Dancing With the Stars has moved to a new night this week.
ABC’s hit reality competition series returns Monday night with Disney week, one of the fan-favorite theme nights of the season. The remaining eight couples will jive, quickstep and waltz their way past the judges as the race to the November 24 finale heats up.
The show, which usually airs Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET, has been moved to Monday due to Election Day, when coverage of critical midterm races will dominate TV coverage.
Monday’s episode will feature Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner Cynthia Erivo as a guest judge. She’ll join Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli, who will all judge not only the eight couples' dances, but the team dances as well.
The episode will also feature Broadway stars Heather Headley, Rodney Ingram, Michael James Scott and Kyra Belle Johnson singing live to accompany several of the individual couples' dances.
The schedule change was announced during last week’s Horror Movie Night, which saw Strictly Come Dancing mainstay Shirley Ballas as a guest judge.
Ballas — the retired pro ballroom dancer known as “The Queen of Latin” and mother of DWTS pro Mark Ballas — warned the ten remaining couples at the start of the episode that she wouldn’t be going easy on them — and she proved that with her first score of the night.
After Julia Stiles and her pro partner Ezra Sosa danced an Argentine Tango to “The Dogs Attack” by Jerry Goldsmith, Lionel Newman and National Philharmonic Orchestra, inspired by the film The Omen, Shirley launched into her critiques without holding back.
“First of all, I thought the conversation between the two of you was quite nice. But generally, overall, I didn’t find that there was much tracing on the floor,” the Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro judge explained. She found the “gauchos too slow, not fast enough. I need sharper, controlled legs. Also posturally, it wasn’t quite in the right place for Argentine tango for me. But a good start.”
Hough and Inaba gave the couple each an eight out of 10. Tonioli awarded an eight.
Shirley, however, gave the couple a four. Her score drew gasps from the live studio audience and shocked reactions from both Stiles and Sosa. The Strictly judge also gave a four out of 10 to Tatyana Ali and her partner Jan Ravnik.
As the episode progressed, though, Shirley awarded higher scores, including a perfect 10 for Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson’s Contemporary routine to “Toxic” by 2WEI, inspired by the film Saw. Shirley notably gave a seven out of 10 to her son, Mark Ballas, and his celebrity partner Maura Higgins.
At the end of Tuesday night’s episode, Tyler Cameron and his pro partner Sharna Burgess and Savannah Bananas star Jackson Olson and his partner Emma Slater were eliminated.
Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars continues Monday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC with streaming the next day on Hulu.
Decades after their first wins, Roger Howarth and Beth Maitland win at Daytime Emmys
High Potential season 3 gets premiere update after being pushed from fall schedule
Strictly Come Dancing judge’s guest appearance on DWTS leaves fans divided
Strictly star clears up speculation about future on BBC show
Strictly pro expecting second child with former Love Island star
