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While some Dancing With the Stars contestants are aware that they might leave the competition at some point, others are flabbergasted when the journey is cut short.
Take Hilaria Baldwin, who was sent home after season 34’s Disney Night in October 2025.
“I’ll remember the first thing my oldest daughter said. I said, ‘What happens if I get voted off right away?’” Baldwin exclusively told Us Weekly after she and pro Gleb Savchenko were eliminated. “She said, ‘Mommy, at least you tried.’ All I want them to do in their life is just try.”
Hilaria, who shares seven children with husband Alec Baldwin, later claimed that she was bullied off the show by “mean girls” on social media.
“I’m very new to TikTok. I’ve only been on [here for] a couple months. It’s interesting because there’s a lot of mean girls,” Hilaria told Us days later. “I guess what people were doing is they were having campaigns where they wouldn’t just vote for their favorite — because you can vote 10 times for a couple — they were voting for all the other couples except us. They were boosting everybody else and trying to drown out my fan base.”
Hilaria is hardly the first DWTS castoff to be disappointed by her leaderboard finish. Keep scrolling to revisit the biggest upsets:
Brandy
Brandy exclusively told Us in 2010 that she was “numb” after being sent home over Bristol Palin in season 11. (Bristol, the eldest daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, had the evening’s lowest score and was still voted onto the finale, which she eventually lost to Dirty Dancing’s Jennifer Grey.)
“I mean, I gave it everything I had,” Brandy said. “I don’t have any regrets at all. I’m so proud of me, and I say that humbly. I have no regrets. I can walk away knowing that I gave everything that I had to give to this competition, and it feels really good to know that you guys are behind me.”
Brandy was paired with Maks Chmerkovskiy, who reiterated to Us that their departure was wholly “unfair.”
Elizabeth Berkley
Elizabeth Berkley was surprised when she and pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy went home during season 14.
“[I’m] sad. I’m not going to lie,” the Saved by the Bell alum told Us in November 2013. “It’s, like, that saying, ‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.’ I’m going to live with that, [but] I felt a little sucker-punch[ed] because I was excited about next week, and I just feel like we got cut short a little bit. Not that I felt entitled by any means, but I just felt excited and grateful.”
Heather Morris
Glee alum Heather Morris, who previously served as one of Beyoncé’s tour backup dancers, had perhaps the most shocking elimination of season 24 after receiving a perfect score for her and partner Maks’ rumba.
“The [viewers] weren’t really getting the relationship we were having … they just kind of saw what happened with him and I had to form this new relationship with a new partner, so they kind of lost that,” Morris said on the “LadyGang” podcast in July 2017, referring to Maks being sidelined with an unexpected injury weeks earlier. “It lost interest.”
Morris also believed that her previous dance experience worked against her, claiming, “[Fans] watch it and they want to believe, ‘She’s a dancer, it’s not fair, she knows exactly how to do all those things.’ I cannot do ballroom. It’s unbelievably hard. It’s so challenging.”
Simone Biles
While Simone Biles is arguably one of the greatest gymnasts, she came in fourth place on season 24 — just shy of the finale. (Biles danced with pro Sasha Farber.)
“At times I think the expectations were a little bit different for each contestant, and it’s hard to follow Laurie [Hernandez],” Biles said on Good Morning America in 2017, referring to her former Olympic teammate who won DWTS season 23. “I think they wanted me to pick up where she left off, which is very hard because we’re two different people, but I had an amazing time on the show.”
Normani
Fifth Harmony singer Normani was equally shocked to go home during season 24.
“You’re never really guaranteed,” Normani told Entertainment Tonight in 2017. “It was quite a shocker for me as well, but I’ve gained so much from this experience. I’m so happy, and I can’t even begin to express the gratitude that I carry and the blessing, especially because I have a lifelong friend now [in Val, my partner].”
Nikki Glaser
Comedian Nikki Glaser was the first star eliminated from 2018’s season 27, where she was partnered with Savchenko.
“[Getting voted off] was one of the most humiliating experiences of my professional career, but it was so fun. I love the show so much,” Glaser recalled on the Today show in September 2025. “I’m dying to go back on the show. Please do a ‘losers season,’ but you gotta do it soon because my hips are hurting.”
Johnny Weir
Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir told Us that his season 29 elimination hurt “a lot.”
“It definitely feels like a popularity contest more so than a dance contest but that’s part of it,” Weir, who danced with pro Britt Stewart, told Us and other reporters in November 2020. “I knew what I was signing up for. I can say wholeheartedly that I would always prefer to be myself than be popular.”
He continued, “I think so many people out there base their whole lives around how many followers they have or how many friends on Facebook they have or how popular they are at school or whatever the case may be. I just want to send the message out there to always be authentically yourself — people will like it, people will hate it, but be yourself and that’s the best you can do.”
Anna Delvey
Anna Delvey was the first contestant eliminated from season 33, during which she infamously said that she learned “nothing” from her brief experience. (Delvey’s partner, Ezra Sosa, subsequently got a shoulder tattoo commemorating her quote.)
“I thought, like, ‘Well, they were building me up.’ It’s like, ‘Well, only if you smile more, only if you do X, Y, Z, it’s going to be so much better,’” Delvey said on the “MisSpelling” podcast in September 2024. “It felt like they put so much effort in trying to get me on the show and make me feel comfortable, just to eliminate me this early. I see it, yeah, like an attempt of an embarrassment for us to get eliminated before Eric [Roberts] or Reginald [VelJohnson] in a dancing competition — even though, in the end, it’s not that big of a deal.”
Hilaria Baldwin
Hilaria Baldwin, a yoga instructor and wellness influencer, alleged to Us in October 2025 that there was a “very coordinated, very strategic bullying” fan campaign that contributed to her early exit.
“I feel the darkness that undoubtedly brings to me, I always want to remember that my life belongs to the whole community and I want to leave a lasting mark of courage to speak up against what is simply wrong,” Hilaria said. “I have such wonderful things to say. It was sad that it was like that. There’s more good people than bad people. And I just want one day that people can just see me and stop, like, the crazy stuff.”
Lauren Jauregui
The week before Hilaria was sent home in season 34, Fifth Harmony performer Lauren Jauregui was eliminated. In the heat of the moment, Jauregui quipped that she was “pissed.”
“I’m not sure what people were thinking,” she said on the show’s companion podcast in October 2025. “I gave my best, the judges scored me the way that they did, and then the voting was the next part. And my phone broke today, so I couldn’t even tell you to vote.”
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Jauregui continued, “Part of being here is knowing you gotta go home at some point. This was the first time we were doing Latin style. I will say that ballroom was a lot easier for me to learn. The cha cha was a little challenging, but Brandon [Armstrong] is an amazing teacher and I felt like I was in good hands and felt really confident tonight.”
Jauregui, who stressed that she did want to win the mirrorball, also admitted that she “didn’t do [her] absolute best” during that week’s TikTok Night.
“I think that elimination makes it feel that much more impactful ‘cause I would have at least liked to go off on my best,” she concluded.
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