Jordan Chiles and Her Dance Partner Were Momentarily Muted on ‘DWTS’ Last Night—Here’s Why

The incredibly relatable moment caused fans everywhere to check their TV’s volume.

The cast of ’Dancing With the Stars’ / Disney/Eric McCandless

In case you’ve missed it, Jordan Chiles has been positively killing it on Dancing With the Stars this season.

The gold medal-winning Olympian and 2025 SI Swimsuit cover model has consistently found herself toward the top of the leaderboard each week, with plenty of positive comments from the judges and votes coming in from fans watching at home. And this week was absolutely no exception—in fact, this episode only served to cement her and her pro dance partner, Ezra Sosa’s, place at the top of the competition for good (pun very much intended).

You can check out our full recap of this week’s episode here!

One seriously Wicked routine

The theme for Week 6 was “Wicked Night,” with the remaining dancing duos taking on routines choreographed to songs from the hit Broadway musical, which has since been adapted into an Academy Award-nominated two-part film franchise. This episode also provided a little extra pressure on the stars and pros, as Jon M. Chu—the director behind the films—was on the panel as a guest judge.

Chiles and Sosa were assigned the final dance of the evening, following a high-energy show filled with the very first 10s given out by the judges all season. Whitney Leavitt and her partner Mark Ballas scored a 39/40 with three 10s and a 9, giving them a nearly perfect score, while fellow SI Swimsuit model Alix Earle and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy also did well with a strong 35/40 from the judges.

The gymnast and her partner danced a powerful Rumba set to the beloved ballad “For Good.” In behind the scenes footage that aired before their routine, Chiles opened up about how she hoped to up the stakes for the evening to impress the judges with a more complex number, as both she and Sosa were concerned that their scores, while always high, had halted in the same zone over the last couple of weeks.

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The judges’ scores—and the duo’s hilarious reaction

The two absolutely slayed their routine, with Sosa’s sensual choreography and Chiles’s effortless elegance on full display. Fans in the live audience rose to their feet for a standing ovation after they struck their final pose on the hardwood before the two then headed over to get their feedback from the judges.

Longtime judge Bruno Tonioli cheekily called the number “wickedly good,” while Carrie Ann Inaba said it was “perfection.” Hough was also impressed by the choreography before Chu revealed that he’d actually seen Chiles perform at the Olympics, adding that he saw the same drive and dedication in her eyes when she danced. An excited and emotional Chiles and Sosa then headed back to get their scores with the rest of the cast.

ROBERT IRWIN, MARK BALLAS, WHITNEY LEAVITT, EMMA SLATER, JORDAN CHILES, EZRA SOSA, SCOTT HOYING, RYLEE ARNOLD, ELAINE HENDRIX / Disney/Eric McCandless

Inaba wasted no time, making good on her comment about their “perfection” by giving them their very first 10 of the season. Before the next judge even had a chance to read off their score, Chiles and Sosa immediately lost their minds in the most relatable and fun way possible, with Chiles excitedly running around Sosa as he fell to the ground. Hough then rated the dance a 9, but both Chu and Tonioli shared Inaba’s sentiments, giving them two 10s and tying them with Leavitt and Ballas for the highest score of the night with a total of 39/40.

But before the host could finish reading the final tallies, the audio suddenly cut out of the live broadcast for a noticeable amount of time, leaving viewers in silence as the cast continued to celebrate their triumph on-screen. After the episode aired, PEOPLE reported that this was because Sosa appeared to drop a few hard-earned expletives in his excitement after he picked Chiles up and spun her around.

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What’s next?

Thanks to their incredibly high score and the countless fans voting at home, Chiles and Sosa earned a spot in next week’s show alongside eight other dancing duos for a total of nine pairs left in the competition. During the elimination, Scott Hoying of Pentatonix and his partner Rylee Arnold were unfortunately the couple sent home.

The theme next week is, of course, “Halloween Night.” The episode will air ahead of the holiday on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m. ET. You can watch new episodes of DWTS Season 34 every Tuesday night on ABC and Disney+, and new episodes stream on Hulu the next day.

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