Dancing with the Stars 24 premiere review: Rashad Jennings, Mr. T, Simone Biles close show
As we’re going to do for the entirety of the season, we’re going to be reviewing these episodes live! Be sure to refresh this article throughout the night for some more quick takes on some of the overall performances.
Normani Kordei and Val Chmerkovskiy – This was a nice way to start the show! it’s a tradition that DWTS likes to start off the season with a reasonably good dancer, and then give them all 7’s to set the tone for the rest of the night. The Fifth Harmony performer clearly has a lot to work on when it comes to technique — and finding the time to even continue doing this given her schedule — but she’s probably one of the few people out there with the potential at taking on this seasons titans in Heather Morris and Simone Biles. Score: 27 (okay, our prediction was off by a point).
Nancy Kerrigan and Artem Chigvintsev – We had a suspicion going into this that the ice-skating icon would be a big component in this season, largely due to the fact that she excels at being expressive and telling a story. We already know that she was capable of delivering a routine this lovely — this is a wonderful example of precisely what it is that she’s capable of on the floor. We do think that she lucked out doing a ballroom routine, but we’ll see where things go from here. Score: 28 (this is more of what we predicted).
Chris Kattan and Witney Carson – Hey, to everyone who had Chris and Witney as the first duo to be eliminated from the competition, congratulations! This was bad. There’s no other way around it. We do think that Chris is a really funny guy, but he’s no dancer and and that clearly showed on here. Given that this entire dance was themed around A Night at the Roxubry, he’s also now used up the one thing that he was clearly better at than anything else. Score: 17.
Bonner Bolton and Sharna Burgess – As a representation for who Bonner is as a person, it was great. As a dance, it was questionable. When you throw this much cowboy stuff against the wall, it suddenly becomes very difficult to determine what you’re actually dancing. The entire thing was a little bit of a mystery wrapped within an enigma — an entertaining enigma, but one nonetheless. Score: 22.
Charo and Keo Motsepe – We don’t have a whole of high expectations for these two on the season, largely because we don’t have a great deal of confidence that the majority of people under a certain age even know who Charo is. She’s very funny and there were some legitimate salsa moves that were thrown in here, but simultaneously it was a little bit like a hot wheel that was thrown onto a track before eventually crashing into a wall. Score: 21.
Nick Viall and Peta Murgatroyd – That was … better than expected? Maybe we just had our expectations a little bit too low on Nick and Peta since we expected this to be a total hot mess, and we’d argue that for the most part there were some good moments in here. He does understand rhythm to a certain extent and has some potential. He also showed a sense of humor, so by and large our Bachelor is off to a good start. Score: 24.
Heather Morris and Maksim Chmerkovskiy – Heather came into this season with expectations through the roof — that’s what happens when you are a big-name dancer going into the season. Still, the show did the right thing in allowing her to discuss that history right away before getting into the routine itself. We feel like she may have been holding back a little bit here, almost as though she didn’t want to tip her hand too much to what she can do.
David Ross and Lindsay Arnold – Surprise of the night. Bar none. It’s really not even close! These two did just about everything that you could’ve possibly wanted from them — there was baseball, there was humor, and there was some surprisingly good footwork that was thrown in here as well. We cannot say that this was a perfect routine, but for a guy with no advertised dance ability he suddenly has a chance of making it pretty far this season. Score: 27.
Erika Jayne and Gleb Savchenko – Was that a Lisa Rinna sighting in the audience? Well, her Real Housewives of Beverly Hills family came out to support her! The fact that Len Goodman labeled her salsa “raunchy” is the least surprising thing ever. This was fun! There wasn’t all that much in the way of legitimate dance concept, but the one thing that we do like is that she’s going to take risks out there on the floor. Score: 24.
Rashad Jennings and Emma Slater – We can’t really call someone a surprise when we expected them to be good from the moment that he was announced to be on the show. What surprised us was just how much charisma he had. He was charming, he was fun, and he got the crowd moving! It was one of the first times tonight where we really smiled while watching someone dance. Score: 31.
Mr. T and Kym Herjavec – These may have been the most generous fives ever, since this entire routine was a hot mess and then some. He stumbled around, was completely off in terms of his timing, and really just looked like he was doing an introduction to an aerobics class. As much as we like Mr. T, we pity the food who imagines him lasting until the end of the competition. Score: 20.
Simone Biles and Sasha Farber – Great music, great routine, and a very good start to the show for Simone. She closed the night with an exceptional routine, and one that probably does make her the person to beat. (We did predict her to win the season, but that’s not exactly a hard sell given that most people picked either her or Heather.) Score: 32.
What is your personal Dancing with the Stars 24 premiere review? Let us know right now in the attached comments! (Photo: ABC.)