Anna Delvey brought the shock factor with her Dancing With the Stars exit interview, but cohost Alfonso Ribeiro can understand where the convict was coming from.
“All I have to tell you is, live is live,” the 53-year-old said during the Wednesday, September 25, episode of The Talk. “And it can be scary when it’s live.”
Ribeiro admitted that Delvey’s comment was “obviously not an answer that any of us would be expecting,” joking that the controversial contestant was “clearly a trendsetter” during her brief stint on the show. With the awkward moment behind them, Ribeiro is more sympathetic to Delvey’s experience.
“For her and her journey … it’s really difficult in that situation, because you’re being told, ‘Bye. You stink, you’re not good enough, we don’t want you here,’” he explained. “And at the end of the day, like, you have to react to that.”
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The actor — who previously won season 19 of DWTS with pro partner Witney Carson before being named the show’s cohost in 2022 — acknowledged that Delvey got “destroyed” on social media after the season 33 cast was announced earlier this month due to her criminal background. The audience’s perception didn’t change much after her first two performances with pro dancer Ezra Sosa.
“It was an honest answer,” Ribeiro added. “Like, ‘What am I going to take away from this? Hurt, pain, suffering.’”
Delvey, 33, and Sosa, 23, were sent home in a double elimination on Tuesday, September 24, alongside Tori Spelling and pro Pasha Pashkov. When asked at the end of the show what she gained from the experience, Delvey simply said, “Nothing.” (Sosa later told Extra that he “expected nothing less” than an “iconic” response from Delvey.)
The comment made waves within the DWTS community, with judge Carrie Ann Inaba telling Entertainment Weekly she thought Delvey’s response was “dismissive.” The Talk‘s Amanda Kloots, who previously appeared on season 30 of the ABC dance competition, was equally unimpressed.
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“That experience … changed my life,” she said while speaking to Ribeiro on Wednesday. “It healed me in ways I never expected it to, and she could’ve had that. And for her to get up there — and I know it’s probably only been [a few] weeks with the partner before — Ezra is an incredible dancer, an incredible friend, an incredible dance partner. And I can only imagine what he gave to her in the weeks that they worked together.”
Kloots, 42, continued, “I think it was a disgrace that she said she got nothing. I really do.”
Ribeiro said he couldn’t necessarily disagree, but he reminded Kloots that they went much further in the competition than Delvey did. (Kloots and pro Alan Bersten finished in fourth place during their season.)
“My life has changed greatly from that experience on that show. … [But] it’s hard to be first,” he said of the elimination process. “Every person I’ve ever talked to who was eliminated first, it is the most difficult position.”
Kloots, however, argued that Delvey should still “remain grateful for the experience” no matter when she was sent home.
Despite the controversy surrounding Delvey’s casting and exit, Ribeiro saw a different side of her behind the scenes. “She actually, you know, came out of her skin a little bit and actually started to look like she had some fun,” he said. “So it’s sad, because whatever the reasons for her doing the show, she didn’t get to show any of that because she was stuck in her head. … She didn’t let anybody through.”
Dancing With the Stars airs simultaneously on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. Episodes are available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ the next day.
