Beyoncé Gets Bashed on ‘DWTS’ Premiere – Last Night Recap
KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES FOR COACHELLA On the Dancing With the Stars premiere we saw the couples meet and perform their first routines. But who pulled out a showstopper, and who crashed and burned?
But before all of that, our queen was disrespected.
When Ally danced a cha-cha to a remix of one of her singles with Fifth Harmony, “Work From Home”. There was a small stumble or two but overall it was one of the best technical performances of the night. The judges were pretty harsh on this team, commenting on a lack of content (which for some reason was called out for some dances that deserved it but not others). Len compared the more sexual moves unfavorably to Beyoncé, prompting booing from the crowd and teasing from Tom for the rest of the show. Len tends to say what’s on his mind whether we like it or not, but he may be paying for it tonight by tipping off the Beyhive!
And Len, there is no such thing as “too much Beyoncé.” Stay in your lane.
Hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews are back, as are judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, and Bruno Tonioli. Each dance received a score of 1-10 from each judge, for a maximum total of 30 points. How did everyone do? Let’s take a look a all of tonight’s routines!
The Teams and Their First Dances
Hannah Brown & Alan Bersten
Hannah and Alan kicked off the show with a cha-cha to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”. Her nerves were apparent and likely a big part of the balance issues the judges commented on, but it was super fun and set the bar high for the rest of the contestants. We have to side-eye Erin’s hinting at a romance between the two, though. Hannah has said she wants to step away from that on DWTS after all the Bachelorette drama and Alan just went down that road last season with model Alexis Ren…and it didn’t turn out too well for him.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 7
Len Goodman: 7
Bruno Tonioli: 6
Total: 20/30
Kel Mitchell & Witney Carson
Kel is known for being a comedian, and his dance began with him entering the ballroom via slide, but he got a no-nonsense Tango to “Sucker” as his assignment for the week. Tango is a very tough dance and honestly probably should be withheld until a few weeks into the competition but he did a pretty good job with tackling it. The judges commented on his foot and frame issues, as well as how “jumpy” the dance was. Still, he was definitely shortchanged on the scores, especially compared to some dances which came later.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 6
Len Goodman: 5
Bruno Tonioli: 5
Total: 16/30
Kate Flannery & Pasha Pashkov
First off, a big welcome to Pasha for his first season as a DWTS pro! He and Kate had a cha-cha to “She Works Hard For The Money” which proved to be one of the most pleasant surprises of the evening. Great performance skills, a decent start on technique, and she even threw in a little singing at the beginning! The judges admired her go-getter attitude but cautioned her to work on straightening her legs so as to help her hip action. Her scores were appropriate, though in no universe was this as good as Kel’s Tango. What were Len and Bruno thinking?
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 5
Len Goodman: 5
Bruno Tonioli: 5
Total: 15/30
Lamar Odom & Peta Murgatroyd
Lamar and his size 15 feet danced a foxtrot to “Feeling Good”. Unfortunately, the judges weren’t feeling too good after his performance. He pretty much just walked around and as Len put it, “lacked finesse”. This was the first instance of the 3 paddle showing up since Michael Bolton’s jive in Season 11, and the lowest total score since Steve Wozniak’s Samba in Season 8, proving that the judges really do mean business this season.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 5
Len Goodman: 3
Bruno Tonioli: 3
Total: 11/30
Lauren Alaina & Gleb Savchenko
Lauren is clearly HYPED to be on DWTS and performed an enthusiastic cha-cha to “Man! I Feel Like a Woman”, a song which did not suit the style of dance at all. Nevertheless, she still did a great job despite that and the fact that too much of the routine consisted of posing on chairs and the ballroom floor instead of actual dance content. But what little cha-cha she was given to do was executed quite well.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 7
Len Goodman: 6
Bruno Tonioli: 6
Total: 19/30
Sailor Brinkley-Cook & Val Chmerkovskiy
Val was originally going to be dancing with Sailor’s mother, Christie Brinkley, and as much fun as it was to see Sailor dance the video package made us sad Christie would be out for the season (due to what she claimed her doctor said was one of the worst broken arms he’d ever seen). Sailor performed a foxtrot to “Uptown Girl”, a routine originally designed for her mother but one that also turned out to be pretty well-suited to her. We’re not going to lie, it was pretty sloppy in parts and probably overscored but considering how little rehearsal time she had (less than three days) we have to give major kudos to Sailor.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 6
Len Goodman: 6
Bruno Tonioli: 6
Total: 18/30
Karamo & Jenna Johnson
You know there was a severe lack of content in a routine when we had to rewind to figure out whether this dance to “Juice” was a cha-cha or a salsa. (It was the latter, which explains why Karamo and his dream partner Jenna didn’t get in trouble for incorporating lifts into the performance.) We agree with Len’s criticisms for the lack of hip action, which is very important in a salsa, but were baffled at Carrie Ann’s claims of Karamo being “reserved” and the routine being “underwhelming” from a performance perspective. Were we even watching the same dance?
