Nikki Glaser calls first elimination on Dancing with the Stars a ‘rejection from America’
The comedian says her first-season DWTS exit was 'one of the most humiliating moments' of her career
Comedian Nikki Glaser is reflecting on her early exit from Dancing with the Stars, calling it a learning experience despite the embarrassment.
The 41-year-old comic discussed her time on the ABC dance competition during a Monday, April 6 episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, recalling her first-season elimination alongside professional partner Gleb Savchenko.
Glaser and Savchenko were the first couple voted off in season 27, a season ultimately won by Bobby Bones and Sharna Burgess.
“I knew I couldn’t dance when I signed up for it,” Glaser admitted. “But I didn’t really know. It’s almost like I’d never danced, so I was like, ‘Maybe I’m great and I’ll find out.’ I didn’t even try to do anything before I showed up the first day.”
Glaser described meeting Savchenko, 42, for the first time as intimidating and humorous: “He’s one of the most beautiful people I’ve been around — as hot as his name is disgusting. I walked in and saw the hope drain from his face instantly. He knew before I knew that I couldn’t dance. We tried.”
Despite the early elimination, Glaser said the experience taught her resilience. “One of the most humiliating moments of my life is getting voted off that show first,” she said.
“It wasn’t just about being a bad dancer. It was about ABC testing if we could engage audiences. It was kind of a rejection from America because America votes, ABC as a corporation, and the dancing community.”
Glaser also opened up about the intensity of the show: “Your whole life clears out. It’s all you do for a month, like five hours a day. You kind of get the hang of it. If I work hard at something, I can get good. I was just about to get past the place of, ‘I can kind of get a grasp on this.’”
Looking back, she sees the humor in the experience. “It was really helpful because I realized that was the most embarrassing thing that could happen,” she said, recounting how sarcastically telling host Tom Bergeron “I’m a dancer!” drew a sharp critique from Len Goodman: “You looked like a struggling baby horse.”
Glaser isn’t ruling out a return to the ballroom under the right circumstances.
“If they did a Dancing with the Stars losers season, all people who got voted out first or second, I would definitely do it again. It was so fun. I was crying every day, broke my body, still have injuries from it, but it was so fun to care about something so trivial and to try something new.”