'Dancing with the Stars' eliminates Brant Daugherty and professional partner Peta Murgatroyd

Dancing with the Stars eliminated Brant Daugherty and professional dance partner Peta Murgatroyd during Monday night's live seventeenth-season broadcast on ABC. 


The actor and Pretty Little Liars star and Murgatroyd became the sixth couple eliminated from the competition based on the combination of the Dancing with the Stars judges' scores they had received during last night's performance show and the home viewer votes that were cast following last Monday night's episode.

"I learned something I never thought I'd be able to learn in my life. I learned a lot about myself and I'm just very, very grateful for the opportunity," Daugherty said following his ouster.

"[Brant] is just an amazing guy and I just had the best time this season. Thank you so much for making every day a pleasure, thank you," Murgatroyd told her partner in tears.

Former The Osbournes and Armed & Famous star Jack Osbourne and partner Cheryl Burke were the other couple still in danger of elimination prior to Daugherty and Murgatroyd's ouster, however, Dancing with the Stars co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet revealed Osbourne and Burke were not necessarily one of the bottom-two couples even though they were in jeopardy of elimination.


Monday night's show featured the seven remaining couples dancing two rounds of competition, with the first being a typical individual routine to a Cher hit and the second being a "Dance-Off Challenge" during which couples could earn bonus points. For each pair's individual dance, they earned up to 30 points from judges Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli as well as guest judge Cher.

Daugherty and Murgatroyd finished tied for second place on Monday night's leaderboard with two other couples: Disney Channel star Corbin Bleu and partner Karina Smirnoff as well as Osbourne and Burke.

All three couples earned 27 points for their individual dances. Daugherty and Murgatroyd danced a foxtrot routine, Bleu and Smirnoff performed an Argentine tango, and Osbourne and Burke danced the tango.

Glee star Amber Riley and partner Derek Hough finished in first place on the leaderboard with 28 points after they danced a rumba routine. As a reward for topping the leaderboard, Hough and Riley did not have to compete in the "Dance-Off Challenge" and received immunity from the night's elimination.

Fifth place represented a tie between two couples: Former The Talk co-host Leah Remini and partner Tony Dovolani as well as actress and former Step It Up and Dance host Elizabeth Berkley and partner Val Chmerkovskiy.


Both couples earned 25 points on the leaderboard. Remini and Dovolani danced the Viennese waltz, while Berkley and Chmerkovskiy performed a jazz routine.

Comedian Bill Engvall and partner Emma Slater finished in seventh -- and last -- place on the leaderboard with 24 points after they took the stage with a disco routine.

Following the first round of competition, all the celebrity and professional pairings -- except for Riley and Hough -- participated in a "Dance-Off Challenge" in attempt to earn extra judges' points.

For the "Dance-Off Challenge," the six couples went head to head in three separate dance-offs. The couple with the second highest score from the night's initial round got first pick of a pair to compete against in the dance-off, which required the couples to perform the same dance style one at a time. The selected pair was then given the opportunity to strategically pick the dance style.

The same rules applied moving all the way down the leaderboard. The next highest-scoring couple got to decide whom they wanted to perform against, and then that chosen couple got to choose the style, and so on.


The three dance styles that could be chosen were cha cha, disco or rumba. Each couple could not be challenged more than once, and the winner of each dance-off received three extra judges' points in addition to their individual scores.

Since there was a three-way tie for second place with 27 points, the order was determined by each couple's cumulative score of the season.

Bleu and Smirnoff had the highest cumulative score thus far, so they got to pick first whom they wanted to dance off against. Bleu and Smirnoff picked Berkley and Chmerkovskiy, who in turn selected the cha cha to perform. Bleu and Smirnoff won by a unanimous vote amongst the judges.

Daugherty and Murgatroyd had the next highest cumulative score of the season, so they got to go next. The couple chose to compete against Remini and Dovolani, who opted to dance the rumba. Remini and Dovolani won in a 2-1 vote. Inaba and Cher voted for the pair to win, while Tonioli preferred Daugherty and Murgatroyd's performance.

Because they were the only two couples left, Engvall and Slater were forced to dance against Osbourne and Burke. The remaining dance style was disco, and Osbourne and Burke ended up winning with a unanimous vote.


The six remaining seventeenth-season Dancing with the Stars couples will return for another two-hour performance show on Monday, November 11, during which the night's scores from the judges and the home viewer voting results following last night's show will be combined and one couple will be eliminated.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski