PureDWTS DWTS Junior Season 1 – The “What To Look Forward To” Spoiler Thread **SPOILERS AHEAD**

So I was struggling with the whole spoiler situation, relative to DWTS Junior – since it’s being pre-taped, for the first time, we have spoilers that could potentially reveal the outcome of a show that’s not due to air for 2 more months…and I’m not really cool with that, since I want people to tune in and actually watch the show; plus I’m not really looking to get into any Reality Steve vs. The Bachelor-style legal brouhaha’s. So if you’re looking for who got eliminated – look elsewhere, I promise there are people on Twitter who are more than willing to share that info with you if you just know where to look. What we’re going to be sharing here is the good stuff – stuff you can look forward to watching once the show starts airing in October 🙂 What we share may vary week to week, based on what we hear from sources and people fortunate enough to attend the taping…I’m leaving this a bit open-ended, until I figure out the right format for it. I’ll update as I hear more, so stay tuned. Now if you’re just looking for pro/celeb/mentor/etc. spoilers, go here; if you are looking for an explanation of how scoring/voting will work, go here.  Be warned – spoiler-y stuff after the jump…

Week 1:

Taped: 7/28/18
Airing: 10/7/18
High-scorers: Mandla & Brightyn, Ariana & Aryton (the only two teams to receive at least two 8’s – the highest paddle the judges brought out that night)
Eliminations: Two couples (one was Tripp & Hailey; 10 couples remain)
Other things to look forward to: Multiple people at the taping have told me they were “pleasantly surprised” by Alana; I’ve also heard universal praise for Akash & Kamri being ABSURDLY adorable, and potential fan favorites 🙂

Week 2:

Taped: 8/2/18 (schedule changed just for this week)
Airing: 10/14/18
High-scorer(s): Ariana & Artyon, Kenzie & Sage, Miles & Rylee (three-way tie)
Eliminations: One couple (9 couples remain)
Other things to look forward to: Couples danced to songs from the year the celeb was born – Alana danced to “Don’t Cha” by the Pussycat Dolls 😎 Apparently this elimination was a shocker – so to put a positive spin on it, be prepared to be surprised this season…and just because your favorite might be at the bottom of the leaderboard, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re headed home!

Week 3 (Disney night):

Taped: 8/3/18
Airing: 10/21/19
High-scorer(s): Miles & Rylee, Kenzie & Sage (Ariana & Artyon were 2nd from the top)
Eliminations: One couple (8 couples remain)
Other things to look forward to: Miles & Rylee danced to a song from Aladdin (see below); Alana & Tristan had Beauty & the Beast (and Alana got to dress as Belle); Elliana & Jason did Toy Story (with Elliana as Jessie – see below); Akash & Kamri had Hercules; Sophia & Jake did The Little Mermaid

Week 4 (Halloween Night):

Taped: 8/10/18
Airing: 10/28/19
High-scorer(s): Miles & Rylee
Eliminations: One couple (7 couples remain)
Other things to look forward to: Songs/themes included Ghostbusters, Little Shop of Horrors, “Witch Doctor”, and Descendants. A few pix of the contestants in costume below. This elim was apparently kind of a tough one.

Week 5 (Junior’s Choice Night):

Taped: 8/11/18
Airing: 11/4/18 11/11/18
High-scorer(s): Ariana & Artyon (got the first “10” of the season)
Eliminations: One couple (6 couples remain)
Other things to look forward to: Couples danced to songs/styles picked by the junior celeb. Ariana picked hip-hop and she & Artyon apparently brought the house down to “Rolex” by Ayo & Teyo.  Val pretended to give them his own Rolex as a prize for killing the dance 😛

Week 6 (“Giving Thanks” Night):

Taped: 8/17/18
Airing: 11/11/18 11/18/18
High-scorer(s): Sky & JT (got 29/30 for their foxtrot)
Eliminations: One couple (5 couples remain)
Other things to look forward to: Couples did dances dedicated to the people/things they were thankful for. Stevie Wonder was in the audience to support Mandla, who did a foxtrot. Maddie Ziegler made a cameo in sis Kenzie’s samba. Akash & Kamri did a super cute jazz routine to “Jai Ho”. Ariana & Artyon did salsa. Both happy and sad tears shed throughout the show, and this elimination was a heartbreaker 🙁

Week 7 (“90’s” Night Time Machine Night/quarterfinals):

Taped: 8/18/18
Airing: 11/18/18 11/25/18
High-scorer(s): Miles & Rylee (only couple to get a 10)
Eliminations: One couple (4 couples remain)
Other things to look forward to: Kenzie apparently did a jazz to “Call Me Maybe” (which is not a 90’s song, so who knows). One couple did a paso doble, one did a jive, one did a quickstep, and one did a Charleston.

Before I go any further, a note: at this point, it’s getting hard for me to do “what to look forward to” spoilers without revealing who’s left – I’ll try my best, but just know that if you don’t want to be completely spoiled, you run the risk of being able to deduce some things if you venture past this point.  K?

…you sure you want to proceed?

…like, really really sure?

…aight, you’ve been warned…

Week 8 (Team Dance Night/semifinals):

Taped: 8/24/18
Airing: 11/25/18 12/2/18
High-scorer(s): Kenzie & Sage (only couple to get a perfect score of 30, but no score lower than “9” was given)
Eliminations: No eliminations (4 couples remain – everyone goes to the finals)
Other things to look forward to: Each couple did an individual dance and a team (duet, really) dance. Everyone left did really, really well, and source thinks any of the four finalists remaining has the potential to win the whole thing 🙂 Hint on who made the finals: Kenzie/Sage/Gleb (obviously), two other female celeb/male junior pro/male mentor teams, and one male celeb/female junior pro/female mentor team. Scores & votes from this show get rolled into the finals, to determine the eventual winner. Duet pairs were Kenzie/Sage & last male celeb/his junior pro and the two other female celebs/their junior pros.

Aight, now it’s about to get REAL spoilery up in here…if you don’t want a hint on what happened at the finale, click HERE to go back to the main page NOW.

You still wanna know?

Keep in mind, this isn’t airing till December…

Ok, fine, you asked for it….

Week 9 (Finale):

Taped: 8/25/18
Airing: 12/02/18 12/9/18
Other things to look forward to: Finale had a Christmas theme, much like the fall finales of the regular seasons.  Couples did a freestyle (all Christmas-themed) and one other dance. Gleb utilized an outside choreographer for Kenzie & Sage’s freestyle (thank god). Only the winner was announced (no runners-up, 3rd place, etc.); winner was a female celeb/male junior pro/male mentor. Kids had an afterparty at the studio with cake & pizza, and all are headed home today (most of them had to do their first week of school with tutors last week at the rehearsal space – so tomorrow is the first real day of school for them).

And that’s all I’ve got, folks. I’ll leave this post pinned for a few more days, but with season 27 of regular DWTS gearing up this week, I’m probably not going to say much more about Juniors until the celeb cast announcement (whenever that might be) or closer to the premiere of Juniors (Oct. 7).  So if you want to refer back to this post – bookmark it. Heidi & I are still trying to figure out how we’re going to cover Juniors, so if you’ve got any suggestions, let’s hear ’em. Heidi will still be doing a version of “by the numbers”, and I’m trying to decide if we truly need both a live blog AND power rankings.  Either way – the next three months are going to be BUSY for us, so please bear with us 🙂