Former Hallmark actress Danica McKellar opened up about one of the hardest gigs she’s ever done — “Dancing With the Stars.”
McKellar, who left Hallmark for Great American Family, competed on season 18 of the popular dance competition show alongside ballroom pro Val Chmerkovskiy.
“It’s much harder than they show in the packages because it would bum people out to see how stressful it is. It just wouldn’t be as fun anymore for people,” McKellar said on the November 18 episode of the “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans” podcast.
“That kind of intense training, I had never had before ever, nothing even close to that. You’re feeling completely unprepared. Now you’re going to go dance in front of 20 million people. Now you’re wearing a dress and everything feels different,” she continued.
“I didn’t know what I was doing. Failure was not an option. I put an enormous amount of pressure on myself to try to fulfill it, and it broke me. I was in tears because I didn’t know how to handle that kind of pressure,” she added.
McKellar and Chmerkovskiy finished the competition in 6th place, narrowly missing the semifinals.
Danica McKellar Danced Through a Painful Injury
In her interview with Cheryl Burke on “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans,” McKellar shared an interesting thought.
“I’ve always loved dance. But…I remember telling somebody it was like, if you love chocolate, right, and somebody puts you in a vat of chocolate and then holds your head under it — that’s what ‘Dancing With the Stars’ is like. And every now and then, you get a breath,” she said.
Making things more challenging for McKellar was a serious injury. In a blog post for Today, Chmerkovskiy wrote about his partner’s fractured rib.
“It’s a big problem. I’m responsible for her and progress, but most importantly her well-being. It’s very hard for me not to blame myself a little bit — if not a lot of it,” Chmerkovskiy wrote back in 2014.
“This is a pain that Danica’s had since week two. We tried a couple of lifts this week while rehearsing and we heard a ‘pop’ and then it was over. The pain was so bad she started crying. We went to the hospital for another X-ray. She has a fractured rib,” he added.
Some Fans Think Danica McKellar Should Have Stayed on DWTS Longer
Some “Dancing With the Stars” fans think that McKellar’s time on the show got cut short. On a Reddit thread started in October 2024, some people expressed such.
“A fantastic dancer and DWTS super fan. I wish she made the finals instead of Candace,” one person wrote.
“She definitely should’ve stayed in the competition longer,” someone else added.
“She was a great dancer but I think she got eliminated when she did because her personality was a little boring. I don’t think she connected with the viewers as well as those that outlasted her. She’s underrated though, I liked her,” a third Redditor weighed in.
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