Dancing With the Stars week 2: Giada De Laurentiis eliminated after dropping more points than anyone in the cast
Viral Hits Night sent somebody home, and the judges' math tells a harsher story than the elimination itself.
Week 2 of Dancing With the Stars claimed the Food Network's own Giada De Laurentiis, who was eliminated Tuesday night alongside pro partner Alan Bersten after their salsa to Becky G's "Bella Ciao" landed with a thud: 12 out of 30. The number stings more in context. On premiere night, De Laurentiis scored a perfectly respectable 16 — top half of the women's field. One week later she'd shed four points, the steepest drop of anyone on the published scoreboards, where nobody else lost more than three.
The judges did not sugarcoat it. Carrie Ann Inaba summed up the routine in one word — shaky — and Bruno Tonioli compared it to salsa with the spice left out. De Laurentiis, 56, took it on the chin before the votes came in, telling the hosts:
"It's disappointing, but hopefully people will vote for us."
They did not vote enough.
The asterisk at the bottom of the leaderboard
Here's the wrinkle: De Laurentiis wasn't alone down there. Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson also finished at 12/30 with their paso doble — but Guillermo's 12 was an improvement of two points, and the combined judges-plus-viewer-votes formula spared him. Trajectory matters in this ballroom, and hers pointed the wrong way.
The rest of Viral Hits Night, in brief:
- A three-way tie on top: Jenna Dewan, Paralympian Ezra Frech, and Olympic gold medalist Amber Glenn all posted 21/30, with Tonioli calling Glenn's tango the best of the night.
- The comeback: content creator Jackson Olson climbed from a wall of 5s to an 18 with his first in-frame ballroom dance, earning an audible "whoa, improvement" from Inaba.
- The stumble: Connor Wood's tango had what Tonioli diplomatically itemized as a lot of mistakes, and 5s across the board followed.
Two down in two weeks — technically four
Season 35 is burning through its cast at speed: the two-night premiere already eliminated Conner Leavitt and Sarah Jane Nader, making De Laurentiis the third exit before the season is a fortnight old. The show, meanwhile, is doing fine without mercy — the premiere was the franchise's highest-rated in six years, pulling nearly 7 million viewers.
Thirteen couples remain, and the ballroom reconvenes next Tuesday on ABC and Disney+.
Previously we wrote: Why is Kevin Atwater leaving Chicago PD? LaRoyce Hawkins' exit comes with a replacement already cast
