Sailor Brinkley-Cook was voted off Dancing with the Stars on Monday night, frustrating the judges and a high number of fans who were surprised by the outcome.
Sailor Brinkley-Cook and Val Chmerkovskiy performed an impressive jive on Monday night that yielded them a score of 27 points from the three judges. It ended up being tied for the highest score of the night.
The couple danced to “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” from Wham! and it seemed like they would easily move on to the next night of dancing. Due to the format of the show, though, that was not what ended up happening.
Sailor and Val were joined by Ally Brooke and Sasha Farber as the bottom two couples based on the Dancing with the Stars vote from the fans. The home audience felt that the two pairs deserved to be in the bottom two, based on the voting.
Below is the full performance from Sailor and Val on Monday night.
Why did Sailor get voted off despite high scores?
The DWTS judges are Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, and Bruno Tonioli, and they get the final decision during each elimination night. But they are constrained to what the home audience votes. The bottom two couples, based on the fan vote, not the judge’s scores, are placed in front of the trio and they then decide which one is going home.
Ally and Sasha had been slightly better than Sailor and Val this season, which put the judges in the unenviable position of sending home one of the stronger couples of the season. It’s not the fault of the judges, but rather the home audience for voting for their favorites over the more talented couples this past week.
The worst couple, by far, has been Sean Spicer and Lindsay Arnold. Despite scoring just 40 points total in their last two dances, compared to 51 for Sailor and Val, they will return for Halloween Night next week.
Dancing with the Stars airs Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.