Many Dancing With The Stars fans were left confused after former Bachelor Matt James and his pro partner Lindsay Arnold were eliminated from the dancing competition Tuesday night. Typically, the show only airs on Monday nights; however, this week the show featured an additional episode on Tuesday in honor of the two-part Disney Night.
Following the conclusion of the second night of Disney week, two couples were eliminated from the competition. At the end of the episode, host Tyra Banks gathered all of the dancing couples together in the ballroom as she began to list the duos who would be continuing on in the competition. Then, as there was only three couples left, Tyra revealed that Sharna Burgess and Brian Austin Green were the first couple eliminated based off of their combined votes and scores. This left Matt and Lindsay as well as Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kenya Moore and partner Brandon Armstrong in the bottom two.
When it came time for the judges to cast their votes as to which couple should remain in the competition, fans were confused as to why Matt and Lindsay were the ones eliminated. Bruno Toniolli was the first judge to cast his vote. He chose to keep Matt and Lindsay. Then, Derek Hough saved Kenya and Brandon. When Carrie Ann Inaba chose to save Matt and Lindsay, viewers at hope thought they would continue on to compete next week; however, this was not the case. Tyra explained, "That means our judges are divided. Both of the couples are still in the running." She then noted that Len Goodman would be the deciding factor, who ultimately voted to keep Kenya and Brandon.
Fans did not understand why Matt and Lindsay were not safe since they had two votes to keep them. Realistically, Len's vote was the cause of a tie. Unfortunately for Matt and Lindsay, it is not that easy in the ballroom. Last season, when there were only three judges on the show, the third judge would only cast their vote for which couple should remain in the competition if there was a tie between the other two. Now that Len has returned to the ballroom and Derek has also remained on the judges panel, this has changed. If Derek along with Bruno and Carrie Ann do not have a unanimous vote, Len is the determining vote. In other words, unless all three judges make the same decision, Len's vote is the only vote that matters.
Although that is just the rules of the dancing competition, many fans at home did not think this was fair for Matt and Lindsay. Not only did they have two votes to save them, but this was only their first time being in the bottom two. Kenya and Brandon, on the other hand, survived the bottom two last week as well. Despite many fans' sadness, Matt's time inside the ballroom has come to an end. Now that Kenya and Brandon have been saved two weeks in a row, they better work even harder in rehearsals to ensure they do not face this stressful situation yet again next week.
Dancing With The Stars airs Mondays at 8pm EST on ABC.