'Dancing With The Stars' Results Tonight 2016 VIDEO: Who Outshone The Others In The Season 23 Premiere?
Dancing with the Stars' contestants should lace their shoes a little bit tighter - season 23's competition is fierce. Never has a group of ragtag dancers come out of the gate so strong.
Every year, the Dancing with the Stars season premiere shows viewers just how difficult it is to take the dance floor. Long hours of practice always have the latest crop of celebs nursing sore muscles and the first round of scores generally have the pros nursing a headache. A panel of four judges helped boost premiere stats, but, even so, competitors landed squarely in the 20s.
Leading the pack was James Hinchcliffe, an IndyCar driver. Although the speedster spends the bulk of his time behind the wheel, he's clearly no slouch when it comes to breaking a sweat. Paired with Sharna Burgess, Hinchcliffe raked in the highest score of the evening - a whopping 31 for his Foxtrot. Olympic Gymnast Laurie Hernandez (Valentin Chmerkovskiy) closed out the evening with an equally stellar 31-point cha-cha-cha.
Actress Marilu Henner (with Derek Hough) and country crooner Jana Kramer (with Gleb Savchenko) pulled in solid 27s as the NFL's Calvin Johnson (with Lindsay Arnold), singer Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds (with Allison Holker), reality star Terra Jolé (with Sasha Farber), and Vanilla Ice (with Witney Carson) championed the middle of the pack.
Politician Rick Perry (with Emma Slater) mimicked his presidential bid as he bottomed out at 20, bringing up the rear. The Texan found company amongst the likes of actor Jake T. Austin (with Jenna Johnson), model Amber Rose (with Maksim Chmerkovskiy), swimmer Ryan Lochte (with Cheryl Burke), and actress Maureen McCormick (with Artem Chigvintsev).
Click the video below to see the evening's top performance!
Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
