Dancing With the Stars Mariah Carey Night: Ciara Miller eliminated after her best dance of the season

A fun Dancing With the Stars fact for anyone new to the ballroom: putting up the best score of your run does not actually keep you on Dancing With the Stars.

On October 6, 2026, the 12 remaining couples of season 35 spent Mariah Carey Night working through the singer's catalog, and Ciara Miller and pro Brandon Armstrong went home at the end of it. As The Hollywood Reporter pointed out, it's the second week in a row the show has closed on a shocker: on Yacht Rock Night, it was Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart who got sent packing.

Miller and Armstrong opened the show with a jazz routine to "Emotions" and got straight 7s, for 21 out of 30. The week before, they'd scored an 18. The judges noticed the jump:

"Nice, clean, polished, your best dance so far."

— Carrie Ann Inaba

How a 21 loses to a 13

• The top of the board: Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas scored 25 for a waltz to "If It's Over," the highest score of the season so far. Jenna Dewan, Ezra Frech, and Harry Shum Jr. all got 24s.
• The middle: Miller's 21 tied with Tyler Cameron, Jackson Olson, and Julia Stiles.
• The bottom: Guillermo Rodriguez (yes, Jimmy Kimmel's sidekick) and Witney Carson finished last again, with a 13 for a samba to "Obsessed."
• The bottom three: Miller, Rodriguez, and Olson. Rodriguez and Olson survived.

The lowest score of the night belongs to a couple who are still in the competition.

Going first didn't help. TVLine's recap called the jazz Miller's most confident performance yet, but argued it got buried under a stack of strong routines that followed. Viewer votes count alongside the judges' scores, and Rodriguez apparently has a fan base.

The exit

Miller kept it gracious on the way out, telling E! News she was grateful for Armstrong and couldn't imagine sharing the experience with anyone else. Armstrong made the case for her trajectory:

"Ciara was one of those people that was getting better every single week."

— Brandon Armstrong, after the elimination

For Armstrong, it's another early exit; TVLine noted his run had been cut short before. A week before the elimination, asked by E! to compare the DWTS cast to her Summer House castmates, she joked that the only person she was fighting with was Armstrong, then added, "Reality TV is psychological warfare."

The night opened with a video message from Carey herself, who called it an honor to get her own DWTS theme night, and the pros and troupe performed to "Heartbreaker," "Loverboy," and "Always Be My Baby." Eleven couples remain.