TikTok star Charli D’Amelio earned a perfect score on Dancing With the Stars last week, but Carrie Ann Inaba was not going to let her accomplish that for a second week in a row. Instead, Inaba criticized D’Amelio’s “Halloween Week” dance for being too perfect. Her criticisms had fans at home and in the ballroom frustrated.
D’Amelio, 18, and her pro dance partner Mark Ballas delivered fans an incredible Argentine tango to Fabio Hager Sexteto’s “Tanguera.” Judges Bruno Tonioli, Derek Hough, and Len Goodman were all so impressed they gave her 10s. But when it came to Inaba, she knocked off a point because she felt D’Amelio was a little too perfect and felt she needed to challenge herself. That meant D’Amelio earned a 39/40 instead of a perfect 40.
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“Charli, you are so incredibly talented with everything you do,” Inaba began. “It’s perfect and it’s perfect, perfect, perfect. I have to say something about this competition. It’s also about growth and really pushing yourself. I know I’m not going to be popular for this, but I’m going to challenge you. I really want to challenge you and I want you to get the most out of this experience.”
‘That deserved a perfect score’
Inaba then went on to tell D’Amelio and Ballas that she felt the two of them could have been more intense in their dance. “I have not seen you go and, like, get messy and super messy,” she said. “I want to see that perfection of like… I’ve been calling for it and I’m still calling for it. This is to take nothing away from who you are, because you are, without a doubt, brilliant.”
‘She loves to be a hater when it’s completely unnecessary’
Last week, D’Amelio earned the single largest score for a single dance in the show’s history. Since singer Michael Buble was a guest judge on a night dedicated to his music, D’Amelio and Ballas earned five 10s. They performed a perfect Foxtrot to the song “Fever.” D’Amelio is also a member of Team Scream for the Freestyle team dance to “Heads Will Roll” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
‘What Charli just did was about as good as it gets’
D’Amelio’s mother, Heidi D’Amelio, has continued to do well on DWTS as well. Last week, she and Artem Chigvintsev scored a 46/50 for their Samga to “It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio stasera).” This week, they got a 37/40 for the Tango to Måneskin’s “I Wanna Be Your Slave.”
‘Too technically perfect’?
Scroll on to see how D’Amelio’s fans were frustrated by Inaba’s scoring Monday night.
‘Charli’s performances are on another level’
“Charli’s performances are on another level but Carrie Ann wants more…what the f— more do you want,” one fan wrote. “There are some celebs she’s giving 9’s to that don’t deserve 9’s, but they’ve shown more personal growth…thought this was a dancing competition.”
‘Charli EARNED that perfect score’
New episodes of Dancing With the Stars stream on Disney+ Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.