Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Dancing With The Stars episode "Halloween Nightmares." Stream the episode with a Disney+ subscription and read at your own risk.
It was only a matter of time before Dancing With The Stars Season 33 had an elimination that ruffled some feathers. Despite solid numbers throughout the season, the time had come for Jenn Tran and Sasha Farber to go home. It was clear a fair few on the internet disagreed with the call and felt Dwight Howard and Daniella Karagach should've been next.
I disagree with the sentiment of fans on social media – like one X user who posted that "HE IS THE WORST DANCER THERE" in protest of him advancing – about Dwight Howard. While Bachelor Nation may feel a certain type of way about Jenn leaving over the NBA star who has been the lowest scorer almost every week thus far, I'm willing to go to bat for him this week. It might be a hot take, but Howard deserved to stay over Tran.
Dwight's Solo Performance Was The Best Of The Night
I won't mince words: Dwight Howard is, statistically speaking, the worst performer left on Dancing With The Stars Season 33. That's especially true at this stage in the competition, where people like Reginald VelJohnson couldn't slide by with a Die Hard tribute anymore. Howard had to pull out a miracle this week, and fortunately, he delivered a near-perfect performance on "Halloween Nightmares" night.
Just how perfect? Well, he scored the first 10 of the season thanks to Carrie Ann Inaba, which is wild in context. While Inaba was pretty gracious in handing out 10s the rest of the night, who would've thought the bottom performer would've been the first Dancing With The Stars contestant of the season to pull this off? I would've given it to Ilona Maher the previous week for her Encanto dance, but I'm also not a professional dancing judge.
Daniella Emphasized A Dance That Highlighted Dwight's Strengths, And It Paid Off
Dwight Howard survived the latest Dancing With The Stars elimination, and that's as much a credit to Daniella Karagach as anything he's done. Her choreography work is always top-notch, and tonight's episode was reminiscent of another iconic performance of hers from a few seasons earlier. Was I the only one who had a flashback to Iman Shumpert's run on the show?
Former NBA star Shumpert also had a tremendous showing on the Halloween-themed night, and that momentum ultimately propelled him to the end of the game. Shumpert made history with Karagach as the first NBA player to win a Mirrorball Trophy, but that's not even the most impressive part. He upset JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson, who also made history as the first same-sex duo on the show. Furthermore, they were a team of two professional dancers, so the upset was notable.
The point I'm making here is that Daniella Karagach just might be the X-factor that Dwight Howard needs to go far in this competition. There's something to her ability to see her contestant's skills and figure out a way to make them shine. If this latest episode is a sign she's finally cracked the code with Howard, Jenn Tran's exit won't be the most shocking in the coming weeks. The upside here is that her exit wasn't nearly as brutal as her finale on The Bachelorette.
The next Dancing With The Stars episode won't be until after the November 5th election, so expect a new episode on Tuesday, November 12th at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+. We'll see then if Dwight Howard's big night was just a fluke or if he's about to be the season's newest sensation.
