Dancing with the Stars Season 23: Week 2, Night 1 “TV Night”

The second week of dancing on Dancing with the Stars half about the TV themes, and half about Ryan Lochte.

It’s been a week since Dancing with the Stars premiered, and mostly the news has talked about the floor invasion by anti-Lochte people. Tonight’s shows even opens with a montage of news clips.  They also eventually show the audience cheering for Ryan after the incident. And later they cast dons pro-Lochte shirts.

Seriously, it gets kind of ridiculous.

But it’s not the week’s official theme: that remains TV Night. For the second time in show history, everyone is dancing to TV themes. Themes that have been danced to on this show before mix with those which haven’t.

Maureen McCormick & Artem Chingvintsev

Quickstep; “The Brady Bunch” Peppermint Trolley Company Florence Henderson did a tango to this theme during the last TV night. That was a weird event. This is not. This is a straightforward depiction of the theme and the TV show, with Maureen as Marcia Brady. After dropping into the studio to encourage her TV daughter, Florence of course participates in the dance too, with some other accompanying dancers. It’s very charming, with Maureen doing her part well. The judges’ criticisms and low scores from last week left her and Artem unhappy, but she’s much better this week. They’re quick to say so, although they note she wasn’t clean. The scores go up too: 6s from Len and Julianne and 7s from Carrie Ann and Bruno for 26. Added to last week’s score they go into tomorrow with 48.

Jana Kramer & Gleb Savchenko

Tango; “Don’t Wanna Be”(from One Tree Hill) Gavin DeGraw performing live Had it not been for the hecklers, the main story this week might have been the injury Jana sustained for it. She’s torn a muscle between her ribs. She’s in a lot of pain, and the doctor doesn’t want her to dance. But she goes out there, and while Gleb admits he did alter the choreography to deal with the injury, it’s still a difficult and atmospheric dance. Her performance doesn’t quite blow you away the way last week’s did, but it’s still pretty intense. Technically she does it well, although the judges advise her to extend her legs. Burno has his first crazy moment of the night demonstrating using his own leg. Three of them break out 7s, but Len declares, “It worked for me,” and breaks out an 8, for 29. They go up to 56.

Rick Perry & Emma Slater

Foxtrot: “Green Acres Theme” Vic Mizzy The fluff starts with a “Make America Dance Again” commercial that is cringe-worthy enough. It gets worse when the dance starts. Rick mugs the hell out of it, and his doing so comes off as terrifying. His dancing’s still bad too. As if having to watch that for the duration of the dance is bad enough, he keeps that over the top face and movements afterwards when he goes into the audience to kiss his wife. It’s also painful to see the judges me so nice about it. Even Bruno, who compares it to a bad cold “you can’t get rid of it,” is too nice. The two ladies even liked it, and Len declares it “wasn’t a crop failure.” Then the ladies break out 6s, although 5s from Len and Bruno keep the score down to 22. They total 42.

Calvin Johnson, Jr. & Lindsay Arnold

Foxtrot; “As Days Go By”(from Family Matters) Jesse Frederick This is a show Calvin’s a big fan of, and he happily throws himself into the role of Steve Urkel. This meets the second dance in a row where the guy’s hamming it up. But Calvin does much better with it, being fun and charming instead of scary and ridiculous. It helps that he’s so light on his feet and can practically bounce around the floor. Carrie Ann’s description of him as “so darn cute” is pretty accurate. Len speaks for all of us too: “Watching you dance gives me joy.” To complete the delight, they get Jaleet White, another show alumnus, to surprise him backstage, which is also sweet, before the judges break out straight 7s for 28. That takes them up to 54.

Amber Rose & Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Viennese Waltz; “Game of Thrones Theme” Ramin Djawadi This was once danced to by Corbin Bleu & Karina Smirnoff, portraying Khal Drogo and Daenerys. Despite the huge cast of Westeros, Amber & Maks end up doing the same. The characters suit them, of course. The focus is on her rather than him this time, and Amber makes for one intense, aggressive, kick butt Daenerys. This music, however, still does not lend itself to doing an actual Viennese Waltz to. Len gets particularly irritated about that. Generally, however, the judges praise her getting more into her performance, but say she needs to improve further. They don’t even take her scores up; she gets a second set of straight 6s and totals 48.

Jake T. Austin & Jenna Johnson

Cha Cha; Go, Diego, Go! theme After a downright weird fluff where he and Jenna both turn into cartoons, they come out to do a routine that’s supposed to be about sexy adult Diego still having adventures in the jungle. I suspect this is a little disturbing for anyone who watched this cartoon as a kid. For the rest of us, it’s also a little distracting how his moves soon are not at all corresponding to the music. His portrayal of the character is nice, which the judges note. Len actually says it’s a better dance, but that he can’t give it a higher score because the timing issues were so bad. Carrie Ann & Julianne go up to 6s, though, so it’s the second straight set of 6s and 24; Jake & Jenna end up with 46.

