Mauricio Umansky is thanking fans for saving him from Dancing With the Stars elimination following his Light Night routine mishap.
“Alright, everybody. So, I’m heading home — long, long day, crazy day, lots of ups and downs and I just really want to say thank you to everybody that voted for me,” the real estate mogul, 53, began an Instagram Story video on Tuesday, October 3. “My friends, the fans, The Agency, you guys all pulled together so strong and I really needed it.”
During the ABC competition show’s Tuesday night episode, Umansky suffered a “misstep” while performing a salsa to “Quimbara” by Celia Cruz, Willie Colón and Johnny Pacheco Y Su Charanga with his partner, Emma Slater. Despite getting off to a strong start, they began improvising mid-way through the dance after Umansky lost track of the choreography.
“I missed a big chunk of my dance, but I kept it going and it was really the votes that kept me in it,” he told fans via Instagram. “And I’m just loving it and having so much fun dancing that I’m really, really glad you guys all turned up for me. So, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you guys and we live to fight another week. Let’s see if I can finally get a performance. Thanks, guys.”
Before receiving their scores, Umansky told cohost Julianne Hough that he felt “terrible” about messing up the routine. “I had so much fun, I was so into it, and I just missed that one step that we’d been nailing every single time, and it is what it is,” he stated. “I was trying to channel my dad, the Mambo King.”
Slater, 24, for her part, said the pair’s strong friendship helped them pick up where they left off in the dance. “What went through my mind was, ‘We are just gonna have fun on the floor. It doesn’t matter if we don’t know what the choreographer [is], what we’re doing,” she told Hough, 35. “This is what matters. What matters is you put your heart out there and that you have the support.”
Although the dancing duo received the lowest score of the night with a total of 12 out of 30 points, it was ultimately Jamie Lynn Spears and partner Alan Bersten who were sent home after landing in the bottom two.
As their DWTS journey continues, Umansky is already thinking of working with Slater again, potentially on his Netflix series Buying Beverly Hills. When asked whether Slater — who has a real estate license — should join his agency, Umansky exclusively told Us Weekly, “She doesn’t have a choice.”
Slater went on to joke that she was “nervous” to bring up her real estate license upon being paired up for DWTS season 32. “How do you tell the king of real estate, ‘Oh by the way, I kind of dabble [in it],” she told Us. “But for sure, there’s no other agency that I would rather go with and it will be The Agency.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Hannah Kahn
