“I’m okay with it,” Morris admitted to me after the show. “It’s bittersweet and we had a wonderful time [although] it was hard to balance going from Maks to [stand-in dancer] Alan [Bersten] and back to Maks, but tonight was awesome and we were really happy with the dance and happy that it came through so it all worked out.”
The similarities to the unforgettable Season 5 ousting of Bryan were not lost on Chmerkovskiy either. “I feel that same way I did when Sabrina Bryan got voted off,” he told me. “That was also not a deserving exit, or the way Brandi [Norwood] and I got eliminated from the [Season 11] finale. That was kind of similar.
“This is so strange that it is kind of okay given the way the show is,” he added. “I just feel bad because there was an opportunity for Maks and Heather to develop and to build every single week and that got cut short. Alan did an amazing job. He definitely showed himself this season. I feel bad it took so long for me to get back [after my injury]. I did the best to get back but, you know … I am going to miss coming to work.”
Many observers thought Morris was a shoe-in to make it to the season finale. She’d previously been a back-up dancer for Beyoncé and proved her dance prowess week after week on Fox’s Glee. Still, she appreciates that viewers may have seen that as an unfair advantage. “Its heartwarming and its great that [fans in the ballroom] were behind me, maybe America is just not,” she sighed. “They weren't behind us that much, so you don’ t know what’s going on, but for our last time to be so great and to be together again was so great.”