Dancing With the Stars Has Officially Scrapped a Key Element for Season 32 — Will You Miss It? (Exclusive)

Rebecca Iannucci

There will be no second chances for Dancing With the Stars‘ jeopardized contestants during Season 32.

TVLine has exclusively confirmed that the ABC competition series has eliminated the judges’ save for its current cycle, which kicked off Tuesday night.

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A rep for ABC had no further details on why the save has been scrapped, but was quick to note it could return at some point.

The judges’ save was first introduced in Season 28, on the heels of radio personality Bobby Bones’ controversial victory in Season 27. When the show returned after Bones’ polarizing triumph — he won the Mirrorball trophy despite noticeably weak performances and significantly lower scores than his fellow contestants — the judges were newly able to choose which of the bottom two couples would go home each week, ideally preventing the premature eliminations of strong dancers.

The save has been in place for each subsequent season… until Tuesday’s Season 32 premiere, when the judges were conspicuously not consulted after reality TV star Mauricio Umansky and Veep alum Matt Walsh were revealed as the bottom two. Walsh was ultimately booted, having received the lowest combination of judges’ scores and viewers’ votes, but co-hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough made no mention of whether the judges’ save was gone for good.

Elsewhere on Tuesday’s premiere, Bachelorette alum Charity Lawson received the highest score of the evening, earning a 22 out of 30 for her tango with Artem Chigvintsev. TVLine readers gave the premiere an average grade of “B”; read our full recap here.

How do you feel about the judges’ save going away? Tell us below!

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