Spoilers ahead for the Season 34 premiere of Dancing with the Stars on ABC, available streaming now with a Disney+ subscription and next day with a Hulu subscription.
Dancing with the Stars has made its long-awaited return to ABC in the 2025 TV schedule, with Season 34 releasing in the show’s 20th year on the air. I’ve seen and heard longtime fans counting down the days until the premiere, but I for one hadn’t watched a single full episode since Season 32 in 2023, and I don’t even remember the last time I was glued to my couch for a full season. There are only so many hours of primetime in a day for an entertainment journalist!
But I wanted to see what the new season has in store with the latest batch of fourteen celebrities. I found myself most impressed by the duo I’ve been looking forward to, but my heart belongs to the underdog so far.
Andy Richter: Underdog
I was pretty confident going into Season 34 that I wasn’t going to go all-in on one of the celebrity contestants who had prior dance experience, which meant that my heart probably wasn’t going to belong to Elaine Hendrix, Hilaria Baldwin, or Whitney Leavitt. To my surprise, I found that my very favorite performance of the night came from legendary talk show sidekick Andy Richter, who has been paired with Emma Slater.
Richter’s personal anthem for the premiere was Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming,” and I can’t say that I was shocked to see that he and Slater tied for last with a total of nine points. (Corey Feldman and Jenna Johnson were the other two with nine.) That number of points isn’t as bad as it sounds, as judge Carrie Ann Inaba was absent from the premiere, so only twenty were possible with Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli doling out the points.
Their cha-cha-cha wasn’t the strongest of the night, but Richter looked like he was having so much fun as he went through the steps that I can’t help but cross my fingers for the underdog. He just looked happy, and that made me happy. And that’s enough for me, so go Team Andy!
That said, there’s a different duo who likely has better odds of winning the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, and their performance made for a great grand finale of the premiere.
Robert Irwin Went Wild
I had a good idea that Robert Irwin was going to be fun from the start of the premiere once I saw that he was wearing an outfit that wouldn’t be out of place in the wild, compared to the glitz, glamor, and glitter of the other contestants. He and partner Witney Carson hit the stage for a jive to Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild.” They ripped off their khaki safari gear for a jungle print with some rhinestones, and they brought a great energy to close out two hours of dance.
Robert Irwin’s older sister Bindi must have passed on some great advice after winning in Season 21, because he and Witney Carson did such a great jive that they tied for first with Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas. Both pairs earned fifteen points from Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli.
So, after tuning in to my first full episode of Dancing with the Stars in years, I’m rooting for Andy Richter as the underdog, followed by Robert Irwin as the celebrity with probably the better chance of winning. (Sorry, Andy.) All in all, it was enough that I’m ready to pencil the next episode, which will feature one-hit wonders, into my calendar. Keep tuning in to ABC or Disney+ on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET for the latest from Dancing with the Stars.