Vanilla Ice & Witney Carson

Foxtrot; “Love and Marriage”(from Married… with Children) Frank Sinatra Since he’s dancing to the theme from this show, in the fluff he talks about his own two children. He’s apparently a fan of it, while young Witney had never seen it. She does her homework, though, and tonight both of them are prepared to portray the Al & Peggy Bundy. He hams it up maybe slightly more than necessary, but for this show maybe it’s allowed. His mouthing the words is kind of endearing, too, though Carrie Ann objects to it. His technique isn’t exactly the best, so the judges are a bit reserved, expect Len, who calls it the “Thrilla from Vanilla,” and breaks out the 7 along with Bruno. 6s from the other two leave them with 26, 51 overall.

Terra Jolé & Sasha Farber

Quickstep; “Bewitched Theme” Howard Greenfield & Jack Keller This one appeared on the last TV night, but that’s not what Terra & Sasha have to top. Rather, they have to top last week, which Terra is already calling one of the best nights of her life. They also have to do their first dance in ballroom hold, which ultimately doesn’t turn out to be much of a problem. In fact, Julianne calls their frame the best so far of the night! The broadcast helps by including Terra flying out of the fluff on a broomstick and turning the ballroom from black and white to color with the trademark nose wiggle. Then she also nails the dance too. Everyone agrees it’s the best dance so far tonight, and while Len doesn’t go above a 7, the other three break out 8s, so they get 31 and go up to 56.

Babyface & Allison Holker

Argentine Tango; “The X-Files” Mark Snow This dance and theme make for one weird combination. But since Babyface is a music producer, they end up creating their own arrangement, then do a sensuous dance surrounded by flashing green lights. The clash of cold computer light and Argentine Tangoing that should happen manages not to. In fact, once you accept this is going to be an abstract interpretation of The X-Files, it’s kind of brilliant, and the two of them have enough chemistry to make it heated too. Although Bruno says he saw the two of them as portraying Mulder and Scully. He and Carrie Ann break out the 8s, but Len and Julianne keep it down to 7s, so they settled for 30 and yet another two-week total of 56.

Laurie Hernandez & Val Chmerkovskiy

Jive; “Duck Tales” Mark Mueller The first part of the fluff insists on telling us how Lochte’s hecklers messed with Laurie’s big moment too, since she danced right after him. Meanwhile, she had never even heard of Duck Tales! Still, says Val, she’s suited for portraying a cartoon character, what with being a human emoji. He’s right. She takes to the routine he adapts from the cartoon like a duck to water (sorry, had to). She takes to the jive almost as well. By the time this is over, anyone who was a kid in the 80s has a huge grin on their face, and most of everyone else should too. Len further provokes our nostalgia by calling her “full of snap, crackle, and pop,” and Julianne even calls her Disney’s Beyonce! Ultimately they take straight 8s this time, topping the leaderboard by themselves this time to total 63.

James Hinchcliffe & Sharna Burgess

Paso doble; “The Walking Dead Theme” Bear McCreary After last week’s unexpected triumph, this week presented a new challenge: James had a race to do, so only was able to practice with Sharna Tuesday and Wednesday. He wasn’t even able to rehearsal on the set until Monday morning! But this is a complication they manage to mostly overcome; when he and Sharna come out to battle the zombies, he manages to pull things off technically, and put on a good dramatic performance.  In fact, the latter’s good enough Julianne tells him he should consider acting! Still, they note that unlike everyone else, he wasn’t as good as last week, Len in unhappy were wasn’t more paso doble and less zombies, and three of the judges only give them 7s. But Bruno declares, “It had bite!” and breaks out the 8, so they get 29, and total 60.

Marilu Henner & Derek Hough

Foxtrot; “Angela”(From Taxi) Bob James Marilu says she was determined they’d dance to this theme as some point, but poor Derek struggles to figure something out for it initially. But eventually he comes up with a charming routine based on the TV show. Marilu slips easily into it, perfectly embodying the mood with her smile and her movement. Bruno wasn’t sure she was completely clean, though, thinking maybe she went on the wrong foot. Two of the judges have similar reservations, resulting in three 7s, but Len calls the routine a Rolls Royce and he gives them an 8, so they too add on 29, and become the fourth couple with 56.

Ryan Lochte & Cheryl Burke

Quickstep; “The Muppet Show Theme” Jim Henson & Sam Pottle. Of course they saved them for last. We sit through some last footage about that heckling before we have this famous number to cheer us up. It too has been danced to in the show’s past, and that time they actually had Muppets come into the ballroom, so it’s kind of a disappointment that Ryan & Cheryl are only accompanied by background dancers. Still, it’s easy, especially with him turning playful and silly, to bring the cheer of the song to the dance floor. The steps of the quickstep, however, are another matter. He messes them up. A lot. The judges lament that, and also note his frame issues (to be expected from a swimmer, Julianne notes). It keeps their scores down to a third set of straight 6s, and their overall to a third 48.

Next: 15 of Mindy’s Best Outfits From ‘The Mindy Project’

Scores and votes of these first two weeks will be combined to knock out our first couple tomorrow night. But we won’t find out which one until the end of a two-hour long results show! That might be a little much to ask us to sit through at this point, honestly.

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