Guillermo Rodriguez brought his best scores yet, some newfound “swag,” and plenty of emotion to Dancing with the Stars’ Super Bowl Night. But was it enough?
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the outcome of tonight’s Dancing with the Stars.
The Jimmy Kimmel Live! sidekick and a very pregnant Witney Carson danced a salsa to Bad Bunny’s “Tití Me Preguntó” for the show’s Super Bowl Night, earning Rodriguez his strongest judges’ marks of the competition.
“That was so entertaining, so much fun,” Derek Hough told the pair afterward, joking that he had an announcement to make: “The 2027 Super Bowl halftime show is going to be headlined by Guillermo!”
Hough even detected something new in Rodriguez’s dancing.
“The split—dare I say, the swag, Guillermo?” he said.
Guest judge Joe Buck was similarly impressed, declaring, “Andy Richter walked so Guillermo could run!”
Bruno Tonioli conceded that he could “feel the burn,” while Carrie Ann Inaba—who last week complained that Rodriguez was “dimming” his usual light—was happy to see it back.
“Guillermo, did you just call me out?” she asked. “Because if you’re going to call me out, you better bring the goods.”
“I did,” Rodriguez replied.
“Did he bring the goods?” Inaba asked the ballroom. “I thought so, too. The hardest routine, you brought the joy back.”
The question upstairs was whether all that praise would finally translate into something Rodriguez had yet to receive from Inaba: a 6.
“I hope so, because I did my best,” Rodriguez told Julianne Hough. “And everybody liked it, right?”
Inaba gave Rodriguez his first 6 of the competition, and Buck followed with another. Hough and Tonioli each awarded him a 5, bringing Rodriguez and Carson’s total to 22 out of 40.
“I feel great,” Rodriguez said. “I got 22, that’s good.”
But after four straight weeks of viewer votes rescuing Rodriguez from the bottom of the leaderboard, his luck finally ran out. Rodriguez and Carson were eliminated at the end of Tuesday night’s show.
Asked for his biggest takeaway from the experience, Rodriguez thanked the audience and the show before turning to Carson.
“I had a lot of fun. It was great,” he said. “Witney, I love you for teaching me how to dance. Thank you so much.”
Carson returned the sentiment, thanking Rodriguez “for making this season so fun, enjoyable” and noting how much he had looked after her throughout the competition.
“He’s taken care of me so much throughout this entire season,” Carson said, gesturing to her baby bump. “Felt empowering this season.”
