The audience held their breath when Kirstie Alley tumbled to the ground during her rumba performance on last night's Dancing with the Stars. INSIDE EDITION spoke to Alley and dance partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy after the show.
It was the fall seen around the world on Dancing with the Stars as Kirstie Alley tumbled to the floor.
The shocking fall happened just ten seconds into her rumba with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Chmerkovskiy's left thigh collapsed as he supported Alley and he actually winced in pain. He says his thigh gave out and went into a painful spasm.
But he gave Alley a signal to start dancing again, to the cheers of the audience.
Amazingly the fall didn't affect Alley's scores.
"You can't keep good talent down because once you got up it was better than ever!" said judge Bruno Tonioli.
But on The View, Barbara Walters wondered whether something else was going on
"Is it possible that the score might be a teeny bit higher because people do want to see Kirstie, so they want to make sure she stays?" she asked.
Backstage after the fall, Alley told INSIDE EDITION she thought at first it was part of the act.
"I thought he was kidding because he said three days ago, 'We've got to do some funny things, you're a comedian, we've got to do funny things,' " Alley said.
"I bruised my ego that's what happened today," added Chmerkovskiy.
He later took to his Twitter page to apologize: "To all the fans... I'm sorry! It will never happen again."
INSIDE EDITION viewers weighed in on the fall on our Facebook page:
"I felt so embarrassed for Kirstie. She's such a good sport," wrote JoAnne.
"The plain truth is Kirstie's too heavy for him. No offense," said Lucy.
After the show, INSIDE EDITION spotted Alley in Hollywood, getting her very first tattoo.
Alley went with Cheryl Burke to the tattoo parlor, where she had the word "unbroken" inked on her left wrist.
And Alley is sticking up for Chmerkovskiy, saying the fall was not his fault. She wrote, "…We all know it takes TWO to Tango…" on her Twitter page.
