It’s official: team dances are coming back to Dancing With the Stars just in time for Disney Night. This marks the first time celeb contestants will join forces for a group number after the show opted out of team dances last season. It’s a pretty big deal, especially since the scoring shakeup changes how the rest of the competition pans out.
Oh, and Broadway legend Cynthia Erivo is stepping in as a guest judge this week, too. The stakes have truly never been higher! If DWTS is a whole new world for you, allow me to explain how team dances work, as well as who’s competing on each team.
Scroll through for all the details so you can pull out the specifics in your group chat in true Carrie Ann Inaba fashion. After last season’s break from team dances, they’re officially back for season 35. As the competition becomes more intense for the eight remaining individual couples, a team dance adds a fun twist that doesn’t feel as daunting…although the scores play a big role in who returns the following week.
Speaking of scores, team dances tend to shake up the process at a pivotal time in the competition. The judges will score the group as a whole, and every couple on the team receives the same score. That score is added to each couple’s individual routine score to create their combined judges’ total for the night.
According to a press release from ABC, live viewer votes from the night will be combined with the judges’ scores to determine who may be in jeopardy of elimination. It’s important to note that the audience vote will only count for individual couples—not the team dance. The pro dancers in each group are responsible for choreographing the group numbers, just like their typical routines with their partners.
This year’s team dance captains are Connor Wood and Tatyana Ali. As for how they were chosen, DWTS producers have historically chosen captains based on the lowest-scoring celebs in the competition or over a specific stretch of the show. Each captain also flips a coin to determine who picks their team first.
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