It's finally time for Dancing With The Stars to wrap on the 2025 TV schedule, and as we all wait to see which celebrity will be holding that Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy in the end, eliminated celebrities are sharing their opinion on the season. This includes fan-favorite Andy Richter, who got honest about just how intense his training was behind the scenes.
After going to bat for Whitney Leavitt following her elimination, Richter spoke to People about what he was going through when the cameras weren't rolling. There was a lot of pain that he jokingly referred to as "borderline abuse," but after hearing what he went through, it's clear that a lot of pain was really involved:
Certainly my body is enjoying not dancing, just because I was really getting to the point where I was always having to ice my knees every hour. We'd dance a while and then I'd have to ice my knee, and there was a lot of pain and getting injections just to be able to keep going. So I'm healing. It's not even just that I'm sort of resting, I feel like my legs are healing now. It wasn't just exercise, it was borderline abuse that I was doing to myself.
I would've never guessed that Andy Richter was receiving injections in between all those funny social media videos, just so that he could stay in the competition. It makes all those comments about him being stiff on the dancefloor feel a little harsher in hindsight, considering how much work he had to do to get to the performance night.
Despite being pushed along with the audience vote each week and needing to ice his knees constantly, Andy Richter does miss the Dancing With The Stars experience. His knees might be feeling better, but he doesn't feel like his current workout is a match for a training session with his pro Emma Slater:
As much as I do feel like my body's healing, I do kind of miss the physicality of it. Going to the gym and doing the elliptical is not the same thing as rehearsing a new dance with Emma. It's just not.
I guess it makes sense that Andy Richter would be ok with enduring the punishment to stay in the competition, as he remained adamant about staying in it throughout Dancing With The Stars. Fortunately, he'll get to return for finale night, and hopefully, he'll get his wish of having one more intense dance session with Emma Slater to prepare for whatever they're going to do in the finale.
Dancing With The Stars' Season 34 finale is going to be three hours of excitement, with the finalists all battling it out between performances from previously eliminated dancers. Heading into the finale, I would say that Robert Irwin remains the odds-on favorite to win, though I'm not ruling out TikTok influencer Alix Earle creeping by and stealing the win.
No disrespect to Dylan Efron, Elaine Hendrix, or Jordan Chiles, but based on what we've seen with the scores this season, I think those three are more locked in for a battle for third place than the top two slots. However, as last week's elimination and Richter's run proved, you never know what could happen on Dancing With The Stars.
Dancing With The Stars finale kicks off on ABC and Disney+ on Tuesday, November 25th at 8:00 p.m. ET. Tune in to see who ends up winning it all, and if we end up being shocked at who walked away with the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
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