‘Dancing with the Stars 23’ premiere review: Ryan Lochte, Terra Jole, James Hinchcliffe’s debut
This season of “Dancing with the Stars” is upon us! We’re expect a full night full of some fun routines, though to be fair we imagine that most of them are only going to last for a few seconds given how much the show has to cram in here over the course of two hours. Also, we have all four judges back, which was nice to see given we weren’t sure if Len Goodman would be here this time around since he’s working overseas, as well.
As always, refresh this page for updates, since we’re reviewing the entire episode LIVE as it happens!
Marilu Henner and Derek Hough – We learned from her run on “The Celebrity Apprentice” that she never forgets anything, which could be quite the asset when it comes to her dance moves here. This routine was by and large pretty strong for an opening one, and we don’t think she received a pity-score either for her age. Lots of content packed in to a very small window! Score: 27.
James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess – Not a bad start for the IndyCar driver! We still have barely a clue who he is, but at the same exact time we’re excited to see everything else that he brings to the table this season based on this ballroom routine. He’s got a good sense of humor off the floor, and on it he was smooth and silky. Score: 31.
Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold – This was a rather nice start for Calvin, who has a challenge almost right away thanks to him being both incredibly tall and having incredibly big feet. Yet, he does have some natural dance ability. Score: 26.
Maureen McCormick and Artem Chigvintsev – Maureen is such a huge fan of the show that OF COURSE you want to see her succeed. Unfortunately, this was a little bit of a mixed bag as far of a performance goes. There were some elements that were rather nice, but there are clearly some things that need to be worked on with more time. Score: 22.
Babyface and Allison Holker – we feel like “26” is going to be the good-but-not-great score of the season. We do think that Babyface was a far better performer on the night than we thought he was going to be going in, but there are still technical elements of her dance that need to be worked on. Score: 26.
Amber Rose and Maksim Chmerkovskiy – This one is going to be interesting to watch, given that Amber is a huge personality, and she’s very different from almost everyone else on this show. Still, we were pleasantly surprised by everything that she did. Score: 24.
Vanilla Ice and Witney Carson – Sure, there really wasn’t that much actual content in the routine, but we’re not gonna lie: This was incredibly entertaining. We just hope that at some point along the way Ice gets some time in his schedule to put more into his performance. Score: 25.
Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko – This was STEAMY. This was probably the steamiest routine that we’ve seen in the premiere ever. While you can argue that the technique wasn’t all there, this could be a starting point for some seriously good scores coming up. Score: 27.
Jake T. Austin and Jenna Johnson – For their first dance, these two were both a little off throughout. Our big critique is that Jake is perhaps focusing perhaps a little too much on trying to change the perception of him rather than just settling in and enjoying this. Score: 22.
Rick Perry and Emma Slater – Well, that was something. Rick may not be a good dancer (at all), but we’ll at least give him some credit for at least coming out and trying to embrace the spirit of the show. He’s just not good — there’s no way of dancing around it. Score: 20.
Terra Jole and Sasha Farber – We do think that Terra was off a little bit during the early going of her jive, but as it went along she got a little bit more comfortable and by the end, this was pretty fun. We know her story is inspiring, but there is also potential here for her to at least be a solid dancer. Score: 25.
Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke – The dance wasn’t bad — we just feel bad about what happened to Ryan afterwards. The incident (which you can read about here) really overshadowed the whole routine. Score: 24.
Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy – Of course she was going to be great — was there any reason to doubt that? She arguably had the best routine of the night, but we’re fine with her and James getting the same score — for now. Score: 31.
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