'Dancing With the Stars' Week 9 Results: A Leaderboard Topper Goes Home (Which Means It Could Be Anyone!)

Warning: This recap reveals the elimination results of Week 9 of Dancing With the Stars.

And they’re off to the finals! On Tuesday’s Dancing With the Stars, the final four couples faced the music as one leaderboard-topping duo kissed their golden mirrorball dreams goodbye for good. And with this crew of contestants, that could be anyone.

After Monday night’s tear-filled semifinals (Noah Galloway proposed! Len Goodman danced, arthritis be damned!), it was time to get down to serious elimination business, and it’s never as excruciating as semifinals week, especially on a season when all four of the final couples have been leaderboard toppers at least once over the past eight weeks. That’s a DWTS first.

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Still, there’s a trophy to be had, so somebody had to go. And sadly, after getting this close to goldenball glory, Nastia Liukin and Derek Hough became the ninth couple eliminated from the 20th season of the ABC celebrity ballroom competition. That leaves Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovskiy, Noah Galloway and Sharna Burgess, and Riker Lynch and Allison Holker to battle it out in next week’s finale.

Wanna know how close this week’s vote was? Ahead of the show, host Tom Bergeron tweeted that just over 1 percent of this week’s votes/scores separate the bottom two couples. This is why you’ve got to vote, people!

While any elimination would have been a shocker this week, Liukin’s walking papers came after a perfect performance night (with three different dance partners, no less!), meaning it all came down to the viewer vote. With Hough still nursing a major foot injury, Liukin danced a perfect quickstep with replacement partner Sasha Farber on Monday night. But Hough risked his injury to return to the dance floor with her for the second Judges’ Choice dance, a Viennese waltz that culminated with an elegant (and poignant) finish by Liukin and Len Goodman.

After her mirrorball dreams were crushed, Liukin acknowledged that while she wanted to make it to the finale, she was grateful for a very special final performance night on the show.

“I kind of thought last night was a magical night, and not just for us, but for everybody here,” she said. “And I just want to thank Len, especially, for giving us that magical dance… and to be able to finish my experience here with that dance meant a lot.”

The Dancing With the Stars two-part finale kicks off Monday, May 18 at 8 p.m. on ABC.