'Dancing with the Stars' sends no one home due to viewer voting glitch

Dancing with the Stars cut no one during Monday night's live seventeenth-season broadcast on ABC due to a voting glitch that occurred following last week's episode. 


Although former The Osbournes and Armed & Famous star Jack Osbourne and his professional partner Cheryl Burke as well as comedian Bill Engvall and partner Emma Slater were apparently in jeopardy of elimination last night, neither couple got sent home.

"Time for an explanation. All of our couples are safe. No one is going to be eliminated tonight and here's why. Last week, at the end of the show, we had a technical problem in the broadcast of the Eastern and Central time zones. The incorrect phone numbers were shown and may have resulted in some votes accidentally cast for the wrong couples. So in fairness, we decided to discard all of the viewer votes and not eliminate anyone this week," Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron announced.

"But all of the judges' scores and bonus points from tonight will carry over to next week since all of our couples will be back to dance again. They want each and every vote that you have tonight to keep them safe next week," co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet added.

Monday night's show featured the eight remaining couples dancing in two rounds of competition, with the first being a typical individual routine and the second being Dancing with the Stars' first-ever improvisational "Switch Up Challenge."


The new challenge required four couples to dance at the same time on the stage as the music was changed up randomly. The couples were not able to learn the music ahead of time nor were they given specific styles of dance to rehearse. Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli judged the couples on their ability to keep time to the music, interpret the music and adapt to changes.

The first couple tapped out of the challenge would receive one point, the second couple tapped out would earn two, the third couple out would receive three, and the last couple standing would be given four points to add to their initial score of the night.

For the "Switch Up Challenge," Osbourne and Burke, Engvall and Slater, Disney Channel star Corbin Bleu and partner Karina Smirnoff, and Jersey Shore and Snooki & Jwoww star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and partner Sasha Farber competed against one another. Bleu and Smirnoff won with four points, Polizzi and Farber received three, Osbourne and Burke earned two points and Engvall and Slater received one extra point.

Actor and Pretty Little Liars star Brant Daugherty and partner Peta Murgatroyd, actress and former The Talk co-host Leah Remini and partner Tony Dovolani, actress and former Step It Up and Dance host Elizabeth Berkley and partner Val Chmerkovskiy, and Glee star Amber Riley and partner Derek Hough were the second group to perform. 

Riley and Hough walked away with four extra points, Daugherty and Murgatroyd earned three, Berkley and Chmerkovskiy received two points, and Remini and Dovolani earned one point.


The night's leaderboard, which combined both the couples' individual dances with the bonus points they earned from the "Switch Up Challenge," is as follows:

Berkley and Chmerkovskiy, as well as Riley and Hough, finished tied for first place on Monday night's leaderboard with 32 total points.

Berkley and Chmerkovskiy earned 30 points for their initial cha cha routine, which marked the first perfect score of the season. Riley and Hough performed a samba routine which earned 28 points from the judges.

Daugherty and Murgatroyd landed in third place on the leaderboard with 31 total points. They performed a tango which received 28 points from the judges.

Fourth place on the leaderboard went to Polizzi and Farber with 30 total points. They first took the stage with a foxtrot routine which received 27 points from the judges.


Remini and Dovolani finished in fifth place on last night's leaderboard with 28 total points. They earned 27 points from the judges for their initial quickstep routine.

Osbourne and Bleu both tied for sixth place with 27 total points. Osbourne and Burke danced a paso doble which earned 25 points, while Bleu and Smirnoff performed a Viennese waltz which received 23 points from the judges.

Engvall and Slater finished in eighth -- and last -- place on the leaderboard with 24 total points. They received 23 points for their tango routine from the judges.

All of the Dancing with the Stars judges' scores and bonus points will now be carried over to next week when all eight couples return to dance again. Those scores will be added to next week's judges' scores and the home viewer votes cast following last night's show to determine the elimination results.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski