He was “pissed off”.

Dancing With The Stars has been the talk of the town today, but not for the dancing. Last night, Osher Günsberg received some harsh criticism from Craig Revel Horwood, who described his tango as a “right royal mess”.

The former Bachelor host clapped back, telling the judge to try to replicate his technical moves in heels, to which Craig replied, saying it wasn’t his job. Osher admits to Chattr Craig’s criticism left him “pissed off” and says he threw a “man-trum”.

“I tried really, really, really hard, and a part of me was like, ‘Oh, come on man. You know that was a really f**king hard thing to do, and I was never going to be technically perfect at it’,” he says. “I’m also not trying to be a professional dancer. So, you know, at least give us a compliment sandwich. Start with, ‘Mate, your hair looked good. Your feet look terrible, but you have a nice smile.’ You know, give us that.”

As a TV host, Osher is familiar with what causes drama and encourages ratings. He knows that Craig’s job is to “say the things we otherwise would never say out loud”, but a cheeky part of him wondered, “what would happen if the person who was getting eliminated also [did] that?”

It seems like there isn’t any bad blood between the two, though it certainly seemed tense on screen. “Sometimes you give it back, it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. It was always going to be a risk, but you know… I was coming from a place of reality, and I wasn’t particularly upset at him, I was just trying to draw some perspective to the snarkiness of what he was saying.”

Osher tells us he didn’t mind that the Dancing With The Stars judges didn’t like his dance, but he chose to take a risk because he wanted to challenge himself and do something hard. In the end, he came onto this show to push himself out of his comfort zone.

“My choice was to do something that was hard. I might not have executed it perfectly. I will own the consequences of that, and I think that’s an important message for people to hear. This is a message that I would have wanted to hear when I was a young man who wasn’t doing very well. I would have liked to see someone on telly say, I don’t really mind that it didn’t pay off, but I’m better. I’m a better person for having taken the risk,” he explains.
Osher Günsberg on Dancing With The Stars. Image: Seven

Osher reveals a tough lesson after Craig’s criticism on Dancing With The Stars

While it seemed like Osher took Craig’s criticism well and gave the judge an earful on TV, his elimination from Dancing With The Stars hit harder than expected. The day after he was told to hang up his dancing shoes for good, he was feeling low and struggled to deal with the “rejection”.

The host recognised he needed some mental health help, so Channel Seven connected him with a psychologist. “I was fascinated to learn… that I actually needed more external validation than I thought I did,” Osher explains.

“I was way more vulnerable to it than I thought. And the gift that [Dancing With The Stars] gave me was that I’ve got to spend… the last three or four months working on that. Every day, I’m in a very different place now, which makes me feel very happy, because I would not have discovered that otherwise. And it’s really important to understand where your self-worth and value sits.”

 

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Did Osher think he could win Dancing With The Stars?

When we asked if it was a relief for him to be eliminated after getting a low score, Osher says he actually wanted to go all the way. “I’m not here for a haircut,” he jokes. “Of course I didn’t want to go. But, you know, I understand why… I saw myself dance, I get it.”

“You’re not going to go to do this thing and go, ‘Oh I’ll do one and then leave.’ You want to go as far as you can. You’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound.”

He’s still glad he competed on Dancing With The Stars, calling it a “wonderful experience” and a unique opportunity. “When you get to [my age], it’s not often you get a chance to experiment and be challenged like this,” he says.

We’re still glad that Osher appeared back on our screens again, and hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of him. Fingers crossed we’ll get an Osher cameo on The Golden Bachelor.

Watch Dancing With The Stars Australia 2025 on Sundays from 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus.