There have been many Disney nights on Dancing With the Stars where no one gets voted off the show, but sadly, for Hilaria Baldwin and her pro partner, Gleb Savchenko, this wasn’t one of those instances. The yoga instructor/podcaster/entrepreneur and her teacher were eliminated despite the fact that they scored higher than five (!) other couples.
“It’s a weird combination of feelings,” Baldwin told TV Insider on the post-show press line. “You love everybody and you want to root for everybody. It’s the most torn feeling you could possibly imagine. I’m grateful for every single day that I had with Gleb and to Dancing With the Stars. I’m excited to cheer everybody else on as they continue their journey.”
Savchenko may not be taking home the Len Goodman Mirrorball this season, but he is leaving the competition with a renewed passion for dance, which he credits Baldwin with helping him achieve. During their four-week journey, they danced a cha-cha-cha, a Tango, a Samba, and a Quickstep.
“I feel like we’ve introduced ballroom [on] another level to the audience of Dancing with the Stars,” Savchenko says. “I don’t think people had seen me dance Samba [which I did last week] on that level since my competition days. Sure, it’s fun and entertaining, but I’m glad that people were commenting on social that that was a real Samba we did. There was very positive feedback on that. We’d done a great job.”
Disney/Eric McCandless)
Despite having both impressive scores and 1 million followers on Instagram, Baldwin failed to get enough votes to continue on in the competition. Had she performed in next week’s “Dedication Night,” viewers would have seen her husband, Alec Baldwin, take part in the show.
“We were going to dance to our very first wedding dance, Contigo [by Luis Miguel],” Hilaria revealed. She added that her husband had been calling her following the live broadcast, but she hadn’t had a chance to pick up the phone just yet.
While Savchenko will take part in opening show numbers, Hilaria says that she’s returning to the role she loves the most: being a mom. “My kids came out here [to Los Angeles],” she says. “They changed their school. Alec had been flying back and forth. My whole family moved heaven and earth to support me. Now, I’m going back to being a mom. I mean, I have been a mom through this whole thing. Now, I’ll be a mom even more.”
The couple will be missed by their fellow castmates. “Hilaria is so talented,” says dance pro Rylee Arnold, who is paired with singer Scott Hoying (Pentatonix). “She had authentic ballroom technique in all her dances. I’m going to miss that.”
As for Savchenko, Arnold says, “I love Gleb. He’s one of my favorites in the cast. He’s so sweet and kind. He’s really such a sweetheart and he’s kind to everyone.”
Savchenko is hoping Hollywood feels the same way about him that Arnold does. He dipped his toes in the acting pond in the 2023 GAF film Swing Into Romance. Savchenko’s plan is step in front of the camera more.
“I’ve been in acting school,” he says. “I’ve been auditioning. I’m putting my heart and soul into acting. That’s what I really want to do. I want to transition from dancing to acting [eventually]. I feel like this is my next step. A lot of people are supporting me and believing in me.
“I have a great team around me,” Savchenko continues. “I’m working on [losing] my Russian accent. Hopefully, I’ll hit the soap opera [world] and be the next Sofia Vergara but in a male, Russian body!”
He’s hardly hanging up his dancing shoes anytime soon. In fact, he and Hilaria haven’t done their final dance, either. Savchenko says that he expects to take to the ballroom floor again this season if the tradition of couples dancing in the finale continues. “Is that what happens,” Hilaria asked her teacher. “You’ll see us dance again,” a smiling Savchenko promises.
Dancing With the Stars, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC