If you opened social media shortly after “Halloween Nightmares Night” on Dancing With the Stars, chances are you saw all those memes supporting Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher and her dance partner, Alan Bersten. And chances are you also noticed how most of those memes slammed judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
On Tuesday, Oct. 29, Ilona and Alan performed a thrilling Tango to “Psycho Killer” by Miley Cyrus, kicking off the show in a killer way (no pun intended). Unfortunately, the pair only scored 24 out of 30, which was quite the contrast to her fellow DWTS contestants who all earned nines and tens all evening.
Despite having the lowest scores of the night (by a landslide) — and also losing the dance-off to NBA player Dwight Howard and his dance partner, Daniella Karagach, which would’ve given them three extra points — Ilona and Alan narrowly survived elimination thanks to the public vote, sending The Bachelorette beauty Jenn Tran and her professional dance partner, Sasha Farber, home instead.
After the episode came to a close, Ilona and Alan did some post-show press, dishing about the controversial scores the judges gave them. Needless to say, they did not hold back…
After seeing their “Halloween Nightmares Night” scores, Ilona told Entertainment Tonight that she was “very nervous” heading into the elimination that evening, all while taking her feud with Carrie Ann to the next level. According to the Olympic rugby player, Alan took the judges’ comments (specifically Carrie Ann’s comments) to heart and choreographed a routine with more dancing, per their request, and it still wasn’t good enough.
Naturally, Ilona was disheartened to receive straight eights, when her fellow DWTS contestants received nines and tens all night:
“I think it was really sad to see the eights, and just then to see all the tens and nines and just feel like you kind of failed in a way, it was scary for us, but I’m so happy that people back home voted, because I just know we can do better.”
Alan concurred, contributing his thoughts to the conversation:
“It’s weird, because you want to agree with the judges, but I feel like Ilona did so well, and it was, in my opinion, one of her best dances. She danced so hard. We did really hard steps, and she didn’t mess up any of the steps, but it is so encouraging to see that all the fans resonate with Ilona and that are keeping us in here.”
Naturally, the DWTS duo shared the same sentiment in an interview with Good Morning America as well:
“I think it was just very disappointing to be so low and to have to rely on, you know, fan votes and all, but I’m so happy that the fans really came through, because I do want to be in this competition. I think Alan and I don’t want to cut our time short, like we want to go as far as we can. We’re having so much fun… The relationship we’re building, how much fun we’re having on the dance floor is truly something we just I think we had a fear in our hearts that it would end.”
Is it just me, or could Ilona and Alan be teasing a rumored relationship? Well, based on their antics during Thursday Night Football last week, we would not be shocked if this pair came out as a couple…
Nevertheless, to see where the pair goes from here, catch brand-new episodes of Dancing With the Stars Tuesdays — with the exception of Oct. 5 (aka Election Day) — via ABC or Disney Plus, with next-day streaming via Hulu. The remainder of the season is certain to be one for the books!
