Witney Carson is addressing the growing speculation surrounding her reactions during Dancing With the Stars eliminations after some viewers questioned whether the pregnant professional dancer actually wanted to continue competing with Guillermo Rodriguez.
Carson and Rodriguez have been among the final three couples awaiting results during each of the first three elimination rounds of Season 35. That repeated situation has put Carson’s facial expressions under a microscope, particularly when another couple is announced as eliminated.
But Carson says viewers may be misunderstanding what those moments actually mean.
She explained that the couples shown as the “bottom three” are not necessarily the three couples who received the lowest combined totals. Instead, the television format means some safe couples are deliberately left waiting until the elimination is revealed.
For Carson, that creates an awkward emotional situation.
Rather than immediately celebrating when she realizes she and Guillermo are staying, she is standing beside another couple who has just learned that their season is over. Carson said the serious expressions viewers have noticed are genuine sadness for the people being eliminated, followed by relief and excitement that she and Guillermo have survived.
That became especially noticeable during Yacht Rock Night, when Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart were eliminated while Guillermo and Witney advanced again.
Because Britt is one of Carson’s fellow DWTS professionals, Carson’s subdued reaction immediately after the announcement led some viewers online to wonder whether she was unhappy about surviving.
Carson firmly rejected that interpretation.
She said she is genuinely grateful to continue competing with Guillermo and praised him as someone who truly wants to improve. According to Carson, whenever she needs to sit down and rest during rehearsals, Guillermo frequently keeps practicing the choreography on his own.
She also pushed back against another part of the speculation: the suggestion that pregnancy has made her secretly hope for an early elimination.
Carson, who is expecting her third child, said she understands her physical limits and is only doing activities approved by her doctor. She added that the DWTS production team has been supportive and that she would speak up immediately if she felt she was physically doing too much.
The speculation nevertheless makes more sense when considering what viewers actually see each week. Guillermo and Witney repeatedly remain among the final couples waiting for results, and Carson often looks serious at precisely the moment the cameras focus closely on her face.
But according to Carson, that expression isn’t disappointment that Guillermo survived.
It is the difficult reality of realizing that while her own journey gets to continue, someone standing only a few feet away has just reached the end of theirs.
And despite Guillermo’s struggles near the bottom of the judges’ leaderboard, Carson made her position clear: she believes his work ethic deserves recognition, she is happy to remain his partner, and she has no intention of treating their continued survival as something she wishes would end.
