Dancing with the Stars on Good Morning America – FAN BLOG

DWTS fan Haley went to GMA after the finale and very graciously provided a blog and some photos so we could all share in the experience. Thanks Haley!! If you want to see additional pictures of Derek and Amy from Haley’s day, hit up PureDerekHough.com

I arrived to the GMA studio at about 1:15 AM. I thought a lot of people might be there, but I was the first one by a long shot. There were a lot of crew members setting up the dance floor area and the float that the cast arrived on, so I had people to talk to. They were all really nice and complimented me on the sign I made and my dedication to attending the taping. They all seem like really happy people so it was nice to hang out with them and talk to them for a few hours. The majority of the people showed up at about 5:30am, but I already took my place against the barricade. I found out from the crew that no fans were going to be let inside the studio, so I figured that the next best place to be was the outside dance floor area. It was really uneventful until about 7:45 when the cameras were turning on outside and more people showed up just before the cast arrived on the float. We saw Derek shooting his instagram video and everyone was screaming and going crazy. Lindsay, Jenna, Artem and Sasha came outside very quickly and rehearsed a bit and took pictures with anyone who asked. They all looked like really close friends and Lindsay has the cutest laugh I’ve ever heard. We got to watch the cast interviews on a monitor outside, and the troupe watched along with us. Lindsay and Jenna were ‘awww’ing a lot at Charlie’s message to Meryl.

The cast came out about a minute after the interview ended and were led to the dance floor. It was commercial time, so they quickly ran through their dances together and goofed around. There was one point where Derek was spinning Amy around and one of Amy’s legs nearly hit Mark in the face (I definitely got a picture of this moment) and Mark and Candace laughed even though Mark pretended to be mad about it. Derek and Mark hugged it out and it was cute. Maks came over and hugged a lot of people (myself included) and Meryl waved and shook hands. She was so sweet and was always like “It’s so nice to meet you!”. Really well mannered girl. Peta and James tried to take pictures and sign as many autographs as possible. Peta took pictures like a model and James looked just too happy to even be there. Candace was a total sweetheart and you can tell how grateful she was for the fans and their support. She was so sweet to me and was more than happy to take a photo with me. I made a sign for Amy (included in the pictures) and she loved it. She smiled at me and thanked me before pointing it out to Derek, which made him smile a lot too. They gave me a hug after they finished dancing. Maks and Meryl were really sweet with each other. They were always hugging and dancing around like it was their wedding or something. You can tell Maks is super protective of her. He even let me touch the MBT after we hugged.

You can tell that the cast genuinely loves each other. Maks and Derek were laughing together. Candace and Peta were hugging a lot and James even danced around with Amy. The anchors got in a bit on the dancing as well so that was really fun to see once the cameras were off. Overall, the entire experience was amazing. My legs hurt so bad from standing in the same spot for so many hours, but it was so worth it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to tweet me @haleybesser!