No one has had it tougher this season on Dancing with the Stars than Cheryl Burke and Cody Rigsby.
After performing live in the first week of the competition and scoring a 24 in the tango, he and Cheryl didn’t appear live again until three weeks later.
Cheryl Burke tested positive for COVID-19 and that sent Cody into quarantine since they practiced in close contact with each other. Cody tested positive just days later.
At that point, Cody felt it was time to quit.
Cody Rigsby almost quit Dancing with the Stars
Cody Rigsby spoke to Page Six for an interview and talked about those early struggles in the season.
After Cheryl tested positive, the judges had to use their rehearsal footage to score them, and they earned a 24 for their salsa.
In Week 3, they couldn’t practice together and ended up performing virtually, and separately. They scored an 18 for their jazz routine.
They had to remain quarantined for almost the entire next week and only had two days to perfect two dances for Disney Week, where they scored a 27 and a 31.
“We definitely had a very bumpy, very rocky start to this,” Rigsby said. “I remember talking to my boss or a friend of mine and I was like, ‘Should I just quit? Should I not do it? Like, I have COVID, it’s going to be so crazy.'”
He said her advice was not to quit because it would all be a memory in two weeks and he took her advice and stuck with it.
“I mean, it was just a thought. Those thoughts pop in your head,” Cody said about almost quitting Dancing with the Stars. “A part of you, the inner saboteur, is going to tell you to quit. It’s going to tell you that you can’t do it.”
“You have to hold ground and push back from that ego and keep pumping.”
Cody Rigsby on Dancing with the Stars
Cody Rigsby and Cheryl have struggled every week with judge’s scores.
In Grease Week, they scored a 32, which was second to last, but fans kept them safe. During Horror Night, the two scored a 36 – their highest score of the season.
Fans kept them safe again and they returned on Queen Night and scored a 34, which ranked fifth out of the nine competitors that night.
On Janet Jackson Night, they finished with a 38, beating their previous high score.
While they have improved each week, only Iman Shumpert and Daniella Karagach have lower scores overall than Cody and Cheryl, and with a double elimination coming up, they still have a lot to prove.
Dancing with the Stars airs on Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.