Tori Spelling’s longtime manager, Ruthanne Secunda, joked about wanting an “investigation” into the Dancing With the Stars votes that sent the actress home from season 33.
“I think it’s an outrage,” Secunda quipped during the Wednesday, September 25, episode of Spelling’s “Misspelling” podcast, jokingly demanding a recount as the pair laughed. “I’m calling 60 Minutes to do an investigation … definitely a glitch in the system.”
Spelling, 51, and pro partner Pasha Pashkov were eliminated during the Tuesday, September 24, episode of DWTS, alongside Anna Delvey and Ezra Sosa.
“If airlines can be grounded from a glitch, there could have totally been a glitch in the voting for Tori,” Secunda further joked. “I’m suspicious.”
Spelling then jokingly asked if it’d be possible to run a “ballroom recount” similar to ones during political elections.
“I really didn’t have a gut instinct that we would be voted off,” Spelling added on the podcast. “Listen, I’m a realist. I came into this with no dance experience and I didn’t expect to win the Mirror Ball.”
Spelling further gushed that she was grateful for the overall experience.
“What an unbelievable experience. This is all such a new territory for me, and I had such an incredible experience,” Spelling told Secunda. “There’s so many things dancing through my head right now, you guys, so many thoughts, so many feelings. I guess the big word is just gratitude. Honestly, I loved every second of this experience; I’m not gonna lie.”
Spelling told Us Weekly one day earlier that she was “proud” of her ballroom finish.
“It was truly an unbelievable journey and experience,” Spelling exclusively told Us after her Tuesday elimination. “Obviously, I felt like I was just starting, and I was seeing such a huge change in myself, physically and mentally [and] emotionally. I wanted to keep going, obviously, but I’m grateful I did it.”
While Spelling noted that she initially wanted to win for Pashkov, 38, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum was pleased with her rumba performance to The Greatest Showman’s “This Is Me.” (She picked the song in honor of her five kids, who attended the live broadcast.)
“Both weeks, having all five of my kids here in the audience was everything to me, because they’ve obviously been on this journey with me,” Spelling told Us. “And they were fearful with me, alongside me, when I went into this. Like, ‘Are you going to get hurt? Are you going to be scared? Are you going to be able to do this? Oh, my God, what’s going to happen?’”
She added, “I came home, like, a better version of myself and a better mom every day, because … I was feeling so much personal growth and happiness and tapping into things. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I haven’t felt this happy in so long for something I’m doing for me.’ Because I think I gave up a huge part of myself somewhere along this journey called life, and now I tapped into that, so I’m going to keep doing me.”
During the DWTS season premiere, Spelling gushed that she “found herself” while learning to dance. In the episode, Spelling revealed to Pashkov what made her finally accept the offer to compete after many previous attempts.
“[Turning] 50 hit, and my life exploded. I’m going through a really public divorce,” Spelling explained, referring to her separation from Dean McDermott. “I’m really trying to find myself again. Everything I thought I was has been burned to the ground.”
Pashkov, meanwhile, knew that elimination was a possibility, telling Us that DWTS is an “unpredictable journey.”
“You never know what’s going to happen. You never know who’s going to go home, who’s going to win at the end of the day. And that’s the beauty of the show,” Pashkov told Us after the pair’s elimination. “Sometimes it’s not pleasant when you’re the one eliminated, but at the end of the day, that’s the name of the game and that’s what makes the show so exciting to watch and be part of, because you really don’t know.”
Spelling also plans to take many lessons she learned from the competition into her daily life.
“The ballroom gave me such a new take on life and such joy that I wanted to keep going,” she said. “I felt like I was just getting started,” she said on Wednesday. “But you know, it’s a reality TV show, that’s the reality. You know, someone has to go home, there has to be eliminations, and I became so close with everybody.”
She continued, “I really didn’t want anybody to go home. But I got to say, I have never been in a place where I felt … zero competition with that family, Like there was nothing just support and love, unconditional love. And that’s another
huge takeaway that I’ll leave this experience with. You know, you go through different experiences in different places, whether
it’s work, personal life is one big social experiment, you never really truly know what you’re going to get out of it till you experience the experiment. It was just such a loving atmosphere. So I will miss that.”
Spelling also hopes to “stay in contact” with the “great friends” she met on the show.
Dancing With the Stars airs simultaneously on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. Episodes are available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ the next day.
