Melora Hardin was a favorite to make it to the finals on Dancing with the Stars Season 30, but she ended up eliminated on Monday night in the semifinals.
Melora and Artem were in the bottom three of the fan voting, but they had the lowest overall scores and were sent home immediately.
Melora and Artem’s Dancing with the Stars semi-final scores
On the final night, Melora and Artem had the second-lowest scores of all the dancers.
They danced their redemption dance as a rumba to Paula Cole’s I Don’t Want to Wait. The judges scored them a 36, with one eight, two nines, and Len gave them a 10.
The next dance with the contemporary to Imagine Dragons’ Thunder. They scored a second 36, this time with straight nines from all four judges.
The only dancers who scored lower were Cody Rigsby and Cheryl Burke, who picked up a 35 and a 36. Cody received enough fan votes to move on.
After their elimination, Melora seemed confused at the judge’s scores on her dances that night.
“I didn’t feel like [the judges] were judging our performance from who we are, what we came from and how we performed tonight,” Melora said. “They said all these incredible things [about our dances], but then the scores didn’t match … which was a bit disappointing and upsetting.”
The judges all raved about the dances, but then Carrie Ann gave the eight — one of only two eights given out that night (Cody and Cheryl got the other eight).
“All the pros came up to me and said they’ve never seen a female celebrity dance the rumba that beautifully,” she said.
“It’s a really hard dance to do. It’s very technical and it’s got to be very flowy and central at the same time that it’s incredibly technical,” she added.
Melora’s final placement on Dancing with the Stars
Melora and Artem won’t have a chance to dance in the finals, mostly due to fan voting above all else.
The couple ended up with the third-highest scores of the entire competition, with an average judge’s score of 34.1. That is higher than two of the finalists this year (Iman & Daniella and Cody & Cheryl).
Melora finished with the highest score on the jive (34) and Paso doble (40) while tying with Kenya Moore for the highest rumba (36).
Dancing with the Stars airs on Monday nights at 8/7c. The Season 30 finale takes place on Monday night, November 22.