"Dancing With the Stars" devoted its latest Season 35 episode to the music of Mariah Carey, and the night produced both the season's best score so far and another elimination that caught viewers off guard, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Mariah Carey-themed installment ended with a couple sent home unexpectedly. The outlet also notes that the episode featured the highest score awarded in Season 35 to date. The Hollywood Reporter's coverage includes the full score breakdown and identifies which pair went home, though those specifics were not detailed in the available summary.
Other outlets covering the same episode reached similar conclusions. People.com described a night in which judge Carrie Ann Inaba was booed, one couple was eliminated and another broke down in tears. Page Six characterized the result as another shocking exit, while Yahoo called it the most surprising elimination yet. Deadline framed the episode around a series of breakthroughs that tightened the competition.
The episode continues a pattern this season of eliminations that defy expectations, with multiple outlets applying words like "unexpected" and "shocking" to the results. The Mariah Carey theme also appears to have pushed at least one couple to the strongest performance of the season, based on The Hollywood Reporter's account.
Next up, viewers will look to see whether the momentum from the season's top score holds, and whether the competition's narrowing margins produce another result that diverges from what the leaderboard might suggest.
