Cody Rigsby is "excited" to finally return to Dancing With The Stars' ballroom floor after recovering from COVID-19. Within the last two weeks, both Cody and his pro dancer Cheryl tested positive for the virus, forcing both parties to rehearse and perform virtually and individually. The first of a kind move for the ABC competition show allowed the pair to stay in the game despite not being physically present for the live shows.
As Dancing With The Stars entered its fourth week celebrating Disney's heroes and villains with back to back episodes, Cheryl and Cody reunited in the ballroom after taking all of the necessary precautions. Though the excitement is building to finally get into costumes and receive the total packages of lighting and camera angles for this week's performance, the duo only had two days to learn two full routines. The pressure is also on for Cody and Cheryl as the judges gave the couple no mercy for dancing with COVID when scoring their Britney night performance last week. Their low scores may have left them on the bottom of the leaderboard, but Cody's fans saved them to see another week.
After dancing the foxtrot to "Stand Out" from A Goofy Movie, Cody spoke to Entertainment Tonight about his reunion with the show's ballroom. "The past two weeks with COVID is not how I wanted my journey on this show to be," Cody said. "This is supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be costumes and silly dancing and all this sort of stuff, so it's just not how I wanted it to be." Cody added that now that the virus is behind them, he's excited to be back in the ballroom with the costumes, lighting, and to be reunited with the other pro dancers, judges and stars. "I've missed the energy! I've missed the energy from the crowd, so it's been great to be back," he said.
Though Cody and Cheryl put all of their excited energy on the dance floor, it wasn't enough to impress the judges. Len Goodman didn't believe the performance had enough jive and was "a little disappointed" by the number. While the rest of the judges panel, including Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba, were supportive of how much they put their bodies through recovering from COVID-19 and still dancing like there's no tomorrow, they ultimately agreed with Len's critiques. The pair ended up earning three 7's and a 6 from Len for a total of 27 out of 40. "It's challenging when you're putting everything out there and then for it to be judged like that. I think we deserved better," Cody said.
Even if Cody's scores aren't up to par with his expectations, no one went home on last night's episode as there is another live show tonight showcasing the couple's favorite Disney villains. The judges have to be fair and score the performances based on the technical skills they saw on the dance floor, but it is a little unfair as their bodies aren't functioning in the same way as those who are not recovering from COVID-19. This is definitely a first for Dancing With The Stars, but it seems like Cody's fanbase has his back in the meantime to stay in this competition.
Source: Entertainment Tonight