Derek Hough

In other Christmas news, they filmed the holiday special this last week.

With Derek Hough and Julianne Hough? I'm sure they were there, whatever.

It's always them.

Alanis Morissette was supposed to be there, and she got ill. Oh, no.

When Cynthia Erivo walks into a ballroom, you can bet the standard goes up, and every couple still standing knows it.

She will sit alongside the regular judges Carrie-Anne Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli, while hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough keep the night moving.

That is a lot of star power at one table, and for the eight couples still standing, it means there is nowhere to hide.

A guest judge with Erivo's musical theater background will be listening to every note, watching every line, and judging every story the dancers tell with their bodies.

So does everyone else.

Finally, I can't talk about Dancing with the Stars without talking directly to Derek Hough.

Hey Derek, I know you're watching this.

You're always watching everything I do because you're obsessed with me as I am unfortunately in many ways obsessed with you.

Yes, we love.

She got to be there in the audience with Derek Hough.

And she is always on Derek Hough's ass.

She says that she is the Sue Sylvester and Derek Hough is like the Mr.

Shoe.

That is like dynamic.

And then they she cosplayed as Sue Sylvester.

No way.

So I haven't watched any of these TikToks.

I actually couldn't point Coach Jackie out of a lineup, but I know who Derek Hough is and I know the premise of what's happening.

Okay.

Well, for those listening, Coach Jackie is a TikToker who's been recapping the season of Dancing with the Stars.

But not only does Shirley light a fire under the contestants, I feel like Shirley also lights a fire under the judges.

I feel like as the night went on, the judges feedback, the other judges, Carrie Ann, Bruno, and Derek, started to get deeper and more critical, but in a helpful way.

You know, it wasn't just like, oh, your performance is great.

Good job, buddy.

Julia and Ezra also getting in a little bit of a tiff in their intro package.

At first I thought it might be a little bit put on because with all the drama that's happened this season on Dancing with the Stars, people have been like, Oh, if you guys were only here back in the day, I was, I was here back in the day.

I remember when Derek used to say, what about the heel leads? What about the lines? You know, where they would push back with the judges and you know, the Maxim Smirkovski days where they would get in arguments with their partner because the pro was being a little bit too strict and all of these things.

And people online have kind of been clamoring for that.