Despite all the recent drama, Jan Ravnik is grateful for his experience on Dancing With the Stars.
“I mean, I couldn’t ask for a better partner for the first season,” Ravnik, 30, gushed during a joint interview with Jen Affleck on the Thursday, October 30, episode of the “Dancing With the Stars Official Podcast” after their elimination on Halloween Night. “Maybe my last season, you never know,” he joked.
Ravnik said he appreciated his “entire journey” with Affleck, 26, noting that they got to learn the ropes together. “I’m new here … I was trying my best to show her Dancing With the Stars world as much as I could,” he continued. “And I was trying to not [make it so] that she’s behind because I am new. I was always trying to bring, like, other opinions into the room, all my friends, like, ‘Does she look good at the end?’”
The pro dancer praised Affleck’s dedication, saying she brought “so much” to the show. “We were happy, we were crying, we were sexy, we were doing everything,” he said. “And no matter what other people say or whatever was happening … we ended up so strong.”
Ravnik and Affleck were sent home on Tuesday, October 28, after performing a contemporary routine to Taylor Swift‘s “Look What You Made Me Do.”
Their elimination came on the heels of eyebrow-raising comments from former pro Maks Chmerkovskiy, who claimed Ravnik had “no business” being on DWTS due to his lack of ballroom experience. (Before joining DWTS for season 34, Ravnik danced with Swift, 35, on The Eras Tour.)
Judge Derek Hough came to Ravnik’s defense during Tuesday’s show, saying that his first season was “fantastic.” Podcast host Joey Graziadei shared a similar opinion on Thursday, telling Ravnik he loved watching along from week to week.
“Look, it was great. It definitely was a new experience,” Ravnik said of his DWTS debut. “I think I was just thrown in. … So I think that the first episode, I was still trying to figure out where we’re going. What is the skybox? What is this?”
While he found his footing, Ravnik “had so much support from production” and his fellow season 34 pros. “Everyone’s so sweet,” he added. “The pros are always there. They were always cheering me up. Everyone’s so nice. It’s like a small family. So, yeah, I felt supported.”
Ravnik admitted that he was “scrolling too much” online and got caught up in the comments about his performances. “You see all the hate and then get that in your head. And you’re like, ‘Oh, God. Is this how influencer[s] feel?’” he teased.
Joining such a popular show — during its milestone 20th anniversary year, no less — came with “a lot of pressure.” Ravnik said social media only added to stress.
“Everyone wants to stay relevant with all the comments and clicks, clickbaits, hate on people just to get a comment,” he explained. “But at the end of the day, they are gonna close the app and get the views, but we are real people here and they don’t know how they are hurting us.”
Chmerkovskiy, 45, has yet to address his comments or Ravnik’s elimination. Following his exit from DWTS on Tuesday, Ravnik exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about facing public criticism.
“I mean, look, everyone has [an] opinion. Everyone has a right to have [an] opinion. Haters [are] going to hate and whoever loves us, loves us,” he said. “What am I going to do? You can’t change their mind. Everyone can have [an] opinion — either I respect [it] or don’t respect [it].”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, with new episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.
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