‘Dancing With the Stars’: Tyra Banks Mistakenly Says Wrong Couple Is Safe During Elimination

Monday night’s Dancing With the Stars ended bizarrely as Tyra Banks read the wrong names during the elimination. At first, Cheer star Monica Aldama and her pro dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy thought they were safe and moving on to Week 4. But when Banks was about to name the bottom two vote-getters, she realized there was a mess-up, and Aldama was one of the two dancers to get the least amount of votes.

Aldama and Chmerkovskiy were called back to the dance floor, and the judges had to choose between them and Anne Heche and pro dancer Keo Motsepe. Due to the mishap, the judges were not given any time to really explain their choices. Carrie Ann Inaba and Derek Hough both picked Aldama and Chmerkovskiy. Bruno Tonioli barely had any time to say he would have picked the same couple, too. Banks had just enough time to give Heche and Motsepe an opportunity to bow before she had to send it off to the next show on ABC.

The live television flub began when Banks thought she was about to read the last two remaining couples, but there was one problem. There were still three couples on the stage – Heche and Motsepe, Vernon Davis and Peta Murgatroyd, and Chrishell Stause and Gleb Savchenko. “There’s actually been an error,” Banks said, as she realized there were three couples left. She looked back at her cards before realizing that one of the bottom two couples was not on the stage at all. Aldama and Chmerkovskiy were called back to the stage.

“There’s been an error in our control room,” Banks said. “This is live TV right? This is the craziness of live TV.” Tonioli apologized and tried to calm the situation by noting that similar mistakes have been made on Strictly Come Dancing in the U.K. The elimination then proceeded as usual, although the judges had to move a little faster before the end of the hour.

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