Dancing with the Stars’ 34th season is approaching its finale on the 2025 TV schedule, and as the celebrities cha-cha closer to the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, emotions are ramping up among fans and cast members alike. Whitney Leavitt of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was the latest to be eliminated alongside her pro partner Mark Ballas, which has some crying foul — including Andy Richter, who questioned if there might be factors other than dancing at play here.
In the DWTS semifinals that aired November 18 (and can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription or Hulu subscription), five finalists made it through to next week’s finale: Jordan Chiles, Alix Earle, Dylan Efron, Elaine Hendrix and Robert Irwin. That means our second Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star, Whitney Leavitt, was sent packing. Given her skills and the improvement she’s shown over the course of Season 34, Andy Richter didn’t seem to agree with the ruling, telling EW:
I think Whitney going home, to me it's absolutely insane. I mean, she's an amazing dancer. And if all the sticklers who were furious about me still being in it, who were demanding perfect technical dancing, I don't know why she would get sent home under that criterion.
Andy Richter knows as well as anyone that Dancing with the Stars is about picking the favorite dancer, not necessarily the best dancer. That was the key to him sticking around for as long as he did — Richter and Emma Slater were eliminated a week before Whitney Leavitt — and probably one of the motivations behind the hilarious rehearsal videos he posted to TikTok.
The comedian seemed to suggest that some of the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives drama may have leaked over to the dancing competition, as he continued:
But there's a whole soap opera going on adjacent to this show online. It's a good way to sort of take the temperature of what the audience is feeling in terms of voting. I've seen forever, there's like people just like, 'Whitney's gotta go,' and I'm just like, 'What? Why?'
Whitney Leavitt has been portrayed on the Hulu reality show as one of the villains, either for the way she facilitated drama amongst the MomTok members or, in the second and third seasons, her flip-flopping over whether or not she wanted to be in the group. She even admitted at one point to rejoining MomTok for the sole purpose of being able to audition for Dancing with the Stars.
With SLOMW Season 3 premiering as DWTS aired, is it possible that the latest events could have influenced fan voting? Either way — and despite an awkward exchange between Whitney Leavitt and Danielle Fishel that the latter downplayed — Andy Richter rejects the idea of the TikTok star being anything but the “most loving" person, as he said:
I need to tell you that Whitney was one of the sweetest, most positive loving people on that show. Beyond anybody else, from the moment I met her, she was loving, and winning, and kind, and considerate, and incredibly positive towards me... She was one of the people that definitely made me feel that I was a valuable member of this team.
I do love that this sweet friendship developed between Andy Richter and Whitney Leavitt, but I can honestly feel Mikayla Matthews rolling her eyes from here.
Dancing with the Stars Season 34 featured two cast members from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, as Jen Affleck was the sixth celeb to get the boot. She and pro partner Jan Ravnik endured their own issues from outside forces, as the Taylor Swift dancer-turned-DWTS pro faced harsh criticism from Maks Chmerkovskiy for a perceived lack of technique.
I guess wherever the Mormon Wives go, drama follows! Tune in to see who will take home the trophy when the DWTS Season 34 finale airs at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, November 25, on ABC and streaming live on Disney+.
