Joey & Ilona Maher Recreated A Bachelor Scene With Dancing With The Stars Cast

Bachelor Nation has been eagerly tuned in to Dancing with the Stars Season 33, whether to celebrate Jenn Tran shaking it off after her breakup (beginning with a fitting cha-cha to Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers”) or to cheer on Joey Graziadei’s routines that might double as wedding dance lessons.

The Bachelor/ette vibes are high this season, so it’s only natural that the cast paid homage to the reality franchise with a fun behind-the-scenes TikTok.

An Impromptu Rose Ceremony

On Sept. 21, Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher shared a video of a mid-rehearsal rose ceremony where she, dance partner Alan Bersten, and Joey’s dance partner, Jenna Johnson, vied for the former Bachelor’s affection. Only this time, he wasn’t handing out roses, but dance shoes — as you do!

“Thank you all for coming,” Joey began. “This was really hard for me, but I know what I have to do.”

Proving that he still has the dramatic Bachelor routine down, Joey first presented a rose — er, shoe — to Jenna.

With just one shoe left, Ilona and Alan were feeling the pressure. It ultimately went to Alan, whose Bachelor-esque job chyron simply read: “Happy to be included.”

“Joey and I had something when we did the cha-cha slide together the other day. And I thought that he... I’m sorry, can we cut the cameras?” Ilona said as she walked away, crying, the picture of true Bachelor heartbreak. As one fan put it, it was “the crossover I never knew I needed!”

There’s No Jealousy Here

Joey is engaged to his Bachelor final rose recipient Kelsey Anderson. But don’t expect her to be jealous of the make-believe rose ceremony — or of any element of Joey’s Dancing with the Stars experience, really.

After Joey’s first performance on the show (which included a playful cowboy hat and torn-open dress shirt), Kelsey responded to fans who suggested she shouldn’t be OK with seeing Joey and Jenna dance together.

“So many people are like, ‘Kelsey, why is Jenna touching your man like that?’ And honestly, I don’t know... maybe because it’s her job,” Kelsey said in a recent TikTok video. “Maybe because she’s a professional dancer, and she has to touch him to dance.”

In the playful but pointed shutdown, Kelsey also said she was “tired” of viewers suggesting that she’s “so strong” for watching her fiancé on the dance floor. She reminded them that she met Joey on The Bachelor, where he was dating several women simultaneously, but always gave Kelsey the “security” and “reassurance” she needed.

“If I can survive that, I can survive watching him dance with a married woman — with a cute little baby boy — crushing it,” she said.

Jenna returned the love in the comments. “That’s my girl right there 😍😍,” she wrote.