Gone too soon! Jesse Metcalfe had quite a journey on Dancing With the Stars. He and partner Sharna Burgess were eliminated from the competition on Monday, October 12, and although he thought it was too soon, he actually didn’t think he had a chance of taking home the mirrorball trophy.
“I think Justina [Machado] is gonna win, but I’m also rooting for Johnny [Weir]. I think he’s really good as well,” the Chesapeake Shores star, 41, said on the “Watch With Us” podcast. “Those are my top two picks. Obviously, Nev [Schulman] is such a good dancer, but people are not happy about the amount of dance experience that he has. … I was never gonna win. I thought I was gonna stick around for a couple more weeks. But with this cast, I don’t think I really had a shot!”
He also explained why now was the right time to compete on the ABC series, after turning it down twice in the past.
“I felt like then there was a major stigma before,” Metcalfe told Us. “Roughly 10 years ago, there was a lot of people saying what actors should or shouldn’t be doing. I feel like it’s a completely different landscape in the entertainment industry right now. … I feel like you can kind of do whatever you want now in the entertainment industry, as long as you are authentic in the way you do it.”
Although he knew it’d be physically tough — he lost 10 pounds while on the show — the actor didn’t expect to have such an exciting overall experience.
“It was a lot of wear and tear on this 41-year-old frame! But I thought I gave a very respectable showing every single minute of it,” the Passions alum said. “I was more surprised by what an amazing experience it was and how incredibly rewarding it was. It was incredible. It’s an incredibly well-run show from top to bottom. … I have zero regrets.”
While Metcalfe isn’t one to shed a tear over a messy rehearsal, that’s not to say it was all smooth sailing with his partner.
“Sharna had it rough. She was really trying to create something from scratch [with me],” he said, admitting that the pair did have a few fights. “Tuesday’s at rehearsals — it was a tough day [of] teaching me the basics of a new dance and trying to get these very foreign movements into my body. It was frustrating at times. … It was an emotional journey.”
As for what’s next, the John Tucker Must Die star will be returning to the Hallmark Channel for more movies and for a new season of Chesapeake Shores — but he’s also not counting out more TV.
“For sure,” he said when asked if he’d do another reality show — as long as it wasn’t about his love life. “That’s where I draw the line. Once you start profiting from your personal life — and I mean, you’re basically selling your personal life. You’re selling it to the network. You’re selling it to the media. I feel like I need to draw the line somewhere. That’s not in line with my values.”
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Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.