Sharna Burgess Spills on ‘DWTS’ Drama: Wasn’t Called for Season 32, Asked to Be Eliminated Off Season 30 and the One Partner She ‘Couldn’t Be Alone With’
When the full cast of “Dancing With the Stars” Season 32 is announced on Wednesday, pro Sharna Burgess will not be on the list. The Season 27 winner discussed her history with the show on the first episode of her new iHeartRadio podcast, “Old-Ish,” claiming that while she took off Season 31 when she had a baby, she was expecting to be invited back this year — and was not called.
“Last season I was supposed to come back but Zane was only eight weeks old… It just felt like I needed to sit in motherhood with Zane,” she explained to co-host and husband Brian Austin Green. “It was always, ‘I want to come back next year,’ and ‘Of course, we love you, we’ll always have you.'”
More from Variety
Jamie Lynn Spears Will Compete on 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 32
'Dancing With the Stars' Shifts to Tuesdays as ABC Continues to Announce Fall Schedule Tweaks
'The Bachelorette' Star Charity Lawson Will Compete on 'Dancing With the Stars'
Burgess, who has competed on 14 seasons of the ABC reality show, said that she found out she wasn’t being invited back when all the pros began getting calls to return — and she didn’t.
“Because it was such a shock, because I wasn’t expecting it, it was tough. It’s not the first time. My last five years on the show have been rocky — not because of the show. I love the show deeply, but we had a new executive producer come in, I think five years ago now. I had just won with Bobby Bones and he decided to not bring me back,” Burgess said. “There’s a lot of speculation as to why.”
Burgess and Bones won Season 27 in 2018, beating out fan-favorite Milo Manheim. The “controversial” win caused a “whirlwind of hate” for her, which led to self-blame when she wasn’t invited back for Season 28.
After working through that, she came back for Season 29 and was partnered with Jesse Metcalfe. The duo were sent home the fourth week.
“They had me back the following season and I had a partner that was really difficult — and not say too much because I don’t want to — I wasn’t able to be in the room alone with him after the first couple of weeks because of things that happened,” she explained of Season 29. “That was rocky and we were eliminated very quickly.”
For Season 30, she was partnered with Green, which she says was difficult as their relationship was put front and center.
“The same executive producer who’s no longer there, I did not love what he did with the show,” she said. “Hearing from people around that they were genuinely trying to just have this spotlight on our relationship, not his neurological stuff, not his experience, not our working through this together, but to almost say our relationship was the issue with the dancing in some way. I did text someone at that time and was like, ‘Hey this isn’t what we signed up for. If this is what you want for us, you just have to eliminate us because we can’t do this.’ And we were quickly eliminated after that.”
While there’s “no shade” toward the show but it is hard not to take personally and she’s now unsure whether or not she’ll ever get invited back.
She added, “Not only is it that ego thing of ‘they didn’t want me,’ it’s also that let down. I thought I was going to have that moment to express and be me before baby, me before kids, me before Bri.”
Best of Variety
Oscars Predictions: Best Actor - There Will Be Blood in the Lead Actor Race
Everything We Know About 'I Am Legend 2,' Starring Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
