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The first episode of Dancing With the Stars‘ milestone 30th season is in the books, and it’s left me with one very pressing question: How was everybody so freakin’ good?
If you’ve watched a lot of DWTS in the past, you know to keep expectations low for the premiere episode, which usually features quite a few rocky routines (and at least one pro visibly counting out the steps for his or her celeb partner). Monday’s Season 30 debut, though, delivered an exceptionally high number of really excellent routines — so many, in fact, that I’m starting to seriously question some of the pre-season predictions I made. (The swagger on Iman Shumpert! Who knew?!)
Even better, Dancing has welcomed back a masked audience to the ballroom this season, and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed actual humans booing the judges instead of a weird, phantom audio recording doing it. Anyway! Before you give your thoughts on the premiere performances, here are some rapid-fire reactions from me:
Mel C and pro Gleb Savchenko (Cha-Cha): It was very smart of the show to lead with Mel C, and to give her a Spice Girls song as her soundtrack. Even with the weight of the season’s first performance on her shoulders, Mel was relaxed and precise — and I’m a little obsessed with her orange-and-blue costume, which was an homage to Sporty Spice’s outfit in the “Wannabe” music video. Judges’ Score: 27/40
The Miz and pro Witney Carson (Cha-Cha): As I said in my initial predictions, The Miz seems like this season’s biggest wild card: a potential pleasant surprise, or a little too heavy-footed for the ballroom. On Monday, at least, the WWE wrestler was much more of the former, turning in a cha-cha that was unexpectedly light and breezy, if a tad manic at times. Judges’ Score: 24/40
Iman Shumpert and pro Daniella Karagach (Jive): Folks, my jaw dropped when I saw Iman keeping up with Daniella during those side-by-side sections. The speed! The grasp on choreography! If Iman stays in the competition, I hope Daniella challenges him with some more legitimate ballroom content, instead of padding routines with groovy interludes like she did here (and often did with last year’s partner, Nelly). But for a Week 1 jive? That was strong. Judges’ Score: 21/40
Olivia Jade and pro Val Chmerkovskiy (Salsa): It’ll be very interesting to see how the voting audience responds to Olivia, especially after a rehearsal package loaded with “strong work ethic” and “do better” sound bites. Her dancing on its own, though, was very, very good. Judges’ Score: 25/40
Jimmie Allen and pro Emma Slater (Tango): Another dance for the “extremely pleasant surprise” category! I expected a certain stiffness, and perhaps a little sheepishness, from Jimmie, especially with a style that requires intensity and commitment. But nope: He can body-roll with the best of ’em, and he was a solid partner for Emma throughout the routine. Judges’ Score: 22/30
Melora Hardin and pro Artem Chigvintsev (Tango): This premiere was so strong across the board that I’m really hoping Melora’s few balance hiccups don’t impact her chances of advancing too much. Aside from a couple of wobbles, the Bold Type actress was strong and elegant, without veering over into cartoonish tango seriousness. Judges’ Score: 26/40
Suni Lee and pro Sasha Farber (Jive): I’m so excited about this Suni/Sasha partnership; every season, Sasha is so well-attuned to his partners’ strengths and weaknesses that I can’t wait to see the choreography risks he takes with an athletic partner like Suni. The Olympic gymnast didn’t always look like she was having a blast on the dance floor, but her technical skill — and that split halfway through the number! — was astonishing. Judges’ Score: 28/40
Cody Rigsby and pro Cheryl Burke (Tango): Given how loose and comfortable Cody seemed in the lead-up to his performance, I was surprised how nervous he came off at parts of this tango. There’s no doubt he’s got the dancing know-how, though, and a terrific partner in Cheryl; if Cody gets the votes to advance, here’s hoping he shakes off those nerves and channels his usual Peloton authority out there. Judges’ Score: 24/40
