ABC/Eric McCandlessWhoops! That's one misstep Dancing With the Stars fans won't forget.
During the Oct. 5 episode, Tyra Banks announced the pairs up for elimination and then quickly revealed there had been a mistake. While the host initially said Vernon Davis and Peta Murgatroyd were at risk of going home along with Anne Heche and Keo Motsepe, she later corrected herself and said Monica Aldama and Val Chmerkovskiy were the ones joining Heche and Motsepe in the bottom two.
"There's been an error in our control room, but we're making it happen," Banks said. "This is live TV, right? This is the craziness of live TV….I'm so sorry. This is live TV. I was reading my cards, but my cards were wrong."
Aldama and Chmerkovskiy had previously been told they were safe and had already left the stage. Once the two rejoined Heche and Motsepe in the ballroom, judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli revealed which duo they wanted to save. They ultimately decided to keep Aldama and Chmerkovskiy and eliminated Heche and Motsepe from the competition.
The 51-year-old actress and the 30-year-old pro opened up about the experience, which Banks later attributed to a "technical difficulty," the next day on Good Morning America.
During the interview Michael Strahan talked about Heche's performance, one of her highest-scoring routines of the season, and asked if she was glad she "went out on a high note."
"Was that a high note?" she replied. "Listen, I'm glad that I got to dance the dances that I did, and I've been through tougher, but this was not my finest moment."
Still, Motsepe said he was proud of Heche, noting she "came out strong" and "delivered" during the dance. As for his thoughts on the elimination error?
"It's 2020. Happy 2020. Anything can happen. You know? Anything can happen," he said. "Still, it's live television. So, yeah, that's it. Happy 2020. You never know what's going to happen any day."
Before the performance, Heche looked back at her past relationship with Ellen DeGeneres. She said she had been kicked out of a movie premiere and fired from a "multimillion-dollar picture deal" over the relationship.
"My story is a story that created change in the world," she said ahead of the dance, "and just moved the needle for equal rights forward."
Heche also reflected on this time during her interview with Strahan. "Listen, I live in love; I live in truth," she said. "I stood up for it 10 years ago, 20 years ago and I stand up for this very same thing today. I'm very proud, very happy that Dancing With the Stars allowed me the opportunity to be able to share the story of my life. That was a very lucky thing that happened tonight."
Watch the video to see the interview.
Fans can continue to watch the contestants compete for the Mirrorball trophy Monday nights on ABC.