‘Dancing with the Stars 23’ spoilers: What Jake T. Austin, Amber Rose, Jana Kramer will perform (week 1)
Tonight on ABC, the season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars” will be upon us! Expect sequins, silliness, and hopefully some good dancing over the course of the two hours — but more than anything, expect fun! The whole purpose of this show is to provide some sort of entertainment, and we’re more interested in that than how anyone scores. After all, this season feels on paper incredibly predictable, with a finale of Calvin Johnson, Laurie Hernandez, and possibly Jake T. Austin feeling on paper close to sure thing.
Below, you can see the first dances of the season, and of course some of our own thoughts on many of them.
Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke, “Call Me Irresponsible” (foxtrot) – Well, this is clearly an attempt to hit the nail on the head before anyone else can! Lochte’s strategy seems to be owning his mistakes so that he can move past them. We’ll see how that works.
Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy, “American Girl” (cha-cha-cha) – It’s a well-known song for a young woman who feels assured to take this far into the season.
Marilu Henner and Derek Hough, “Can’t Stop Dancing” (jive) – Given Henner’s fan base, we’re surprised that she has such a super-current song by Becky G for her introduction.
Amber Rose and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, “Here” (foxtrot) – We’re not familiar with the Alessia Cara song. What we’re more curious about is what this pairing looks like given that we don’t really know much about Rose beyond the tabloid headlines.
Vanilla Ice and Witney Carson, “Ice Ice Baby” (cha-cha-cha) – Well, Ice is wasting no time before giving you his signature song. If this doesn’t work, it doesn’t bode well for his chances this season.
Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Allison Holker, “Deed I Do” (foxtrot) – This oozes class: A soul icon dancing to a song from an even bigger icon. Hopefully all of that translates to good dancing.
James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess, “Live Life” (foxtrot) – We don’t know the song, but to be fair, we also barely know James. IndyCar is hardly at the top of our list of hobbies.
Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold, “That’s What I Like” (cha-cha-cha) – This should be a lot of fun, mostly because we feel like Calvin’s got the energy and the personality to be better than even many of the other football greats who have turned up here.
Terra Jole and Sasha Farber, Stuff Like That Here” (jive) – It’s probably the right move for Terra and Sasha to introduce her to this season be performing a song that is really emphasizing fun. Granted, we also imagine that this performance could be exhausting.
Rick Perry and Emma Slater, “God Blessed Texas” (cha-cha-cha) – Have little confidence in Perry’s ability to be a good dancer, though this particular song is probably precisely what he wanted to have for his base.
Jake T. Austin and Jenna Johnson, “Kiss You” (jive) – Everything is extremely well-orchestrated here for Jake and Jenna. They’ve got a fun dance and a song that fits well within his fans’ demo. This should be well-received.
Maureen McCormick and Artem Chigvintsev, “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” (Viennese Waltz) – Good starting dance for the two of them. This is what we figured Marilu would be doing to start.
Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko, “Dangerous Woman” (Viennese Waltz) – We’re a little worried about Jana going in, just because her participation in the show to date has been rather quiet. Maybe this will prove her to be an early contender.
If you want to get some other news when it comes to “Dancing with the Stars,” be sure to head over to the link here right now for our season prediction! Also, sign up over here to secure some further TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)