Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Dancing with the Stars Season 30 premiere. Read at your own risk!
Dancing with the Stars did something brand new in its Season 30 premiere when pop star JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson took the stage as the competition's first same-sex dance partners. Their debut will undoubtedly be remembered for the positive ways that it made history for the show, but has also gained some attention for perhaps the wrong reasons. While Siwa did well in her DWTS debut, there's certainly an argument that the judges stumbled when they gave her and Johnson the top score of the night.
The dancing duo netted 29 out of 40 points in the final performance of Dancing with the Stars' Season 30 premiere, which just barely gave them the highest score of the premiere. Prior to that moment, Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee and partner Sasha Farber were tied with The Talk's Amanda Kloots and Alan Bersten with 28 out of 40 points. JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson edged them out, which some fans felt was weird considering Johnson very clearly fell to her knees during the performance. Despite that, the two still won over the judges, which had some fans feeling a certain way.
The slip wasn't the type of technical misstep that the Dancing with the Stars expert judges tend to catch but viewers from home might miss. Jenna Johnson full-on lost her footing, and would've taken a hard fall to the floor had JoJo Siwa not physically lifted her back up. The judges did make note of the moment, but apparently, didn't penalize it in the way that some fans felt they should've.
The oversight may have been more forgivable in the eyes of some had Suni Lee and Amanda Kloots not given such strong performances earlier in the night. Lee was even noted by Derek Hough and others to have a flawless performance from a technical perspective but was docked points because she lacked the emotion needed for the dance. Some were upset Lee and Kloots were robbed of the top score of the night, but others were just happy to see JoJo Siwa on top.
To be completely fair, one has to look at JoJo Siwa's performance with a bit of understanding. After all, it was Jenna Johnson that made a mistake, not Siwa, and should the contestant be penalized when their professional dance partner has an error? Additionally, Siwa managed to help her partner out without even missing a beat in the performance, which does deserve some credit. Perhaps not enough for top honors of the night, but I'd still rank her first Dancing with the Stars performance in the Top 3 of the evening. Then again, she has been dancing since she was a little kid, so perhaps that could be considered as well?
It's the Dancing with the Stars Season 30 premiere, so who knows what other moments could overshadow this moment down the stretch? For now, though, fans are going to talk about the slip-up during JoJo Siwa's dancing debut and question whether or not she received a bit of an unfair score to get her season off to a great start.
Dancing with the Stars airs on ABC on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET in the fall TV schedule. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for more on Season 30 and for more on what Tom Bergeron is up to ever since he lost the hosting job to Tyra Banks.
