Lele Pons is eliminated on “Dancing With the Stars” music video night

During Tuesday night’s episode of “Dancing With the Stars,” the duos honoured some of the most well-known music videos, such as NSYNC’s “It’s Gonna Be Me,” Britney Spears’ “Slave 4 U,” and Aha’s “Take Me On.”

The judges this week, which included special guest judge Paula Abdul, not only graded the teams on their routine but also on how well it paid tribute to the original song video. This presented an additional challenge for the teams.

Although the judges disagreed, Abdul gave several 10s through the night, including to Jason Mraz and Daniella Karagach (see all the scores below). Even though Carrie Ann Inaba and Derek Hough had placed in the top half of the leaderboard every week, they were “underwhelmed” by their own performance. Once their jazz routine was over, Hough and Bruno Tonioli faced jeers when they stated they sensed a rift between Val Chmerkovskiy and Xochitl Gomez.

Both Harry Jowsey and Rylee Arnold, who had been receiving low grades for weeks on end, were disheartened and kept struggling.

The judges declared that Alyson Farber’s performance was her “best dance yet,” and Inaba informed Lele Pons that this was the dance she had been longing to see her perform.

Each duet gave a solo performance before being divided into two teams. Xochitl and Val, Charity and Artem, Harry and Rylee, Lele and Brandon, and the initial group, “Team Young’n Style,” were all there. Following a dance to PSY’s “Gangnam Style,” Jowsey’s leadership as captain wowed the judges. The team received a 40/40 rating.

The members of “Team 4 Everybody” included Barry and Peta, Jason and Daniella, Ariana and Pasha, and Alyson and Sasha. They were all dancing to the Backstreet Boys song “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”. Their result was 37/40.

Two surprise boy band members graced the evening as well: Lance Bass, who arrived to support Harry Jowsey’s NSYNC video replication, and AJ McLean, who filled in to assist with the second group dance.

One couple had to return home, though. Lele Pons and Brandon Armstrong were removed in an unexpected move. The hosts and judges appeared surprised, and Armstrong said, “That one burns.” Lele shouldn’t have been returning home, in my view.