Sherri Shepherd still has some strong thoughts about her former Dancing With the Stars competition.
While discussing Lauren Jauregui‘s shocking DWTS elimination on the Friday, October 3, episode of Sherri, Shepherd reflected on her own exit from the ABC competition series. “I was voted out in the fourth week when I was on Dancing With the Stars,” she said. “And those are tears. I was [pissed] off when I was voted [off], ’cause you put your heart and your soul into it.”
Shepherd went on to state, “I don’t know how I went home before Melissa Gilbert from Little House on the Prairie. I’m telling you, I still can’t let this one go.”
Both women competed on Season 14 of DWTS in 2012. As Shepherd recalled on her show, Gilbert suffered an injury the night she and her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, were sent home. “I don’t know what dance she was doing. Her partner was Maksim Chmerkovskiy. And Melissa fell and she hit her head against Maks’ leg, allegedly,” Shepherd stated. “And so, she went to the doggone hospital, but I got voted off. And I kept going, ‘How did she beat me from the ICU?!’”
Shepherd revealed that she was so angry about the situation that she didn’t vote for Gilbert when she ran for president of the Screen Actors Guild. “She even called me, she said, ‘Sherri, can I count on your vote?’ I said, ‘Melissa, did you count on my vote on Dancing With the Stars?’” Shepherd shared.
More than a decade after their time on DWTS, Shepherd said she and Gilbert are on good terms. “Melissa, I’m good with you now,” she said to the camera before adding, “You’re lucky and really sweet, and if you run again for president, you’ve got my vote, girl.”
Shepherd and Val were the third couple of Season 14 to be sent home. Gilbert and Maksim ended the competition in fifth place, while Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd took home that season’s mirrorball trophy.
Earlier in the DWTS discussion, Shepherd shared her reaction to Jauregui, stating she was “pissed” by her and Armstrong’s early elimination. “Losing any competition is devastating. But I can tell you firsthand, nobody gets more upset than the one who gets eliminated from Dancing With the Stars,” she told viewers.
The former The View cohost continued, “It’s so funny, these young ones, they don’t know how to pretend to be gracious. Because when you lose something, whether it be Dancing With the Stars, an award show, or a man, you’re supposed to pretend like you’re cool with it. But then, you know what? Lauren said that she said. She meant what she said. It’s really hard getting booted, especially when you know you shouldn’t have been voted off yet.”
Jauregui exclusively spoke to TV Insider about her elimination after the Tuesday, September 30, episode. “I mean, they asked me how I was feeling in the moment, and that’s how I was feeling in the moment,” she said of her one-word exit reaction. “I’m feeling just emotional about the whole thing. I feel like I had a lot left to give the show, and I just wish that I would have had the opportunity to do that especially because I was working with Brandon. We were going to keep progressing. That was our strategy. It’s sad not to be able to do that.”
Sherri, Weekdays, Check your local listings
Dancing With the Stars, Season 34, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC and Disney+ (Streaming Next Day on Hulu)
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