This article contains spoilers about the premiere episode of season 31 Dancing With the Stars.
Dancing With the StarsIt’s back! The premiere opened with a fun opening number and ended in the first elimination of the season.
The pairings with lowest scores were Vinny GuadagninoAnd Koko IwasakiAnd Jason LewisAnd Peta Murgatroyd. After all the dances were over and all votes had been tallied, the votes were tallied and the bottom two couples were declared victorious. Teresa GiudiceAnd Pasha PashkovJason, 51, & Peta, 36.
All four judges decided to save Teresa, Pasha and Peta, so Jason was eliminated first.
The Monday, September 19, episode marked the reality competition’s first time streaming live only on Disney+ after 30 seasons on ABC. Host Tyra BanksAlso, she introduced her new cohost Alfonso RibeiroThis is the first time. The 50-year-old Bel-Air: The Fresh PrinceThe alum won season 19 of the previous season. DWTSWith his partner Witney Carson. Ribeiro told Us WeeklyHe said earlier this month he knew he wanted to accept cohosting as soon as he was contacted.
“There was no hesitation. It was a very simple yes,” he said. Banks, 48, said that she was the one who told this story. Use of her new cohort, “When the team brought up the idea of Alfonso with me, I was like, ‘Yes, yes and yes, let’s stop right there and look no further.’”
The first couple to perform in the season were American IdolAlum Jordin SparksAnd Brandon Armstrong. When Sparks, 32, told Armstrong 28, that she had no real dance experience, he laughed and replied, “Oh, no, don’t tell me that.”
However, the “One Step At a Time” singer impressed her partner as she learned the Cha Cha to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).”
“For someone with no dance experience, she was actually pretty natural,” Armstrong said during the episode. Judge Len Goodman called the performance “clean” and “precise.” Derek Hough, for his part, did give the singer one thing she could work on, saying her “foot placement” could be “just a little more intentional.”
Sparks was interviewed back in May 2019. Use that she would be “so terrified” to appear on the reality TV series. “Give me a microphone, I am totally fine. Tell me to dance in front of an audience and I … Mm-mm,” she said at the time.
Armstrong and the Arizona native received a 26-out of 40 score for their first dance despite her reservations. Other duos, however, weren’t as well-received by the judges.
After-weather anchor Sam Champion’s Foxtrot to “Hold Me Closer” with Cheryl Burke, Goodman, 78, told the Weather Channel alum, “You came out with such a sunny disposition, however, a few dark clouds appeared.” The pair ultimately earned a 20 out of 40.
Scroll through to see all the performers’ scores after the premiere episode: