First up, Brandon:

How quickly did you have to come in after finding out you'd be replacing Billy?
Brandon: Well, I got the call on Friday at 11 in the morning. They told me that I was able to replace another dancer. It was Billy in this case. I got on a plane two hours later. It was an hour flight. I landed; got picked up. I went to the studio, found out Pauline was my partner in front of everyone. Then, we went straight to rehearsal for smooth waltz with Jason Gilgonson. It was such a whirlwind. It was really crazy, but it was such an amazing experience.

How long had the others been rehearsing when you got there?
Brandon: I believe they had another day-and-a-half ahead of me. So, it was a total of about three days' rehearsal. I got about half of it.

And of all the things to happen after that, you drew "waltz," which is one of the hardest ones to impress an audience with. What was your reaction when you drew that?
Brandon: My reaction was really, really nervous, because I've never done a smooth waltz before, but I was really comfortable to do it with Pauline because we were partners in cha-cha for Vegas this season. So, we already had a feeling of each other's body and what we could do with our chemistry and everything. So I felt pretty confident that we could pull it off somehow.

Do you think you may have had a better chance if you'd originally been in the Top 20?
Brandon: I think I might have had a better chance just because the judges would have known I set the same standard as everyone else, because when I did the waltz, they kept saying, "He didn't have enough time; he didn't have enough time," because they knew I replaced Billy. So, I feel like I would have done a better job. They would've seen that I did a better job and would've taken that into consideration with the results, but I'm really happy the way I did. I'm really happy the way everything turned out because this cast is so amazing. I can't pick who's going to win. Everyone is going to do so well.

Switching gears now, to Ariana...

As you went into Tuesday night's episode, how did you feel, confidence-wise?
Ariana: Honestly, I always have confidence in my dancing. I trust myself as a dancer. I did the best that I could do. This Top 20 is fantastic. So, every week, it's going to be hard to eliminate someone just because of how wonderful everyone is. Everyone's so different. It's almost hard to compare us to each other. I mean, Pauline is a jazz dancer, and I'm a contemporary dancer. It's hard, but I was very confident. I was very proud of what I did [Tuesday] night. The outcome, it is what it is. Now, it's just time to move on.

Usually hip hop helps people move along when there are people voting for you, but this was just a judges' decision. Do you think if you had your dance up for America's vote you would have been able to continue?
Ariana: Honestly, I'm not sure. I thought all of my routines [Tuesday] night were great. I feel like it might have turned out differently had America had the option to vote, but you just never know.