Amanda Kloots and pro Alan Bersten (Tango, pictured): Amanda was my pre-season pick to win the whole shebang… and after Monday’s commanding, sure-footed tango, I stand by it! Also, let’s not sleep on Alan as a partner. He’s got exciting choreography ideas each season, and I’m jazzed to see what he can do when paired with someone as capable as Amanda. Judges’ Score: 28/40
Martin Kove and Britt Stewart (Paso Doble): We all know this was the evening’s biggest “oof” moment. No need to rip into it. The dude is 75. Judges’ Score: 13/40
Kenya Moore and pro Brandon Armstrong (Foxtrot): The first foxtrot of the broadcast was exceedingly lovely. Kenya doesn’t have any ballroom experience at all, but you’d never know that from her smooth transitions and clean lines. Judges’ Score: 26/40
Christine Chiu and pro Pasha Pashkov (Tango): In a crowd of impressive tangoes during the premiere, Christine and Pasha’s struck me as the most forgettable, content-wise. Christine does, however, have a really beautiful flexibility in her execution, and I hope she gets a chance to stick around and showcase even more of the potential glimpsed in this performance. Judges’ Score: 25/40
Matt James and pro Lindsay Arnold (Cha-Cha): Perhaps in a weaker premiere episode, Matt would have stuck out as the night’s most unexpected joy. On this stacked show? I think Iman still gets that superlative. Nevertheless, Matt’s got a fun confidence to his movements, and a multi-time finalist like Lindsay is an excellent partner for him. Now, who’s going to tell him to stop lip-syncing with the song? Judges’ Score: 24/40
Brian Austin Green and pro Sharna Burgess (Foxtrot): Since Brian and Sharna are a real couple outside of the ballroom, they run the risk of getting graded on a curve here: Their chemistry is palpable, and that kiss at the end was adorable, and it could all feel so novel that viewers cut them a little more slack than usual. But Brian does appear to have some serious skill lurking underneath the surface. Those port de bras? So refined! Assuming his and Sharna’s relationship doesn’t steal too much of the spotlight, there’s major dark horse potential here. Judges’ Score: 24/40
JoJo Siwa and pro Jenna Johnson (Quickstep): We had to know Dancing was saving this historic partnership for last on Premiere Night, and it didn’t disappoint. There was a slip in the middle, but JoJo didn’t appear rattled by it at all, and her ability to keep up with Jenna on those lightning-fast quickstep moves never came into question. (That said, I think an eight from Carrie Ann Inaba was probably a little too generous. One of them fell!) Judges’ Score: 29/40
With that, I turn it over to you! Which Dancing couple(s) impressed you the most on Premiere Night? Drop a comment below with your thoughts!
We’ve seen before that good dancing + a touching storyline = mirrorball, so I think this season is AK’s to lose.
I don’t know about Carrie Ann tonight, between forgetting the Miz’s real first name, and giving that 8 when Jenna fell. Come on.
idk we’ll see. Theres been several competitors that have been good dancers with touching stories that dont win. They get far but not necessarily the mirrorball. Im placing my bets on a Suni Lee-Cody Rigsby final 2
Pretty good dances across the board tonight – Martin was the lone real weak one in the group. But otherwise, this is a pretty strong bunch. I like that, keeps things a little more unpredictable in terms of who might go far.
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So far some of my favorites were Mel C., Melora, Jimmie, Kenya, and Amanda. Jojo and Jenna were fun together, too, and I think Suni and Sasha are going to make a cute duo as well.
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But yeah. Good night all around – I think this season’s going to be a pretty tight race.
I know Artem just won last year, but given how well he partnered Nancy Kerrigan and Lea Thompson (both eliminated too early on their seasons), I’m totally here for him and Melora. And honestly I didn’t watch the season Hannah won so when Amanda hinted her partner was a champ I was 1000% thinking Val but I love the two of them together.
