Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa were eliminated from “Dancing With the Stars” during Monday’s “Disney Night.”
The “Save the Last Dance” actress, 44, and her pro partner finished in eighth place for Season 35 after landing toward the bottom of the leaderboard. Their exit came just one week after a heated rehearsal session in which Stiles called Sosa a “cranky bitch.”
“It’s been an incredible experience. I pulled things out of myself that I didn’t realize were there,” Stiles said following her elimination.
Sosa called it an “absolute honor” to have been partnered with Stiles this season.
The pair’s final routine was a paso doble to “Satisfied” from “Hamilton,” performed while Stiles dealt with rib pains from a prior injury. Carrie Ann Inaba praised Stiles for “digging deep” and “turning raw emotion into beautiful dancing,” while Derek Hough noted that the “10 Things I Hate About You” actress turned last week’s “setback” into a “comeback.” The judges awarded them a 33/40.
Stiles and Sosa were part of Team Slaytopia for the evening’s team dances, joining Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik, Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas, and Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov. The squad, led by team captain Ali and alongside co-host Alfonso Ribeiro, performed a freestyle to “Zoo” from “Zootopia 2” and scored a 36/40.
The opposing Team Wildcats — led by Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold with Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach, Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy, and Harry Shum Jr. And Jenna Johnson — earned a perfect 40/40 for their freestyle to “We’re All in This Together” from “High School Musical.”
Shum Jr. And Johnson secured immunity in next week’s dance-off after tying with Dewan and Chmerkovskiy for the night’s highest individual score. Both duos received perfect 40/40 marks, but Shum Jr. And Johnson won the free pass by a single cumulative point for the season.
The “Glee” alum and Johnson earned their perfect score with a jazz routine to “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins,” with Shum Jr. Aiming to channel everything Dick Van Dyke brought to the role of Bert in the 1964 film.
“Get this man on Broadway, stat,” Derek said of Shum Jr.’s efforts, noting that Dyke would have “loved” the dance.
Dewan and Chmerkovskiy matched that score with a quickstep to “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast,” with the “Step Up” actress playing Belle and Chmerkovskiy playing Beast complete with horns. Her fiancé, Steve Kazee, had visited rehearsals to offer Broadway advice. Bruno Tonioli called the routine a “feast” and said it is “right up with the best that ‘Dancing With the Stars’ has to offer.”
Tony winner and “Wicked” actress Cynthia Erivo joined the judging panel alongside Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli for the Disney on Broadway-themed evening.
Erivo called Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach’s samba to “Under the Sea” from “The Little Mermaid” “magic,” noting how Karagach’s dress got caught up in Frech’s prosthetic mid-routine before miraculously coming untangled. The pair scored 37/40.
Olympic gold medalist Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov opened the show with a quickstep to “A Star Is Born” from “Hercules,” with both dancers embodying the mythological hero. Erivo praised the “divine” routine as “the most joyful thing,” while Inaba remarked it might mark the first time a woman led a man in the show’s history. They earned a 34/40.
Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas performed a jive to “You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!” from “Peter Pan,” with the “Traitors” alum as Tinker Bell and Ballas as Captain Hook. Higgins had told Julianne Hough she was in “tinker hell” learning the jive. Tonioli praised her for being “a bit saucy,” though judges noted uneven energy. They scored 32/40.
Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik’s contemporary routine to “Easy As Life” from “Aida” earned 33/40. “You gave me chills,” Inaba told Ali, while Derek praised the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alum’s “divine feminine energy.”
Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold’s waltz to “I See the Light” from “Tangled” scored 32/40, with Erivo praising their “commitment to storytelling” though judges dinged Wood’s frame.
The elimination followed last week’s shocking double elimination that trimmed the field. Stiles had been considered a frontrunner earlier in the season before the rehearsal clash with Sosa surfaced.
New episodes of “DWTS” air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC and Disney+, and stream on Hulu the following day.