Cynthia Erivo Brings Star Power to DWTS as Disney Night Guest Judge

Cynthia Erivo traded the stage for the ballroom this week, stepping into a guest judging role on Dancing With the Stars during one of the season's most ambitious themed episodes yet. The Broadway-inflected Disney Night — which asked competing couples to draw inspiration not just from animated classics but from their celebrated stage adaptations — was precisely the kind of event that benefits from a panelist who understands both the theatrical and musical demands of performance at the highest level.

A Broadway Lens on a Disney Showcase

Season 35's Disney Night carried a notably richer cultural framework than past iterations of the perennial fan-favorite theme. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the episode specifically framed its performances around "beloved Disney stories and their iconic stage adaptations," effectively asking contestants to engage with material that has a long and layered life across film and theatre. That added dimension made Erivo — a Tony, Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar-nominated performer whose own stage pedigree is arguably unmatched among her generation — an ideal critical voice for the evening. She joins a string of high-profile public appearances that have kept her firmly in the cultural conversation; earlier this year, for instance, she brought considerable energy to SNL UK's season finale.

Perfect Scores and a Competitive Shake-Up

The night produced three perfect 40/40 scores, a remarkable tally that underscored the elevated quality of performance across the remaining field. Harry Shum Jr. and partner Jenna Johnson earned the first of those top marks — a jazz routine set to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins — extending their streak of perfection following a 40/40 the previous week. Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy matched that score with a quickstep to Beauty and the Beast's "Be Our Guest," creating a rare tie at the summit of the leaderboard. With two couples level on individual scores, immunity for the following week's dance-off was resolved by cumulative season totals: Shum Jr. and Johnson edged ahead with 236 points to Dewan and Chmerkovskiy's 235. Team Wildcats — featuring Julianne Hough as co-captain alongside Dewan, Shum Jr., Ezra Frech, and Connor Wood — also posted a perfect 40/40 in the group dance.

An Elimination and a Thinning Field

Not every couple could sustain the momentum. Julia Stiles and partner Ezra Sosa were eliminated after finishing with a combined judges' score and viewer-vote total that left them tied for sixth with Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik at 69/80. Their paso doble to Hamilton's "Satisfied" — a tonally interesting choice that blended Disney Night's theatrical premise with Broadway's contemporary canon — earned them a respectable 33/40 from the panel, but it wasn't enough to survive the cut. The eight celebrities who remain in contention are Tatyana Ali, Jenna Dewan, Ezra Frech, Amber Glenn, Maura Higgins, Harry Shum Jr., and Connor Wood.

Erivo's Expanding Cultural Footprint

For Erivo, the DWTS appearance is the latest in a series of high-visibility moments that have reinforced her status as one of entertainment's most versatile presences. Whether gracing the front row at Ralph Lauren's NYFW show or attending Chloé's Spring 2027 collection presentation at the Paris Observatory, she has demonstrated a fluency across fashion, film, and now television competition that few performers can claim. Sitting beside the DWTS judges' panel — assessing the very craft of embodied performance — feels like a natural, if unexpected, extension of a career built on exactly that discipline. It is, in a sense, the kind of full-circle cultural moment that the Disney brand, with its long history of theatrical reinvention, tends to produce.

Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, simulcasting on ABC and Disney+, with next-day streaming available on Hulu.