Artem Chigvintsev joked that he was “afraid to speak – because I might say something you don’t want to hear” after he and his celebrity partner, Heidi D’Amelio, were eliminated from “Dancing With the Stars” Monday night.
“I’m definitely disappointed,” the pro dancer, 40, admitted to Page Six and other reporters via Zoom. “I think what’s hard is, this show becomes your life. For the past 10 weeks, this has been every second of [our] day … I mean, you just breathe, and sleep, and even dream of this, of what’s happening on the floor, right?”
Chigvintsev – who has sacrificed time away from his wife, Nikki Bella, and their 2-year-old son, Matteo, to do the show – added that it’s difficult to not take the elimination “personal” when so much time has been invested.
He further argued that he and D’Amelio, 50, worked really hard to showcase the influencer’s vulnerable side this week – which they felt they did with their emotional contemporary routine to Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic.”
“I think this week [was] hard, because we work so hard to take in the correction from the judges and to, like, really deliver. And when you work so hard to bring the emotion out, and then you actually do it, but you don’t get the score, that’s what’s hard,” Chigvintsev explained.
“The emotional part, it’s more challenging than learning the steps – especially for a person who is not a performer,” he continued. “There’s a lot of people on the show who perform for a living … that’s what they do [on a] day to day basis. [Heidi] doesn’t, that’s not her job … so overcoming that and then kind of getting, like, ‘Bye, see ya,’ it does makes you feel a little bit like, ‘Ah, well this sucks.’”
For her part, D’Amelio admitted that she “didn’t really get the reaction” she wanted to from judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli Monday night.
“I’ve come a long way. I poured my heart out there tonight,” explained the TikTok star, who previously admitted she almost quit the show until daughter Charli D’Amelio talked her out of it. “I’m gonna try not to let that shut me down again. But, you know, I came this far. So I’m happy.”
Monday night’s ’90s-themed episode also ended with the judges sending home “Jersey Shore” star Vinny Guadagnino and his pro partner, Koko Iwasaki, in a double elimination.
“It’s been an amazing journey. I’ve learned a lot about myself and I’ve overcome a lot through this whole thing,” the reality star, 34, told Page Six after the show. “It looks like a dance competition, but I really did have to, like, overcome a lot of struggle during this that I’m going to keep with me forever.”
Guadagnino reiterated that the journey “definitely hasn’t been an easy road” for him, as he and Iwasaki consistently received low scores from the judges.
“We’ve had to keep fighting every single week, and we did,” he said. “We kept fighting and we made it to week eight … like, the show’s almost over. So I’m proud and now I can be friends with Koko. She doesn’t have to teach me a new dance tomorrow!”
As for who he thinks from the “Jersey Shore” cast should do “Dancing With the Stars” next?
“Well, I think Deena [Cortese] definitely wants to do it,” he revealed. “And in a weird, crazy alternative universe, I feel like when Pauly [D] came here, I feel like he kind of got like a little bit like, ‘Oh, maybe I should do that.’ So I don’t know. That’d be interesting.”
“Dancing With the Stars” airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Disney+.