'DWTS' Pro Emma Slater Says Her Recent Elimination was 'Something She Couldn't Really See Happening'

From Woman's Day

After being eliminated on Monday night's show, Dancing With the Stars dance pro Emma Slater spoke out about what she believes to be unfairly harsh treatment of her celebrity partner James Van Der Beek.

During Monday's show, Van Der Beek, who had been a frontrunner in the competition this season since its first week, announced that his family had been dealing with a devastating tragedy over the past few days. After announcing just a few weeks prior that he and his wife were expecting their sixth child, Van Der Beek let the DWTS audience know that they had sadly lost the baby. During the show, Van Der Beek and Slater received lower scores than usual, with the judges critiquing Van Der Beek by saying he had performed better in previous weeks.

In interview with Extra TV after the elimination, Slater said that she was shocked to have been eliminated after doing so well for so many weeks.

"If I’m being completely honest, I don’t think that it was something that I could really see happening," she said. "We’re so grateful, we never took it for granted ever, but really had such high hopes that we could get into the finale and dance the freestyle and just go all the way to the end. The semi finals are still great but he’s been through so much this week, I would have really liked to have got him in."

When asked whether she thought the judges had been unfairly harsh on Van Der Beek, particularly considering the extraordinary circumstances he was dealing with, Slater agreed, and pointed out that the tragedy had struck less than two days prior to Monday night's show.

"I do think so," she said. "It wasn’t easy for James to come here and dance, [...] he almost didn’t come. The experience that he just went through with his wife and their kids just happened within 36 hours and it was so close, and of course he definitely questioned being here today. He’s so thankful and grateful for the show and to have an outlet and the support of the dance family that he really wanted to be here and I’m so proud of the dances that he did. I’m a little saddened that the judges were so hard on him when it was clearly very, very hard for him."

It's clear that other contestants on the show felt the same way, as pop singer and fellow contestant Ally Brooke immediately tried to give her spot in the finale to Van Der Beek after he was eliminated.

The silver lining in the heart-breaking situation, however, is that Van Der Beek is now able to spend plenty of time with his wife and their five children, Slater said.

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