The emotions were running high at the “Dancing With the Stars” semifinals. In addition to the routines, the show included a big announcement, with head judge Len Goodman revealing that this will be his final season. Goodman, 78, who has been part of the show since its 2005 debut, will be going back to the U.K. to be with his family. His last episode will be next week’s finale, where he will join the final four pairs as they battle for the mirrorball.
However, when the two-hour episode began on Monday night, six pairs remained, with each dancing two routines before the double elimination.
Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas have been a top contender all season long, but during rehearsals, she struggled, admitting that it was tough to perform following her mom’s elimination last week. Still, she channelled all her emotion into the routines, pulling off two perfect scores.
“That was perfection on top of perfection,” judge Carrie Ann Inaba said after their first dance. “That was beyond spectacular. I just want to thank you because you’ve done this journey with such grace.”
Goodman said that the dance “literally took my breath away” and he found himself speechless, adding, “No words of mine can sum up how good I thought that was.” In fact, Bruno Tonioli said that it wasn’t only the best Viennese waltz of the season, but of all-time.
Their second dance also left the judges in awe, with Inaba coming out from behind the desk to hug them both. “That routine was absolutely iconic,” Derek Hough added.
The other pair who received a perfect score for both routines was Gabby Windey and Val Chmerkovskiy. For the first time, she got emotional abut her public breakup but said she felt very lucky to have her partner by her side. “Val makes it easy; he’s such a great friend and such a great partner,” she shared after her first dance.
At the end of the night, the couple with the overall lowest score, Trevor Donovan and Emma Slater, were immediately sent home. The other pairs in the bottom were Gleb Savchenko and Shangela and Daniel Durant and Britt Stewart, with the judges being able to save one. Ultimately, Shangela was saved, eliminating Durant.
Scroll down for all the evening’s scores. The “Dancing With the Stars” finale airs on Disney+ Monday, Nov. 21.