Milo Manheim walked into the Dancing With the Stars ballroom in 2018 believing his small amount of previous dance experience might give him an advantage. It didn’t take long for the 17-year-old Disney star to realize just how different ballroom dancing was going to be.
Before Season 27 even began, Milo admitted that rehearsals with professional partner Witney Carson were much harder than he had expected. He said having some rhythm and previous movement experience wasn’t enough once Witney started teaching him the technique required for the competition. (ABC News)
At the time, Milo was best known for playing Zed in Disney Channel’s Zombies. The musical role meant audiences had already seen him dance on screen, creating expectations that he might enter DWTS as one of the stronger contestants.
Milo quickly discovered otherwise.
He joked early in rehearsals that he could feel as though he had performed something well, only to watch the recording afterward and realize how much work remained. Witney, meanwhile, immediately saw potential in her young partner, particularly his personality, musicality and willingness to learn.
She also wasn’t going easy on him.
Milo described Witney as much tougher in rehearsal than her cheerful personality might suggest. If he repeatedly made a mistake, she expected him to correct it. That demanding approach gradually transformed him from an inexperienced ballroom competitor into one of Season 27’s strongest performers.
Their improvement became impossible to ignore as the competition progressed.
One of their biggest breakthroughs came during Halloween Night, when Milo and Witney performed a dramatic contemporary routine. The judges awarded them a perfect 30, establishing them as serious contenders for the Mirrorball Trophy.
By the finale, they were delivering perfect scores again.
Their final-night Charleston earned 30 out of 30, and their freestyle also received a perfect score. Milo had gone from admitting he didn’t understand how difficult ballroom dancing would be to producing some of the strongest routines of the entire season
That is why the ending remains so memorable—and controversial—to many longtime viewers.
Milo and Witney finished second behind Bobby Bones and Sharna Burgess, despite Milo consistently receiving stronger judges’ scores toward the end of the competition. Audience voting played a major role in the final result.
Years later, even Witney admits she didn’t see that result coming.
In a new 2026 interview, Witney said she still thinks about Season 27 and revealed that Milo’s loss “blindsided” her. She had become convinced during the competition that he was going to win, so hearing another couple announced as champions felt like a major surprise.
But time has changed the way both of them view what happened.
Milo recently joked that finishing second may actually have worked in his favor because people still approach him years later and tell him they believe he should have won. Rather than being remembered simply as another champion, he became one of the show’s most frequently discussed runners-up.
Witney has reached a similar conclusion.
She believes some fans became even more supportive of Milo because they were disappointed by the result. She also revealed that the former partners remain in contact nearly eight years after sharing the ballroom.
In fact, Witney said she had spoken with Milo shortly before her recent interview while he was working in Spain, and she expressed how proud she is of everything he has accomplished since their season together.
Their DWTS story therefore looks very different in hindsight.
Milo arrived as a 17-year-old who thought a little previous dance experience might make the competition easier. Within days, he realized he had underestimated the challenge. Then, week after week, Witney pushed him until that inexperienced teenager became a finalist capable of earning perfect scores.
He never received the Mirrorball Trophy.
But nearly eight years later, Milo Manheim and Witney Carson’s Season 27 partnership is still being discussed—while Witney herself admits she thought they were going to win right up until the moment they didn’t.
