This article contains spoilers for episode 2 of Dancing With the Stars season 32.
The Dancing With the Stars season 32 competition is heating up — and this week’s elimination left judge Derek Hough stunned.
Cohosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough both wore red in honor of Latin Night on Tuesday, October 3. “Latin night is gonna be hot, hot, hot,” Julianne, 35, teased at the beginning of the episode.
While some duos thrived during the theme night — judge Carrie Anna Inaba told social media personality Lele Pons that she “set this place on fire” and “burned it all down” — others struggled.
After all the performances, Mauricio Umansky and partner Emma Slater had the lowest score of the night. Harry Jowsey and Rylee Arnold, Barry Williams and Peta Murgatroyd and Adrian Peterson and Britt Stewart were all tied for the second lowest Latin Night score.
Once viewers’ votes were counted, Peterson, 38, and Stewart, 34, and Jamie Lynn Spears and Alan Bersten found themselves in the bottom two. Spears, 32, and Bersten, 29, were ultimately eliminated from the competition.
After the results were announced, Spears said there were “a lot of great parts” of the experience, notably, “Doing something I never thought I would do in my whole entire life.”
When asked what he thought about the elimination, Derek, 38, told Ribeiro, 52, that he didn’t see it coming. “Honestly, it’s quite surprising. Jamie Lynn, you were fantastic, truly. You should be really proud of what you did here,” he said. “Wow, it’s a shocker, honestly. Jamie, we’re gonna miss you.”
Other contestants, meanwhile, found themselves shooting from the middle of the pack to the top of the leaderboard. Actress Xochitl Gomez and partner Val Chmerkovskiy earned a score of 24 after receiving an 18 during the premiere episode.
“Salsa is your superpower, my friend,” Inaba, 55, told Gomez, 17. “There was a flash of Rita Moreno in there.”
Derek echoed the sentiment. “Your spins are out of this world. That was exceptional,” he said.
The judges also praised Charity Lawson for bringing her A-game despite not having partner Artem Chigvintsev by her side. The former Bachelorette, 27, danced the Cha-Cha with temporary partner Ezra Sosa instead. The Dancing With the Stars official Instagram page announced the lineup change on Tuesday ahead of the episode.
“Artem will not be dancing tonight due to COVID. Wishing him a quick recovery! ❤️ ,” the account captioned a photo of Charity, 27, and Ezra, 22. At the beginning of Latin Night, Ribeiro noted that Charity had tested negative for COVID-19 and was “ready for tonight’s show.”
The episode marked Sosa’s debut as a pro competitor. He joined the ABC competition series as a troupe dancer for season 30 in 2021. Chigvintsev, 41, showed his support for his temporary replacement via Instagram on Tuesday.
“Ezra stepped in like a champ and [he and Charity] have been working really hard this last couple of days so please give them all the love and support you can,” he captioned a video of himself explaining his absence from the episode.
Keep scrolling to see all the performers’ scores from Dancing With the Stars’ Latin Night:
