‘Dancing With the Stars’ Wicked Night: Emotional Routines Lead to First 10s of the Season

One couple was changed for good during “Dancing With the Stars” Wicked Night.

The Oct. 21 episode welcomed director John M. Chu as the guest judge as pairs danced to hit songs from “Wicked” — with some taking on Elphaba and some taking Glinda.

This week’s scores were combined with last week’s dedication night. Last week, Carrie Ann Inaba recieved a bit of backlash for her criticism on certain pairs, but this week, she gave the first 10 of the season. The score came for Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas’ quickstep. The other judges, with the exception of Derek Hough who went with a 9, agreed with Inaba. At the end of the night, Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sousa also received three 10s and one nine — Hough is saving his 10 paddle — for their stunning rumba.

Hough pointed out after Andy Richter and Emma Slater’s jazz routine that it’s the last week, “so we’ll see,” and ultimately gave him a 6. The other judges, however, were more impressed, with the rest giving him 7s.

Last week, Inaba told Danielle Fishel and Pasha Pashkov that their dances were starting to look the same. This week, she applauded Fishel’s courage and said this was her breakthrough dance. Bruno Tonioli said it was “the most difficult song to choregraph” and Hough complimented the difficulty of the routine, calling it “magnificent.” The scores of four 9s gave them a huge boost on the leaderboard.

But it was Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten’s contemporary routine to “Defying Gravity” that left everyone (including Bersten) in tears and on their feet. “I am 54, I am injured and I just did that,” she said after the dance through tears. She landed four 9s for the powerful routine.

After all the dances and the scores combined from the last two weeks, Richter remained on the bottom of the leaderboard, with Leavitt returning to the top. Once the votes were added in — the show hit 100 million votes over the last two weeks — Scott Hoying was sent home.

Here’s a full list of scores from Wicked Night:

Scott Hoying and partner Rylee Arnold
Dance: Contemporary to “The Wizard And I”
Score: 28/40

Alix Earle and partner Val Chmerkovskiy
Dance: Jazz to “What Is This Feeling?”
Score: 35/40

Robert Irwin and partner Witney Carson
Dance: Jazz to “Dancing Through Life”
Score: 36/40

Whitney Leavitt and partner Mark Ballas
Dance: Quickstep to “Popular”
Score: 39/40

Dylan Efron and partner Daniella Karagach
Dance: Rumba to “I’m Not That Girl”
Score: 32/40

Andy Richter and partner Emma Slater
Dance: Jazz to “One Short Day”
Score: 27/40

Elaine Hendrix and partner Alan Bersten
Dance: Contemporary to “Defying Gravity ”
Score: 36/40

Jen Affleck and partner Jan Ravnik
Dance: Foxtrot to “As Long as You’re Mine”
Score: 32/40

Danielle Fishel and partner Pasha Pashkov
Dance: Argentine Tango to “No Good Deed”
Score: 36/40

Jordan Chiles and partner Ezra Sosa
Dance: Rumba to “For Good”
Score: 39/40

The next “Dancing With the Stars” episode will be Halloween night, airing Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, streaming the next day on Hulu.