Dancing With The Stars season 31 kicked things off with a party theme, and the celebrities and their professional partners received their first rankings on the leaderboard. As co-hosts Tyra Banks and Alfonso Ribeiro welcomed viewers to DWTS' new home on Disney+, the returning judges, Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli, applied their expertise to critiquing and scoring the stars' dances. Some of the celebrities truly impressed them, while others still need some work. At the end of the episode, Len said that this was possibly the first season in which he gave out 7s or 8s to anyone. He added that those who received lower scores had great potential for the future.
The DWTS judges' scores are added to the votes from the public, to create a combined score that determines who is in the bottom two and who is safe for the night. Therefore, the star who receives the lowest score from the judges might not be the one who leaves the show if they have a big fan following. The leaderboard ranks the DWTS celebrities and their professional partners according to the judges' scores and helps the audience keep track of the scores and rankings.
On the DWTS premiere, Charli D'Amelio and Mark Ballas topped the leaderboard in first place with the highest score of the night. They danced a cha cha to "Savage (Major Lazer Remix)" and earned 8s from all four judges, for a total of 32 out of 40, a very impressive score for premiere night. Wayne Brady and Witney Carson took 2nd place with a score of 29 for their cha cha to "She’s A Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked)." Tied for third place with scores of 28 were Shangela and Gleb Savchenko for their salsa to "When I Grow Up," Selma Blair and Sasha Farber for their Viennese waltz to "The Time of My Life," and Gabby Windey and Val Chmerkovskiy for their jive to "As It Was." Daniel Durant and Britt Stewart placed 6th with 27 points for their tango to "Barbra Streisand," while Jordin Sparks and Brandon Armstrong placed 7th with a score of 26 for their cha cha to "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)." Heidi D'Amelio and Artem Chigvintsev placed 8th, earning 24 points for their cha cha to "Lady Marmalade."
The bottom half of the DWTS leaderboard still had some impressive performances. Joseph Baena and Daniella Karagach placed 9th with 23 points for their jive to "Pump It." Trevor Donovan and Emma Slater performed a quickstep to "Dancing with Myself" by Billy Idol, earning 21 points. They tied for 10th place with Cheryl Ladd and Louis van Amstel, who danced a cha cha to "Got To Give It Up." Three couples tied for 12th place with scores of 20. They were Teresa Giudice and Pasha Pashkov (performing a tango to "We Found Love"), Sam Champion and Cheryl Burke (performing a foxtrot to "Hold Me Closer"), and Jessie James Decker and Alan Bersten (performing a cha cha to "Sweet Home Alabama"). Jason Lewis placed 15th with Peta Murgatroyd after earning a score of 18 for their cha cha to "Get Lucky." Finally, Vinny Guadagnino and DWTS' newest professional dancer Koko Iwasaki were at the bottom of the leaderboard in 16th place with a score of 17 out of 40 for their salsa to "Tití Me Preguntó." He received 4s from every judge except for Derek, who gave him a score of 5.
Although Vinny and Koko were at the bottom of the DWTS leaderboard based on the judges' scores, the bottom 2 couples turned out to be Teresa and Pasha versus Jason and Peta. The judges decided to save Teresa and Pasha, so Jason and Peta were eliminated on premiere night. Although some of the couples performed better than others, it was evident that all the celebrities put their hearts and souls into their dances. Dancing With The Stars season 31 might be the best one yet.
Dancing With the Stars season 31 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Disney+.