Joe Scarnici/WireImageAnother week, another goodbye to one of our favorite Dancing With the Stars all-stars (although next week will be a double elimination).
Bristol Palin—who received the lowest score Monday—was the likely contender to pack her "redneck" bags tonight, but she was safe early on in the show. Nope, America had to (spoiler alert!) say bye, bye, bye to Joey Fatone and Kym Johnson.
So how were they taking the news post-elimination? E! News caught up with the duo backstage:
"It's sad, I'm really sad about it," Kym told us. "When we were next to Hélio, I thought, Oh we're gone. I had a feeling. If we had gone out on a bad dance I would be more upset."
"There's nothing you can do," added Joey. "Apparently people didn't vote enough, we were in the middle."
As for one of the other two pairs in the bottom three, it was Hélio Castroneves and Chelsie Hightower's first, and hopefully last time.
"I still have mixed feelings," Hélio said. "First time for everything...I wasn't prepared for that, it was surprising... We are happy for the team, but sad to see Joey go away."
"We're ready to come back next week and give a hopefully amazing performance," adds Chelsie, who is excited for their quickstep next week.
Kelly Monaco and Val Chmerkovskiy also rounded out the bottom three, who said they are happy to be safe.
Overall, it was a very somber mood backstage, but Kirstie Alley put it best.
"We are sad because of Joey, but come on, it's a double-edged sword. You're sad because someone leaves and we've gotten to be friends now, but it's sort of like you're gladiator," Alley explained. "You're very sad when one gets eaten by a lion, but you've gotta be happy you didn't get devoured."
So there you have it?
—Reporting by Will Marfuggi