I was pleasantly surprised by almost everyone. Most of them did pretty well except for Martin. Felt bad for him. And Jojo was completely overscored. An 8! Really! I actually didn’t like their dance either. I thought it was way too rushed & all over the place. Jojo seems very arrogant, too. Not impressed. Looking forward to watching everyone else, though. And Mel C. looks amazing! I need to be on her workout routine!! I was actually happy to have Len back, too. He brings some balance to the judges.
I won’t be watching the rest of this season as long as JoJo is on it…love Jenna but do not care for JoJo at all. They did not deserve their scores and I think Jenna knew it……joJo is not a good example for young girls…..and thinks too much of herself.
I totally agree with you Dianne, Iwon’t be watching anymore.
Got it – don’t teach girls confidence. Good advice.
And may I just point out that straight women dance with each all the time (not that I’m denying JoJo not being straight here – who cares), and in many countries straight men dance with each, too. It’s dancing, folks. You don’t need to bring your homophobia into it. Having said that I will say that straight or gay or bi, I find JoJo kind of annoying.
…each other
Shut the TV off and won’t be watching again. Totally disgusted. Stop throwing this behavior in our faces.
I agree 100% about JoJo & her partners SPASTIC “PERFORMANCE”! The judging has GOT to be RIGGED!
I’m still rooting for Melora, Jimmie & Amanda. Despise the fact the producers paired Val with Olivia Jade. Val is such a fan favorite that the audience will always vote to keep him in the competition no matter who his dancing partner is and the show obviously wants Olivia Jade to stick around to garner more controversy/publicity. Glad I’ll only be reading recaps instead of actually watching! Have done this for years and have found it the best way to follow the show. Don’t knock it until you try it!
Well, it was a bit disappointing. Though it was the first week, some of the comments from the judges were scattered. Lin gave horrible points to the wrong celebrities up front. A bit picky. These celebrities are doing dances they are not used to. But I am looking forward to this season. It’s gonna be interesting!🤔
Well not watch it. Do not like the way Tom bergeron was treated. Tara is a beautiful person but not for this job.
It’s Tyra not Tara know how to spell the name before you submit a comment!
Mia…you don’t have to be mean about a slip as far as a name goes. Lighten up!
Why is Tara doing this job? She is completely out of her league! She makes too many mistakes and looks too much like she’s reading. She enters the stage like she’s trying to relive her modeling days that are long gone. She has no idea how to host a show like this. Bring back Tom and Erin! And where are all the bigger stars? I didn’t even know who most of these people were? I’m disappointed in this year’s lineup.
Tyra is the executive producer so not ever going to replace herself although a horrible fit! A die-hard fan could not watch it with her . Last year so recorded it and just skipped over to the dances when watching. This year it’s even worse since so many of the celebs(??? Not stars for sure) have tons of dance background. I watched JoJo grow up on Dance Moms! And Mel C is a performer~Amanda has appeared in numerous Broadway shows. Than you have poor Martin😢Come on ~ that’s not a true competition at all. So not even recording this time. Just reading comments and will watch some recaps on FB. I had hoped for Sasha to get Sunnie and win since he’s long overdue. I see he got Sunnie so here’s hoping. Might record and watch the last 2 or 3 weeks depending who’s left but still could not stomach Tyra
Even as an EP, she still answers to higher-ups. EP Mike Richards didn’t unilaterally “choose himself” to host Jeopardy (contrary to snarky online commenters) and Tyra is still subject to firing just like Bergeron was. (They won’t, but they could.)
I was a faithful fan of the show before Tyra, can NOT stand her. It is all about her, even the promos did not mention the professional dancers or stars, all about this Joke. Fire her so we can all go back to enjoying the show.
I think Suni Lee was the best!
Everything was great until JoJo S. came on with Jenna.. Their performance was fantastic but dancing woman with woman has to go.. I thought Dancing with the stars was a good show, I look forward on seeing it every season but having 2 partners dancing the same sex has to go.. It’s supposed to be boy, girl not girl girl..
