Dancing The Way Through Another Great Season
A Recap of Season 32 of "Dancing with the Stars"
The dazzling and show-stopping series of “Dancing with the Stars,” (DWTS) has returned for its 32nd season, where professional dancers are paired with a celebrity and perform choreographed dances with every episode ending in one pair being eliminated. The series premiered on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. on ABC platforms and Disney+ and streams the following day on Hulu. Each week, the pairs are assigned a different style of dance, which includes the Foxtrot, Jive, Cha-cha, Viennese Waltz, Quickstep, Paso Doble and more. From there, they practice for numerous hours to prepare for the Tuesday night live show, co-hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianna Hough, where they are judged by a panel of experts, Bruno Tonioli, Carrie Ann Inaba and Derek Hough.
There are a total of 14 pairs this season: Tyson Beckford and Jenna Johnson Chmerkovskiy, Xochitl Gomez and Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber, Harry Jowsey and Rylee Arnold, Charity Lawson and Artem Chigvintsev, Ariana Madix and Pasha Pashkov, Jason Marz and Daniella Karagach, Adrian Peterson and Britt Stewartt, Lele Pons and Brandon Armstrong, Mira Sorvino and Gleb Savchenko, Jamie Lynn Spears and Alan Bersten, Mauricio Umansky and Emma Slater, Matt Walsh and Koko Lwaski and Barry Williams and Peta Murgatroyd.
While this show has been renewed for 32 seasons, what makes this season different is that former judge, Len Goodman, who has been one of the main judges of DWTS since it aired in 2005, unfortunately, passed away earlier this year in April. Although gone, Goodman will forever be a part of DWTS, and cast members are paying their respects to the irreplaceable hero by having the dance pairs compete for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. Not only this, but in episode five, the competition was put to a halt, and numerous professional dancers of past seasons along with this year’s professional dancers performed a tribute dance to Goodman, leaving everyone in tears.
Throughout the season, fans have been surprised, shocked, disappointed and thrilled by the eliminations, scores and dances. An aspect that makes DWTS so likable is the engagement that the series has with its fans. When it comes time for elimination, not only do the judge’s opinions make up the pair’s final score, but so do the fans. As the show runs, fans can vote for the star they would like to see advance by texting the first name of a celebrity to the number 21523. In addition, fans can also go to https://dwtsvote.abc.com/ and vote for any pair they choose.
Despite the fans' involvement with the show, there has been quite an outburst on social media about the unfairness that this gives to the dancers. Many viewers have voiced the viewpoint that by letting fans select who goes home, puts the celebrities at certain advantages and disadvantages. This is especially relevant with the pair Jowsey and Arnold, as some of the audience members felt that Jowsey shouldn’t have made it as far as he did, which was week nine. Since Jowsey had no prior dance experience coming onto the show and remained on the bottom of the scoreboard for most of his time, many fans were surprised to see how Jowsey's large fanbase kept him in for so long. Despite this, Jowsey and Arnold's chemistry on and off the dance floor wowed fans and brought much excitement to the show.
As the show progressed, the dances got more complicated, and by week six, the remaining dance pairs would have to learn two dances per week, with the duration of the dances slowly increasing. The semi-finals took place on Tuesday, Nov. 28, narrowing the competition down to five teams: Gomez and Chmerkovskiy, Hannigan and Farber, Lawson and Chigvintsev, Madix and Pashkov and Marz and Karagach. At the end of the episode, the two top-scoring pairs, Gomez and Chmerkovskiy and Madix and Pashkov were surprisingly called into the bottom two. With one pair supposedly being eliminated, fans were on the edge of their seats to see which top team would be going home. Shockingly, neither team was eliminated, and for the first time, all five teams would be entering the season finale.
The season finale premiered on Tuesday, Dec. 5. After preparing for several weeks, each pair's hard work and dedication shined through during the finale. Halfway through the episode and before the winning team was revealed, last season's winners, Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas performed a special dance to the audience. Once completed, the co-hosts announced the season’s 32 winners, Gomez and Chmerkovskiy.
Comments