A 'DWTS' Elimination Mishap Had Judges Confused and Fans Begging for Tom Bergeron's Return

From Woman's Day

Anything can happen on live TV — including mistakes. That was the case during Monday night's episode of Dancing With the Stars, during which host Tyra Banks told Cheer coach Monica Aldama and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy they were safe when they were, in fact, in the bottom two.

When it was time for elimination, Banks read through the list — in no particular order — who was safe. Aldama and Chmerkovskiy were the seventh couple announced as safe. Banks continued to work her way through the list when she reached the final three couples on the floor: Anne Heche and Keo Motsepe, Chrishell Stause and Gleb Savchenko, and Vernon Davis and Pita Murgatroyd. This is where things got complicated. Tyra announced Heche and Davis as the bottom two stars, with Stause still on stage. As everyone looked on in confusion, Banks announced, "there's actually been an error."

She then clarified the bottom two couples were Heche and Kotsepe. . . and Aldama and Chmerkovskiy.

"Please have Monica come back," Banks said into her mic. "There has been an error in our control room but we're making it happen."

"This is live TV, right?" she continued. "This is the craziness of live TV."

While Derek Hough looked on in shock and Carrie Ann Inaba tried to help coordinate the duos, Bruno Tonioli chimed in reminding the contestants that, "nobody is infallible. . . it's happened in the U.K."

When the correct couples were finally on the floor, Banks apologized once again adding, "this is live TV and we're all human."

Fans at home were quick to judge the show, and Banks in particular, for the snafu. Many even went as far as to say this wouldn't have happened under former host, Tom Bergeron. On fan in particular, wrote "how can you tell someone they are safe and then be like jk bring them back out? Can someone find @Tom_Bergeron ?? Tell him it was all a joke and bring him backkkkk. 2020 is already enough of a mess without all these changes and things."

Many viewers, however, were quick to come to Banks' defense. "It’s not Tyra’s fault so let’s not do that," one wrote. Another chimed in, writing, "let's not hate on Tyra for this though...the producers gave her the wrong card, she didn't mess up the information." Others echoed these sentiments.

Mostly, fans were just confused, particularly on how Aldama and Chmerkovskiy were even in the bottom two.

Banks took to Twitter after the episode to apologize even more, writing, "Wowzers. Live TV. Wrong name on cards. So challenging to deal with moments like these. But we power through."

And she's right. These things can happen to anyone. Yes, even our beloved Tom Bergeron could have made this mistake. But it's part of what makes watching live television that much more exciting.

Tune into ABC on Monday at 8 p.m. EST to watch Dancing With the Stars.

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