Julianne Hough weighed in on judges Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli giving lower scores than normal during the season 34 premiere of Dancing With the Stars.
“I think over the years, we’ve done a lot of fusions of proper technical ballroom and Latin dances have fused into sort of these hybrid dances,” Julianne, 37, explained while appearing on the Thursday, September 18, episode of the “Dancing With the Stars Official Podcast.” “I really appreciated Bruno and Derek dropping the scores a little bit because you want to be able to see people improve, and you want to be able to give them the right critique so they can learn and grow.”
Julianne’s added she feels it’s important to go back to the fundamentals and explained that late judge Len Goodman always focused on seemingly minor details that could make a difference on the dance floor.
“He’d really be talking about the fundamentals and I think there was a lot of hybrid dancing [on Tuesday], which by the way, I get because we’re in this new generation of TikTok and playful fun and it’s entertaining,” she said of Len, who died at the age of 78 in 2023. “But that’s why Dancing With the Starsis so amazing because it is technical and it’s a specific genre and it’s hard to do.”
While some fans were upset that the judges were so harsh on the contestants, Julianne insisted that Derek, 40, and Tonioli, 69, did the right thing with their scores.
“Especially for a premiere night, a little kick up the butt,” she said. “Let’s go.”
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Not only did viewers notice the harsh scores during the Tuesday, September 16, episode, but Derek explained at the beginning of the episode that they would be tough. “The scoring tonight, just be mindful, it might be a little lower than you’re expecting because there’s a long way to go,” he said. “This is a marathon. We want to give you guys room to grow.”
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 19, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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