Please change it or I will stop seeing the program.. I have been seeing this show ever since it’s started.. Change It Now!!
Why is the idea of two people of the same sex dancing together such a deal-breaker for you? It’s just dancing.
And why are you asking us to change it? You know nobody here is an ABC executive, right?
No, the question is why it’s so important that we have same sex dancing. Have we been doing this wrong all this time? (It’s also regressive in time – colonial dancing often involved men dancing with men. But like slavery, we eventually stopped that.)
And as a social dancer, it’s one thing to be turned down for a dance because “I promised this one to him,” it’s quite another to be told “I’m dancing with her.”
I’m sorry, you’re comparing a same sex pairing on DWTS (or, in your words, men dancing with men) to slavery?!
Get over yourself. Are you that fragile? In real life, at all kinds of events and all sorts of places, same sex pairings dance together. Mostly due to a guest gender imbalance, there were many same-sex dance pairings at a wedding I attended a few days ago all doing traditional dances that are extremely strictly male-female. It works. I’d say as well since it looked like JoJo was leading and thus taking a traditionally male role, she is actually being challenged. It’s fantastic that she’s challenging repressive gender norms on a major platform.
I totally agree with you, feel the same. I won’t watch anymore & Jojo too into herself.
OY! Why should they not have same-sex partners?
I finally had to stop watching and cancel the series on my recorder. I have been a faithful watcher since season 1…..can NOT tolerate Tyra at all. It’s just getting too “woke” for my taste. I am going to miss it terribly…..😢
I actually thought everyone did really well, Martin Cove is, what, 74 years old(?), we should not expect that much. Not sure Olivia Jade deserves to be on this show. Is she really a ‘Star’??
With Jojo, I am done watching & have since this show started. I am disappointed and disgusted. Not everybody is onboard with this.
Not watching this year! Done! Tyra was so bad last year, I just can’t! And Why is abc promoting the cheating Olivia and her family? Throw in girl on girl dancing! Just can’t!
I will miss the show….the way it was!
I miss Tim Bergeron!
Tyra was horrible. When I think of how wonderful Tom Bergeron was as the host, it’s very upsetting. The whole tone of DWTS is different.
Jo Jo Siwa dancing with another should never been allowed . I can’t believe the did this. I watch this show with my 3 daughters and wife. Daddy why is she dancing with another girl? She asked me. Like REALLY. She like Girls seriously can’t believe this!! It’s like Push Your Sexual decisions on TV. I don’t care what your preference is but don’t make exceptions. I’m sure the gay bike rider would have liked a guy partner!! Hello!
As your daughters grow up they’ll realise how close minded you are if there’s any good in this world. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to any events where dancing occurs (wedding, ceilidh, whatever) but same sex pairings are fairly common. Literally in school when taught dancing, due to there not being equal numbers of boys and girls, there were always same sex pairings.
How hard would it have been to tell them any number of valid reasons – because she wanted to dance with a girl is the most obvious answer. Or maybe, if you really really want to avoid showing your bigotry, you could’ve looked at it as Jojo is already a trained dancer but since it looked like she was leading (i.e., taking the male role) she was levelling the playing field and actually doing something different than her training and actually being challenged.
Also, speaking of “pushing your sexual decisions on TV”, Brian Austin Green is partnered with his real life partner, and they kissed on air, shoving their heterosexual relationship down all of our throats. Were you and your daughters horrified by that? Do you complain when straight couples simply appear on any and all media all the time, since by your logic that would be “pushing their sexual decisions on TV”? No?
Also, maybe Rigsby might’ve preferred a male partner, we don’t know, but either he didn’t ask for one, or his team decided it would be wise to avoid the kind of backwards af backlash people like you are giving.
I used to love watching Dancing With the Stars, to the point where I have to rewind and watch from the very beginning if I miss any part. Ever since Tyra became host I lost interest. I mean I still watch the show, just don’t care about missing parts of it or not. Not impressed by the line-up this season.