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 6
Len Goodman: 5
Bruno Tonioli: 6
Total: 17/30
Ray Lewis & Cheryl Burke
Ray and Cheryl did a fun salsa to “Hot in Herre”. Bruno’s commentary focused on his incorrect steps, but Len said he had “great potential”. His energy was pretty good, but we did notice he was pretty hunched over for most of the dance.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 5
Len Goodman: 5
Bruno Tonioli: 5
Total: 15/30
Mary Wilson & Brandon Armstrong
Mary danced a foxtrot to “Baby Love”, a song by her group The Supremes. She managed to not miss a beat, even when she was fixing her hair in the middle of the dance floor! Carrie Ann complimented her on her “elegance” and we think Mary and Brandon are going to be one of the most fun teams of Season 28.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 6
Len Goodman: 5
Bruno Tonioli: 6
Total: 17/30
Ally Brooke & Sasha Farber
Ally danced a cha-cha to a remix of one of her singles with Fifth Harmony, “Work From Home”. There was a small stumble or two but overall it was one of the best technical performances of the night. The judges were pretty harsh on this team, commenting on a lack of content (which for some reason was called out for some dances that deserved it but not others). Len compared the more sexual moves unfavorably to Beyoncé, prompting booing from the crowd and teasing from Tom for the rest of the show. Len tends to say what’s on his mind whether we like it or not, but he may be paying for it tonight by tipping off the Beyhive!
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 5
Len Goodman: 5
Bruno Tonioli: 6
Total: 16/30
Sean Spicer & Lindsay Arnold
Ah yes, we finally got the inevitable pun song of the evening with this salsa to “Spice Up Your Life”. Between the cheesy lime green Latin shirt Sean was wearing and pineapple bra on Lindsay’s dress I was expecting them to go the full-on comedy route with this but the choreography consisted of salsa basics customized to Sean’s (very low) skill level.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 4
Len Goodman: 4
Bruno Tonioli: 4
Total: 12/30
James Van Der Beek & Emma Slater
Tango tends to be a relatively boring dance for viewers to watch and a difficult one for celebrities to do the first week, but clearly no one told that to James and Emma because this was absolute fire! It struck the perfect balance between class and sexuality and his technique was pretty darn good for the first week.
Scores
Carrie Ann Inaba: 7
Len Goodman: 7
Bruno Tonioli: 7
21/30
Week 1 Leaderboard
James & Emma: 21
Hannah & Alan: 20
Lauren & Gleb: 19
Sailor & Val: 18
Karamo & Jenna: 17
Mary & Brandon: 17
Ally & Sasha: 16
Kel & Witney: 16
Kate & Pasha: 15
Ray & Cheryl: 15
Sean & Lindsay: 12
Lamar & Peta: 11
Be sure to tune in to Dancing With the Stars next Monday at 8/7 c on ABC for your first opportunity to vote for your favorites couples on the ABC website! The show will also feature the first elimination of the competition and an announcement about a change in the judges’s power this season.
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