‘DWTS’ Pro Koko Iwasaki Says Her and Matt Walsh’s Elimination Was Unfair

Dancing With The Stars pro dancer Koko Iwasaki and her celebrity partner Matt Walsh were the first to go on the new season of the dance competition series. Now, speaking out about their exit, Iwasaki says that she feels their elimination was unfair. “I’m really bummed, you know? Quite disappointed, to be honest,” she told Entertainment Tonight.

“But at the end of the day, this experience with Matt, we went through so much in the last few weeks, and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world,” Iwasaki added, then saying with a smile. “I’ve said this so many times, but I would have Matt every season if I could.” During their performance, Iwasaki and Walsh danced an unconventional cha-cha to the Bel Biv DeVoe classic, “Poison.” While, the judges noted Walsh’s enthusiasm, the pair only garnered three 4s from the judges — Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli — for a total score of 12. This landed them at the bottom of the leaderboard.

“I don’t think that he deserved 4s, I’ll be honest,” Iwasaki went on to say. “He wasn’t the best dancer, you know, he’s never danced before, it’s something still new. But he was really great last night and he worked so hard. He’s been through a lot, we’ve been through a lot together, and our journey was short, but I don’t think he deserved 4s last night.” She added, “It wasn’t his time yet! He did so well, we did real cha-cha.”

After the pair were eliminated, Walsh thanked Iwasaki and expressed hope that the judges may rewatch their performance and reconsider, “We really did do cha-cha. We did authentic cha-cha steps, he did so many technical things and of course, you know, [it was] never perfect, but we embraced the imperfections,” Iwasaki told ET. “I think, for what we had time for, he did incredible. And it was only just his beginning, and I wish America could’ve seen all the different sides of him, you know? All the different techniques and all the differentflavors he had.”

Walsh previously took a “pause” on his involvement with the show, due to the WGA strike, which had an impact on their journey, but after an agreement was reached with the AMPTP — and SAG granted Walsh permission to participate in DWTS — they got back to practicing. “When he did walk out, it obviously gave us less time to rehearse, because we couldn’t rehearse during those days, so I think mentally and emotionally it was really hard on us,” Iwasaki explained. 

“It was kind of like this roller coaster of emotions,” she continued. “We were going through ups and downs and being hopeful and then, you know, not. So at the end of the day, I’m so happy we were able to dance and just show America what we’ve been working on.” Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+.