Think that’s wrong, anyone else slips they would of got low numbers. But just because two woman are dancing together they are giving them high numbers. I been watching since it started. I seen the couple before them do better and you all low balled them. Please one is going to be fixed and she is going to win it.
I think it’s because it’s technically the performance of the celebrity being scored, not the pro. It was the pro who slipped, not the celeb, and she did a great and smooth job of picking up the pro and continuing with minimal drop in performance. I think every couple was very much overscored, because with scores so high week 1 (almost all in the mid-high 20s) it’s not leaving many of them with anywhere to go and makes the scoring essentially meaningless.
They rightly didn’t deduct points because it was the dance pro not the contestant that slipped. The dance pro isn’t the one being judged.
Very disappointed in “DWTS”. Listening to 4 judges comments is boring. That outfit that Carrie Ann war was disgusting. It’s supposed to be a dance competition, not a competition on who can show the most boobs! Sharna disgusts me the way she hangs all over her dance partner. This show is not about dancing, bring back dancers who had know experience in dancing, it was nice to see how their progress every week. Bring back Tom, I’m done with this show.
Why does Tyra Banks keep saying history is being made? Did she not see Cher’s daughter perform on this show several years ago? I did really enjoy the show — so many good dancers.
You mean Cher’s son, right? He transitioned a while before appearing.
Unfortunately, this show has morphed mostly into a platform for reality show has beens, bad apples seeking redemption, and social controversy. I feel bad for the true “stars” who have always been the bedrock of the show.
I was and still am furious with they way Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews were let go so I really didn’t want to watch DWTS. I did wind up watching last season once it was on available on HULU because I loved Tyra Banks on ANTM and she was one of my favorite models growing up, but she was terrible as host just as she was on AGT. The constant talking about herself, awful hair, makeup, and ridiculous outfits coupled with the blinding flashing lights made the show unwatchable. I tuned in to see this season’s premiere episode being that it’s the 30th season, but that only confirmed to me that I need not watch any longer. It appears that Tyra Banks took heed of the almost universal dislike of her multiple outfit changes, but that first outfit had me wishing she would change. When she did change about midway announcing her outfit change, I fast forwarded because it was that bad. Whoever the designer friend is that Tyra Banks put on the show is doing her no favors. She is beautiful so she really should wear simple hair, makeup, and clothing to allow her beauty to shine. Her clothing does nothing for her fuller figure and looks cheap and tacky. Most of the dancer’s costumes looked like end of season Party City costumes. Clearly the designer doesn’t understand a woman’s body or how to dress dancers. A perfect example is Ms. Moore’s red dress which was one of the better ones. Why the designer chose to drape extra fabric over her bust shows little understanding of the lines one wants to see in a dancer and someone like Ms. Moore with her voluptuous bustline certainly doesn’t need more fabric hanging there looking like another set of breasts. Almost everything had way too much to it and would benefit from that sage old advice of less is more. Bokeh is a trick photographers use to blur out background distractions so the eye can focus on the subject. Banks should use that concept of focusing on the subject and eliminating distractions for the stage settings. The whole point of the show is the dancing, but those backgrounds and lights distract from watching the performances. Whenever the camera moved to the side of the stage, it was infinitely better viewing than watching center stage that I feel certain has left me with retinal scarring. As for Tyra Bank’s hosting, it is still terrible. She sounds like she is hosting a WWE event with her talking too fast and too loudly, and she still cannot stop herself from talking over the judges and talking about herself. Finally, as for the contestants, so many of them were really good especially for the first show of the season, but none compelling enough to make me watch that train wreck that Tyra Banks has created. Bring back Tom Bergeron and I might reconsider as a viewer starting from Season 1.
I miss Tom and Erin. Tyra struts out in her ugly gowns/ remind her it is about dancing and not her.
I’m picking Mel C to win it all. She started first and didn’t disappoint. I see JoJo going midway. Just not that much takent