Dancing with the Stars 24 postmortem: On Chris Kattan’s elimination

Chris Kattan’s elimination on Dancing with the Stars 24 on Monday night was a sad one, though we imagine that you could say the same thing about the majority of the eliminations that take place over the course of the show’s history.

However, there is something especially sad about this one given that for the former Saturday Night Live star, this was a chance for him to reemerge into the spotlight. He’d been gone from the competition for a long time, and we could understand there being fear from his vantage point in getting back out there and trying to entertain in such a way. This is a guy who’s spent years recovering from a broken neck and some severe injuries that limit his ability to perform.

Interestingly, Kattan noted that he almost wished that his injury had been disclosed to viewers watching the show earlier, given that this could have made a difference in him staying in the long-term. Here’s what he had to say to Entertainment Tonight after the fact:

“It should have been [shown] in the very beginning, so I’m surprised it wasn’t … When I got on the show I was like, ‘The only way I’m going to do the show is if is if they know that, you know, I’ve had surgery and stuff in the past,’ you know?… Otherwise I’m gonna look kinda like a lame-o or whatever.”

Would Kattan have gotten more of a sympathy vote if it was shown? Probably, but there’s nothing wrong with that if it ends up keeping you around and your goal is sticking around in the competition for as long as possible. Also, it’s context. It’s important. When you have this sort of injury, everything becomes that much harder to pull off.

The one thing that we do hope comes from this for Chris is that he gets an opportunity to get back out there on television. We could see him being a great component in a sitcom or some other comedy series. We don’t necessarily see him back on SNL anytime soon, just because they’ve got so much stuff going on there already. What ultimately hurt him in this competition was a combination of low scores and a lack of recent name recognition; even if the jury was disclosed, it may still have hurt him after the fact.

Were you disappointed by Chris Kattan’s elimination? Did you see it coming? Sound off in the comments below!