Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 5, 2025
It’s a great morning for all kinds of reasons that we’ll get to throughout the day, but one of those reasons? Andy Richter managed to survive another week on Dancing with the Stars. Was it because he’s a talented dancer? It was not. Has he improved? He has not. But God Bless the Dancing with the Stars voters who adore the man enough to keep him in, anyway. When you have a national treasure in your midst, you keep him around as long as you can.
And it’s not yet come at the expense of a great dancer. However, I do not understand why they make Whitney Leavitt sweat every week by putting her among the last three (despite the night’s top scores) while assuring the audience that it is not reflective of the actual order. If it’s not, then why do that to Leavitt? Unless she is in the bottom three, which suggests (after Jen Affleck’s exit last week) that maybe the audience just doesn’t like the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives contestants?
I’m going to let that go for now and instead turn to guest judge Flavor Flav. I am new to Dancing with the Stars and I love Flavor Flav, but does this show often have guest judges who have no idea what they’re talking about? Flavor Flav stuttered and stammered through his judging all night, had to be rushed, was cut off a few times, and scored everyone apparently based on vibes. He gave Whitney Leavitt her only 9 (along with three 10s), the same score he gave Andy Richter (a 9) in a sea of 7s. He gave a few 9s, but mostly 10s, almost regardless of ability, and mostly seemed to want to be a crowd pleaser. The effusiveness of the judges (save for Carrie Ann Inaba) can already be a little grating, but Flavor Flav had zero critical ability. This is a competition! Not a participation contest. It’s OK to judge dancers accordingly.
Anyway, here was Andy Richter on Rock’ n’ Roll night, clumsily dancing with Emma Slater to the least rock n’ roll song of the night.
While I cannot speak to how the audience is voting at home, there are three contestants who are clearly miles ahead of everyone else, and they all had fierce numbers to actual rock songs. To wit, Alix Earle to Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer.”
Whitney crushed it to Ozzy’s “No More Tears.” Side note: I’m not sure how this show decides whether to play the original song or a cover (I suspect it has to do with licensing), but they wisely chose not to play a cover of an Ozzy song because no one can replicate that voice. (Meanwhile, they had a cover of Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer,” even as Jon Bon Jovi himself called in to root on Alix Earle).
And finally, yes: Robert Irwin put on one of the best three performances to the best song of the night: White Stripes. It’s also worth noting that all three of the night’s best performances were from contestants dancing the Paso Doble.
Dylan Efron, meanwhile, probably won the most votes from voters at home last night because the man knows when to show his abs. To be fair, if I had those abs, I’d go to the grocery store shirtless, even in the harshest of Maine winters.
Jordan Chiles is an interesting contestant on the show. She’s clearly the most acrobatic of all the dancers (she’s a freakin’ Olympic gymnast), but she’s more middle-of-the-pack as a dancer. Being a great gymnast does not alone make one a great dancer, it turns out. But it does allow you to work a floor routine into your dance.
Finally, here’s the night’s eliminated contestant, Danielle Fishel, who is not the most graceful of dancers. And to the extent that Dancing with the Stars can create small moments of controversy, judge Carrie Anne Inaba got some pushback last week for saying to Fishel, “You have to use the space because you are a tiny little woman.” She apologized this week for calling her a “tiny little woman,” but Fishel took no offense, admitting that she is, indeed, a tiny woman.
Was she better than Andy Richter? Yes, but not by a huge margin. Her elimination was not undeserving.
I do have to append one of the group numbers. The dancers split into teams and danced with the hosts, Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough. The scores suggested it was closer than it was. It was not. Ribeiro’s team absolutely slayed. The whole thing was jaw-dropping. They combined the Carlton Dance, the Men in Black dance, and Jordan Chiles’ backflips (in heels!) into one routine. The other team had no chance.
