[This story contains spoilers for episode eight of Dancing With the Stars season 35.]
With Halloween just a few days away, Dancing With the Stars is celebrating the holiday in the ballroom with a night full of dances inspired by horror movies.
This week, the couples danced to songs from classic and new horror hits. Some of the films that inspired the DWTS couples this week include Sinners, Black Swan and Joker, among others.
At the end of the episode, Jackson Olson and Emma Slater were eliminated alongside Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess.
Celebrities still competing on season 35 include Tatyana Ali, Jenna Dewan, Ezra Frech, Amber Glenn, Maura Higgins, Harry Shum Jr., Julia Stiles and Connor Wood.
No couples were eliminated at the end of last week’s Dedication Night, meaning two couples were instead eliminated at the end of Tuesday’s episode; the two eliminated couples were determined by a combination of judges’ scores and viewer votes from both Dedication and Horror Movie Night.
Plus, Shirley Ballas joined the judges panel as a guest judge for this week. She wasted no time buckling down on her scoring, giving Julia and Ezra Sosa a four; she went on to also give Tatyana and Jan Ravnik the same score while her counterparts gave them each eights.
The second couple to perform, Harry and Jenna Johnson, made their mark by becoming the first pair to earn a perfect score on season 35. They earned the high marking for their contemporary dance to “Toxic” by 2WEI, inspired by Saw.
Jenna and Val Chmerkovskiy and Connor and Rylee Arnold trailed Harry’s high score, both scoring a 37/40, leaving the Grey’s Anatomy actor as the sole top of the leaderboard for the spooky episode.
Horror Movie Night also saw Val return to the ballroom after his one-week suspension following his allusion to Will Smith’s infamous Oscars slap while critiquing Carrie Ann Inaba’s judging of his wife, Jenna Johnson.
During the pretaped video package before their performance Argentine tango inspired by zombie films, Val told the Step Up star, “We are back together. I am so sorry for all the chaos. You did not sign up for that, and I feel awful.” Dewan responded, “I forgive you,” and hugged. Carrie Ann also commended Val’s choreography during her critiques, noting, “Incredible choreography, Val. I wanna say that first. Incredible.”
In a tease for next week’s Disney-themed episode, Alfonso Ribeiro also announced that Cynthia Erivo will be joining as a guest judge.
The couple with the lowest combined total of judges’ scores and viewer votes is eliminated at the end of each DWTS episode. Each viewer is allowed up to 10 votes per couple, per voting method (via ABC’s website and by text).
Live voting takes place during the East Coast airing of each show and ends shortly after the final performance; that means if you’re a West Coast viewer and want to vote, you must do so between 5 p.m. PT and roughly 6:45 p.m. PT, as voting ends after the final performance.
See the full list of scores for Horror Movie Night, and where the leaderboard stood after combining the Horror Movie and Dedication Night totals below.
Horror Movie Night Scores
Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa: 26/40
Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson: 40/40
Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik: 28/40
Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy: 37/40
Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold: 37/40
Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach: 35/40
Jackson Olson and Emma Slater: 35/40
Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess: 26/40
Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov: 36/40
Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas: 32/40
Horror Movie and Dedication Night Combined Total
1. Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson: 76/80
2. Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov: 74/80
2. Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy: 74/80
4. Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach: 72/80
5. Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold: 69/80
6. Jackson Olson and Emma Slater: 67/80 (ELIMINATED)
6. Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas: 67/80
8. Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa: 62/80
9. Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik: 60/80
10. Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess: 58/80 (ELIMINATED)
Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m., simulcasting across ABC and Disney+ and streaming the next day on Hulu. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s DWTS coverage here.
