Dancing With the Stars Celebrates 20th Season as Andy Richter is Eliminated

Happy Birthday to Dancing With the Stars!

This week’s episode paid homage to the show itself,with a special 20th Birthday Party. At the end of the night, Andy Richter and emma Slater were eliminated from the competition.

The ballroom was jam packed with legends of the show, as the opening number featured six pros from season one. The one and only Tom bergeron also made his guest judge debut, returning him to the ballroom for the first time since his controversial firing in 2020.

To celebrate his DWTS homecoming, bergeron chatted with The Hollywood Reporter, where he admitted he was “thrilled” to be back on DWTS and teased that his judging style would be “pretty much the same as the way I hosted it.” (Read Bergeron’s full profile here.)

Season 34 is almost over, although viewers wouldn’t be able to notice given the plethora of couples remaining in the competition. The celebrity cast includes Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt, social media star Alix Earle, Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles, The Traitors season three winner (and Zac Efron’s brother) Dylan Efron, actress Elaine Hendrix, conservationist (and son of Steve Irwin) Robert Irwin and comedian-actor Andy Richter, who was kicked off at the episode.

The 20th Birthday party party featured two unique rounds of dance. First, couples performed numbers set to the songs of freestyle routines from DWTS past. Next, each celebrity danced with a former mirrorball champion in the relay dance round.

During the relay dances, two couples competed head to head, with one duo performing during the first half of the song while the second pairing followed. The judges selected the winner from each round, who was awarded two bonus points to their score.

Whitney and Mark did not partake in the relay dance round as thay were granted immunity.