went wrong. “You went wrong quite a few times. You kind of lost your timing,” he said. In the end, the scores from Tonioli (6), Carrie Ann Inaba (7) and Derek Hough (6) gave them a total of 19 out of a possible 30 points and landed them in the bottom two alongside Vernon Davis and Peta Murgatroyd. While the judges ultimately unanimously decided to save the latter, Burgess had nothing but praise for her celeb partner.

“Jesse has done an amazing job at stepping up, with absolutely no [dancing] experience whatsoever, and doing something that is incredibly difficult,” Burgess told the outlet. “And doing it front of millions of people! I’m proud of him. I wish we could have gone further, for sure, because there’s so much I wanted to show. But I’m grateful that we got to do the five weeks that we did.”

Metcalfe and Burgess join dancing partners former NBA player Charles Oakley and Emma Slater, Tiger King star Carole Baskin and Pasha Pashkov, and actress Anne Heche and Keo Motsepe in being eliminated. New episodes of Dancing With the Stars air Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for the latest updates.