For the second year in a row, Dancing With the Stars producers surprised the show’s audiences by announcing that all five semi-finalists would be advancing to next week’s finals.
While some of the pros confided to TV Insider that the news didn’t come as a total shock (certainly not once host Alfonso Ribeiro announced a three-hour finale during the program), one celebrity believed for certain that he was hanging up his dancing shoes—and his glasses—for the season given his slightly lower scores and the fact that three couples were called safe before he was.
“I was thinking that it’s between Rylee [Arnold] and me, and Ilona [Maher] and Alan [Bersten],” Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik told TV Insider on the post-show press line. “She scored better. She has a bigger fan base. This is it. I thought my dancing journey is probably over. To hear them say we [all] made it to the finale, I fell to the floor in excitement.”
The evening started out challenging for Nedoroscik. He and Arnold earned 25 points for their cha-cha-cha to the song “Bailar.” While that’s a great score for the first half of the season, couples traditionally rank higher in the semi-finales.
During the couple’s second dance, a tango, a snafu occurred when Nedoroscik’s glasses became slightly dislodged, inhibiting his vision. “I tried to fix them,” he recounts. “They couldn’t get on right so Rylee threw them off.”
“I saw that they were crooked,” Arnold says. “I just did it.”
“It was absolutely the right thing to do,” Nedoroscik hastens to add, noting it’s better to finish a dance with no glasses rather than having them on improperly.
Judge Carrie Ann Inaba shared in her critique that she could relate to Nedoroscik’s eyewear mishap. “I have really bad vision—not now,” she clarified. “I’m wearing my contacts.” Inaba added that what likely happened to Nedoroscki’s depth perception once his glasses were half off his face was no joke. “I was so impressed. You didn’t stop. You continued on and you let [Rylee] continue that dance like a pro!”
Inaba drove home how just impressed she was with Nedoroscik by giving him a “10” score. “Sometimes it’s just magic and that’s all there is—that was a 10 for me!” she enthused.
Prior to the semi-finals, Arnold was already praising Nedoroscik’s work ethic. “I have really seen him become a dancer,” she told TV Insider. “He makes sure he gets every single step right. It’s been fun to see his learning process. I’m so proud of him. I just love Stephen. He’s been the best partner.”
Now, the couple, along with the other four finalists, are preparing for their respective freestyle dance, which could determine who wins the coveted Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy.
Nedoroscik’s freestyle, Arnold previews, “is going to involve Stephen’s world very heavily. It’s something that Dancing With the Stars has never seen before. We’re very excited.”
Dancing With the Stars, 3-Hour Season 33 Finale, Tuesday, November 26, 8/7, ABC