'Dancing with the Stars' pays tribute to 100 years of Disney as one duo is sent home

ByGeorge Pennacchio OTRC logo
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
'Dancing with the Stars' pays tribute to 100 years of Disney
The 11 remaining couples on "Dancing with the Stars" set their sights on the stars and hoped for a bit of Disney magic on the quest to win the Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy.

LOS ANGELES -- The 11 remaining couples on "Dancing with the Stars" set their sights on the stars and hoped for a bit of Disney magic on the quest to win the Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy.

This week, the show paid tribute to 100 years of Disney and featured songs from classic movies throughout the decades.

The celebration started out with an opening number from the pros to the hit song "We Don't Talk About Bruno" from the animated movie "Encanto." Of course, that meant longtime judge Bruno Tonioli had an important presence!

This week we saw a nine-point difference between the top scoring couple and the bottom of the judge's scoreboard. Highest honors went to Xochitl Gomez who earned 27 out of 30 from Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Tonioli. They performed a paso doble to "Un Poco Loco" from "Coco," and Hough called Gomez an artist who used the dance floor as her canvas.

Ariana Madix landed in second place, earning 25 points from the judges for her contemporary routine to "Into the Unknown" from "Frozen 2." Rounding out the top five in the judge's view: Charity Lawson, Jason Mraz and Lele Pons.

Of course, in the end, the "who stays and who goes" decision is made through a combination of judge's scores and audience votes. Three couples were determined to be in jeopardy at the end of the show: Adrian Peterson, Barry Williams and Pons.

Peterson's Viennese Waltz to the "Dumbo" lullaby "Baby Mine" didn't manage to win over enough audience votes to keep him in the game this week, and the football star's time in the ballroom came to an end.

"This journey was amazing, and you were a heck of a coach," Peterson told his dancing partner Britt Stewart when they were eliminated. "We had our ups and downs, but you really pushed me and brought the best out of me."

Next week, several professional dancers from the show's past will return for a special "Dancing with the Stars" dedicated to the late head judge Len Goodman.