Derek Hough May Not Return To ‘Dancing With The Stars’

Derek Hough and Nastia Liukin were sent home in fourth place on Dancing With the Stars. The former DWTS champion and Olympic gymnast consistently had high judges’ scores. The team was strained by bi-coastal commitments for both: Nastia for college and Derek on stage, both in New York. Midway through the season, Derek’s injury forced him to pull back and let Sasha Farber share the stage with Nastia.

Hough revealed on his TV Guide blog last week that he may not come back to Dancing With the Stars next season.

“I don’t know for sure yet if I’m coming back next season. That’s still a few months away and I’m not looking that far ahead yet. I still have two more seasons in my contract, so we’ll see.”

Derek made the revelation as he described asking a singer if she would perform a song for Nastia and Derek to dance to in the final, if they made it. At first the singer said yes, then said she had a conflict and couldn’t — but would be up for participating next season.

Hough addressed the controversial package that was shown before one of Derek and Nastia’s last dances, which he felt portrayed her in a poor light. He stopped short of saying the show deliberate sabotaged their chances of making it to the final.

“To be completely honest, I feel like in a way, we sort of got eliminated last week with that package…. That was a terrible representation journey of our week. And to see that, it was like, “I see what’s going on here.” I’m not blaming the show or anyone for our elimination — we’ve all had bad packages — but I’ve been around here a long time! I know how everything works.”

Derek turned 30 on Sunday. He’s healed well enough from his injury to perform with sister Julianne Hough on Tuesday’s season finale of Dancing With the Stars.E! revealed that they will dance to a performance by Sia.

“@ABC7George: #DWTS fans will like this. On Tuesday, @Sia will perform “Elastic Heart” with @derekhough & @juliannehough dancing.” #move

— Derek Hough (@derekhough) May 16, 2015

The final three celebrities competing for the mirror ball trophy are Rumer Willis, Derek and Julianne’s cousin Riker Lynch, and Noah Galloway. Derek Hough did not reveal any specific favorites on his latest blog post, but did offer this support for one team.

“I wanted to vote for Noah! There was this moment in the paso when he looked up intensely and closed his fist, and I was just like, ‘That was amazing!'”

Dancing With the Stars airs Monday and Tuesday nights on ABC.

[Derek Hough and Nastia Liukin image courtesy of Getty]