‘DWTS’ Disney Night Ends With Surprise Elimination

Dancing With the Stars held its traditional Disney night on Monday. During the night, the celebrity contestants danced to some of your favorite Disney tracks and earned scores from the judges based on their routines. However, unlike Disney nights of seasons past, the show ended with an actual elimination. After Anne Heche and Carole Baskin found themselves in the bottom two, Baskin was ultimately sent home after all three of the judges — Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli — voted for Heche to stay.

For longtime DWTS fans, it came as a bit of a surprise that the show did send one of the couples home on Monday. The series traditionally holds a Disney night once per season. Whenever they do hold a Disney night, the show usually puts on a magical front by keeping everyone safe for the week. As viewers saw recently, that was not the case on Monday night’s episode, and Tiger King star Baskin was sent home.

In the second episode of Season 29, which aired on Tuesday, the show sent home its first celebrity. Baskin, with partner Pasha Pashkov, and former NBA player Charles Oakley, with partner Emma Slater, found themselves in the bottom 2 for the night after receiving scores that placed them on the lower end of the leaderboard. Ultimately, it was up to the judges to decide who to send home. Bruno Tonioli voted for Oakley to remain in the competition. However, Carrie Ann Inaba and Derek Hough both wanted Baskin to stay, meaning that Oakley became the first to be sent home.

Following his time on the dancing competition, Oakley, and Slater, appeared on Good Morning America to talk about their time on the dance floor, as PEOPLE noted. The former basketball player told GMA‘s Michael Strahan, “That’s all we wanted to do, put up a fight. Somebody’s got to win, somebody’s got to lose.” The former Washington Wizards player noted that he made some mistakes during his first routine during the premiere, but he said that he was proud of his second performance. “I think in the first week they caught me off guard a little bit,” Oakley said. “I know I had some mistakes in the first week but last night I thought I was 10 out of 10.” As for his partner, Slater, she had nothing but kind things to say about Oakley. “Our rehearsals go so fast because he’s always early,” she said. “Everything I say he never questions. He’s so positive and so optimistic and that’s what I love about him. He kind of reinforces that in me, so I had the best season.”