Actress Justina Machado landed several roles prior to being featured on Dancing With The Stars, but her breakout role on One Day At A Time took her career to new heights. On the big screen, Justina had roles in movies like A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Final Destination 2, Torque, The Call, The Purge: Anarchy, and 2020's Scoob!. But it was on TV that Justina's career really flourished. After several cameos on shows like ER, Arsenio, and Angel, Justina landed the role of Vanessa Diaz on Six Feet Under. For many years, Justina was best known for her role on this HBO drama series.
In 2020, an ever wider audience is getting to know Justina Machado as a contestant on DWTS 2020. No one knew what to expect from her as a dancer, but Justina has made all the way to the Top 4 with her partner, professional dancer Sasha Farber. Together, Justina and Sasha have earned a total of 271 score points on Dancing With The Stars season 29, averaging a score of 24.6. They have made it to the DWTS finale with the lowest number of total score points and the lowest average among the finalists, but they'll still get to compete for the mirrorball trophy.
On her intro package for Dancing With The Stars, Justina Machado was credited as the lead actress on the sitcom One Day At A Time, which has arguably been the breakout role of her career. This series is a reboot of Norman Lear's original One Day At A Time show, which aired between 1975 and 1984 on CBS. The reboot follows a Cuban-American family that consists of Penelope (Justina Machado), Elena (Isabella Gomez), Alex (Marcel Ruiz), and Lydia (Rita Moreno). Justina's character, Penelope, is a US Army veteran, a nurse, a mother to Elena and Alex, and a daughter to Lydia. On Rotten Tomatoes, season 1 of ODAAT has a score of 97%. The show's second, third, and fourth seasons all have scores of 100% on the platform's Tomatometer. Needless to say, this reboot is a critical hit that carries a lot of meaning to the Latino community in the US.
At first, the ODAAT reboot aired on Netflix for three seasons. However, the show was then canceled by the streaming service. Fortunately, several high-profile Latino stars in Hollywood campaigned for the series to be saved by a different network. Eventually, ViacomCBS-owned Pop TV picked up the show for a fourth season. In 2020, CBS has struggled to find new content to fill its primetime lineup, which prompted the network to air CBS All Access originals and even a few shows from sister networks. One of those rebroadcasts was One Day At A Time, which had its fourth season airing on CBS this year.
The Dancing With The Stars 2020 finale is here, and anything can happen. Regardless of the final result, there's no denying that Justina Machado was a bright light on the show that provided plenty of entertainment to the fans.
Dancing With The Stars season 29 airs Mondays at 8pm ET on ABC.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes