Danielle Fishel Didn’t Think Whitney Would Win Dancing With the Stars

Danielle Fishel was in awe of Whitney Leavitt’s Dancing With the Stars semi-finals performance — but that doesn’t mean the mirrorball was already within her grasp.

“I did not think Whitney was going to win Dancing With the Stars, even though I think she’s one of the best dancers,” Fishel, 44, said on her eponymous iHeartRadio podcast after the Tuesday, November 18, live show. “I will say that the way the package was set up and with the season premiere of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives coming out this week, it felt to me … if we look at reality TV as a storytelling mechanism [then] what makes the most compelling storytelling was for Whitney to go home tonight.”

In both her rehearsal package and Mormon Wives season 3 confessionals, Leavitt, 32, admitted that she only returned to MomTok for the chance to audition for DWTS.

“Her ambition to be on Dancing With the Stars [was] played out in the premiere episode, and for that to be shown in her package and talked about in the skybox, I thought the craziest storytelling is somebody being that honest about the things that they want and about their dreams and having no shame,” Fishel said, noting that made the “most captivating TV.”

The Boy Meets World alum star continued, “I had a bad feeling throughout the day that it might be Whitney’s time to go home, and I was hoping I was wrong — but I was not.”

Leavitt and pro partner Mark Ballas consistently topped the leaderboard for the bulk of season 34, though their reign ended on Tuesday when they were eliminated just shy of the finale.

“She was just absolutely stunning,” Fishel further recalled on her podcast, recapping Leavitt’s routines. “Whitney is one of the most beautiful dancers I have ever seen in 20 years of Dancing With the Stars. I just think she is spectacular. There’s no denying it.”

She continued, “You cannot be a Whitney fan for whatever reason, [but] you can’t deny that she is an incredible dancer, and Mark has really pushed her.”

While Fishel wasn’t confident that Leavitt would have clinched the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, she was shocked that the reality TV star wouldn’t even get to perform a freestyle in the finale.

“I’m surprised that Whitney isn’t in the finals,” Fishel, who was eliminated on DWTS weeks earlier, said on her podcast. “I thought she was going to make it to the final round. … She’s very clearly a performer. Anybody who’s watched this show knows [that] being the best dancer on the show is never a guarantee that you’re gonna win.”

As for Leavitt, she also had a feeling that her time in the ballroom was up.

“We had a gut feeling it was us,” Leavitt told E! News after her elimination. “It’s sad, it does feel like a breakup because you build long-lasting friendships here with production, crew — obviously with Mark. You spend so much time with these people every single day, so it does feel like a breakup. It’s like I’m sad, but also I’m leaving with just a grateful heart, to have been able to experience it.”

Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, with new episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.

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