'Dancing With the Stars': What's going on with the score confusion?
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Molly Driscoll Staff writer
The newest episode of 鈥淒ancing With the Stars鈥� included two pairs of contestants being eliminated after the competitors took part in 鈥渋con night.鈥澛�
Von Miller, a player for the Denver Broncos football team, and Kim Fields, an actress who has appeared on such programs as 鈥淭he Facts of Life,鈥� were both eliminated from the competition following their performances on the May 2 episode. Ms. Fields had been competing with dancer Sasha Farber and Mr. Miller had been dancing with Witney Carson.聽
Ginger Zee of 鈥淕ood Morning America鈥� and her partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy received a perfect score for their Viennese waltz, as did martial artist Paige VanZant and her partner Mark Ballas after performing a jive.聽
Meanwhile, Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team and Sharna Burgess received some of the night鈥檚 lowest scores, 24 out of 30. Miller and Ms. Carson, who earned the same score, were also on the low end.聽
The night also included more confusion over scores. Contestant Nyle DiMarco, who became the first deaf winner of the reality competition 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Next Top Model,鈥� and his partner Peta Murgatroyd performed a foxtrot and judge Bruno Tonioli first said that he gave the dance a 10 but apparently put a 9 for his written score. This was a concern earlier this season as well when there was a difference between what the judges submitted as a score and what they said during the show.聽
Why would these be different?
On an April 18 episode, Mr. DiMarco and his partner Ms. Burgess thought they got a score of one 9 and three 10s from guest judge Maksim Chmerkovskiy and judges Mr. Tonioli, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Len Goodman. The judges hold up paddles to show their score and also give scores they鈥檝e written to the producer of the program.聽
But on the April episode, Mr. Chmerkovskiy and Tonioli gave scores of 9 to the producer but displayed 10 on their paddles. The scores the judges have given to the producer are the ones that matter.聽
On the newest episode of 鈥淒ancing,鈥� Tonioli did this again, giving a 9 score to the producer but holding up his paddle that says 10. But it鈥檚 the scores for the producer that will continue to matter as the competition moves forward.
