Carrie Ann Inaba Had A Physical Reaction To Eliminating James Van Der Beek On ‘Dancing With The Stars’

Carrie Ann Inaba admitted during a discussion about her Dancing with the Stars judging duties on The Talk that eliminating celebrity competitor James Van Der Beek made her physically ill. She admitted to co-hosts Sharon Osbourne, Marie Osmond, Eve, and Sheryl Underwood that removing James from the competition during the show’s semifinals caused her to vomit when she returned home after the taping.

“As a human being, what he and his wife, Kimberly, suffered is heartbreaking, and I have so much sadness in my heart for them, and my prayers are with them,” Inaba explained to her fellow The Talk co-hosts.

“But you know, this is where it’s really hard. As a judge, I have to judge the dance. We get to know them, and they become family, and their pain is my pain. I have to judge what’s happening on the dance floor. I went home and I vomited,” she stated of how deeply the decision affected her.

The physical reaction to the actor’s elimination came after Carrie Ann and her fellow judges Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli had to critique the former Dawson’s Creek star on his two dances, which were not as sharp as his previous performances.

James stood in the bottom two couples waiting to be eliminated alongside his professional partner Emma Slater. Also facing elimination was singer Ally Brooke, who would be saved by the judges and move on to the finals.

Fans took to The Talk’s official Instagram to chime in with their opinions on the elimination.

One fan noted in the comments section of the above video that half of the votes come from the fans during the episode, so they believed it was ultimately the viewers that voted James out of the competition.

Another fan remarked that they believed that perhaps sending James home was meant for the actor to “spend more time with his wife & children to grieve as a family.” They also believed they did not think the actor took his elimination from the competition personally.

Although Carrie Ann and her fellow DWTS judges were following the show’s rules by critiquing the dance technique that was shown to them, it was extremely difficult to judge the actor, who had admitted in the video package shown prior to his final dance to the song “Take Me to Church” by Hozier that he and wife Kimberly lost their sixth child to miscarriage just hours earlier.

James explained to the cameras, “I really didn’t think I’d be dancing tonight, but Kimberly from our hospital bed said to me, ‘I’m not done watching you dance.'”

The Talk airs daily on CBS. The finals of Dancing with the Stars will air Monday, November 25 on ABC.