Erin Andrews on This Week's Insane Dancing with the Stars: 'I Feel Like I Took Truth Serum'

Dancing with the Stars is getting so outrageous that I almost need Erin Andrews on the phone with me as I watch. It's maddening! With Bristol Palin surviving another week and Carrie Ann Inaba sparring with Maks, it's easy to get a little huffy. In our epic interview this week, Miss Andrews discusses her love of Kyle Massey, Brandy's emotions, Maksim Chmerkovskiy's passion, and the possibility that Bristol will make it to the finals.

Yet another zany week, Erin. How did you feel about the "instant dance" idea?

I thought it was a great idea. It's funny, my girlfriends and I were talking during the show and texting. They were saying, "My gosh, if I had been on the show when the instant dance happened, I'd have had a meltdown." I mean, musicality? I do think I can hear beats in the music and stuff, but it's different when you hear the band playing it and you have to perform it. It does get a little chaotic. I was so impressed by the way everybody came out and really seemed to nail it. I didn't think they were going to get time to practice it. That was new to me. I thought they were just going to get the song and have to go. I'm glad they had time to practice.

But I have to tell you, when Kyle came out and did his jive, I was screaming in my living room. He's amazing. I was just so excited for [Kyle] and Lacey; I think he's a contender for the final. He's a contender for the mirror ball. He's just a different kind of dancer. He's just kind of silly! And he's learning every week. When they came out and they did the first instant dance, I was like, "OK, wow. This is incredible."

When I watched him kill it this week, I thought, 'Is the Erin Andrews prophecy coming true?' He might run away with this.

I know! He's phenomenal.

Your boy Maks had a slight kerfluffle with Carrie Ann this week. How did you react? Did you hurl things at the TV? Scream, etc.?

I think that when I first heard them [spar], I was like, "Oh gosh. Oh no." But then when I thought about it what happened afterward when they went to commercial -- he's so sweet. He was just sticking up for Brandy. A lot of the time when the judges comment on the choreography, the way the dance was planned out, the pros take it upon themselves to say, "Just judge her for the dance. Don't judge her for the choreography." That's all he was doing. He's very, very protective over his stars. He wants them to feel comfortable. He made a comment to me one night before the show started about my wardrobe, and he said, "I just want you to walk down those stairs and feel the most glamorous and beautiful you've ever felt in your entire life." He wants nothing but for his stars to feel the absolute best about themselves. You could see from the package that they showed with Brandy, he said, "Look, it's just about us. It's about nobody else. Do this for yourself." That was just Papa Bear taking over and being really protective over his baby. I knew they'd make a big deal about it on all the gossip shows and in the tabloids and on the results show. I don't know if you saw, but afterward, when Kurt was out, Maks went down and -- he's so sweet -- he hugged Kurt right away. And then he went off -- I watched him in the background -- he hugged Carrie Ann. I think in the end Carrie Ann knows what he's doing. He lets his emotions get the best of him, but that's why he's so wonderful.

Can you recall any times when the judges criticized you for things you couldn't control, like the choreography?

Oh, absolutely. Our samba that we did -- I had this gorgeous purple feather outfit with a nude top and embroidery. Our story that we were telling -- and this is why I love Maks, but -- he thinks of these different stories. Our dance, the song was "When I Get You Alone." He was like, "I want to pretend you're coming home from a glamorous ball. And I'm this guy, and I'm all over you. And you're like, 'No, no, no, no. Let me have a second.'" It was so awesome. There was a part when I rip off his sleeves and then I rip open his shirt, and then he ripped off his shirt. Well, Len went to town that night and just said, "I'm tired of it, Maks. She's a good dancer. I'm tired of you taking off your clothes." And Maks was like, "You're not listening! You're not understand the theme of our song." I got OK scores. I didn't get the greatest scores on it. But he really felt like we were being penalized -- I was being penalized -- because Maks took his shirt off. The next week we did our foxtrot where we joked he would take his shirt off, but then we decided not to in the middle of the dance. Yeah, he got really frustrated with the judges. He said, "You're penalizing Erin for something I created."

Jennifer Grey racked up a perfect score this week. If any dance this week was worth 30 points, do you think it was hers?

Well, her instant dance got the perfect score, right?

Yes.

I thought her instant dance was hot. I mean, that's what I wrote down in my notes. I wrote, "Wow. J. Hot." I'm such a dork in that I thought one of the moves was like in Dirty Dancing when he put his hand down her arm and then he spun her out. And that extension that she held was so beautiful. I have goosebumps thinking about it. I wasn't surprised that she got all 10s in that routine at all. Now I will say -- in her first dance, I loved the dance, I loved the dress, I was excited when I saw her dance, but (sighs) again, with all the "My body's falling apart" stuff. I read on somebody's tweet, I forget whose it was, but they were like, "Is she lying to us about her injury?" She builds up this "I'm hurt, I'm hurt, I'm hurt," and then she comes out, does the dance, and she's insane. So I can understand her body falling apart, but I appreciated this week that there wasn't a lot of crying. I appreciated that. She can't help that her body's falling apart; I like her playing it low-key, instead of being hysterical and everything like that. She went out there and I think she put herself on top of the leader board again. From her first dance to her instant dance, it was "Wow. Wow. Wow." That's the girl we saw at the beginning of the season and I think she put herself back on top.

She's got to be really, really careful with her packages though in the next two weeks. You don't want America to just get tired of the crying and the "My body's falling apart." It's OK because at this point in the competition, everybody's body is falling apart. Evan [Lysacek] had broken toes! He had a head injury. I had a broken foot which I didn't know about. We just knew my foot was swollen every single day, and we didn't know why. And I had a back injury. The day of the finale, we were doing run-through, we did my dance, and something popped in the middle of run-through. I started hysterically crying, and Maks was like, "What, what, what?" And I'm like, "It's fine, let's just go." At this stage of the game, everybody is hurt. You can't cry about it, and you have to soldier on.

It sounds like you're saying that Jennifer is the front-runner, but maybe Kyle or Brandy can take that from her very soon.

I'll be very, very honest. I think Jennifer is absolutely the front-runner right now. She's America's sweetheart. I'd hate to sound corny, but she's "Baby" to America. I think everybody loves the storyline that she's 50 years old and she's doing things with her body that are incredible. She looks wonderful. But I'll be very candid in the fact at all these packages and America's vote could really hurt her if she continues being very emotional. She can be injured and she can talk about that, but don't use that as the only thing you're talking about. She has a beautiful husband, a gorgeous daughter, friends who come to support her. Maybe use that. It was nice to see her dad in the package. But there is a guy named Kyle Massey who is so cute, so likable, and so fun. And he makes fun of himself -- and I used to do that, people love it when you make fun of yourself -- and he is becoming very charming to America. She needs to watch out for that. He may come out of the back, the back of the field there, and take over all the votes. Because people may start to get tired of it.

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