DWTS Fans Stunned as Shirley Ballas Gives Julia Stiles a Brutal 4 After Her Best Week Yet
Shirley Ballas wasted no time making her presence felt on Dancing With the Stars — and Julia Stiles found herself on the receiving end of a score that left the ballroom gasping.
While the other judges handed out 7s and an 8, the famously tough British dance expert held up a 4, delivering a startling verdict on Stiles’ Argentine tango just one week after the actress achieved her highest score of the season.
Ballas had promised she wouldn’t go easy on the contestants. On Horror Movie Night, she proved it.
Shirley Ballas Arrives With No Intention of Inflating Scores
When talk turned to a possible scoring problem on Dancing With the Stars, Ballas had a clear response: “Don’t worry, I’m on my way.”
The ABC competition regularly brings in guest judges to challenge the usual panel, with previous additions including former professional dancer and two-time Mirrorball champion Kym Johnson and former host Tom Bergeron. Their different perspectives can shift the scores, sometimes pushing them higher or lower than expected.
But Ballas brought a particularly unforgiving eye to Season 35.
Best known for judging the British series Strictly Come Dancing, which preceded Dancing With the Stars, the retired professional dancer earned her nickname, “The Queen of Latin,” through her expertise in the dance style.
Before the first performance, she made it clear that the contestants wouldn’t receive an easy ride simply because she’d crossed the Atlantic to join the panel. Her first round of judging left little doubt that she intended to hold the celebrities to her standards.
Julia Stiles Goes From a Season High to a Horror Night Setback
The timing made Ballas’ verdict particularly painful for Stiles and her professional partner, Ezra Sosa.
Just a week earlier, the actress had delivered one of her most memorable performances of the competition during Dedication Night. Her routine paid tribute to Heath Ledger, her late 10 Things I Hate About You co-star, and the emotional moment brought the film’s cast back together on stage.
The performance earned widespread praise and gave Stiles her best score of the season: an impressive 36.
Horror Movie Night was a very different story.
Stiles and Sosa tackled an Argentine tango inspired by The Omen, but the routine failed to maintain the momentum of their previous performances. Instead of celebrating another breakthrough, the couple faced criticism from all four judges.
And Ballas had plenty to say about what went wrong.
Ballas Delivers a Blunt Technical Critique
Ballas acknowledged that the interaction between Stiles and Sosa worked well, but she quickly turned to the technical weaknesses she had spotted.
“First of all, I thought the conversation between the two of you was quite nice. But generally, overall, I didn’t find that there was much tracing on the floor,” she explained.
She then questioned the speed and precision of their movements, saying the “gauchos” were too slow and that she wanted “sharper, controlled legs.”
Their posture also failed to meet her expectations for the Argentine tango.
“Also posturally, it wasn’t quite in the right place for Argentine tango for me. But a good start,” Ballas added.
It was a detailed assessment that left little room for confusion: Stiles and Sosa had work to do if they wanted to match the standard of their recent performances.
Bruno Tonioli appeared surprised by the severity of the critique.
“Wow, excuse me,” he responded before offering a more positive assessment, describing Stiles as a “mistress of seduction” who danced with “style.”
The disagreement highlighted the different ways the judges viewed the same routine.
The Other Judges Spot the Problems, Too
Ballas wasn’t alone in feeling that Stiles had struggled to recapture her recent form.
Carrie Ann Inaba said the performance felt more tense than Stiles’ dances over the previous two weeks.
“This one was a little more tense,” she observed, adding, “You just didn’t seem like you were as free as we have been developing over the last few weeks.”
Derek Hough shared similar concerns, pointing to the contrast between the music and the couple’s movements.
Because “the music felt big,” he explained, their dance came across as “just a little timid, a little careful, a little tiptoeing.”
The panel’s feedback suggested a shared conclusion: the routine had some promising elements, but it lacked the confidence and freedom Stiles had shown in recent weeks.
Then came the scores — and the biggest shock of the night.
A 4 From Ballas Leaves Stiles in Disbelief
Tonioli awarded Stiles and Sosa an 8, while Hough and Inaba each gave them a 7.
Those marks already represented a sharp drop from their Dedication Night high. But Ballas’ score took the disappointment to another level.
She gave the couple a 4.
Gasps rang out across the ballroom as the unexpectedly low number was revealed. Stiles covered her mouth in disbelief, visibly stunned by the verdict.
The contrast was striking: three judges had placed the performance between 7 and 8, while Ballas judged it considerably more harshly.
For a contestant coming off her strongest week of the season, the score was a sobering setback.
A Difficult Start to Horror Movie Night
Stiles and Sosa opened Horror Movie Night with one of the evening’s lowest totals, leaving them with a difficult position as the remaining couples took to the floor.
They weren’t the only pair to struggle. Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik also endured a challenging night, finishing with a score of 28.
For Stiles, the contrast between a season-best 36 and Ballas’ unforgiving 4 was impossible to ignore. Her previous performance had earned widespread praise, but this time, technical concerns overshadowed the progress she had made.
Whether the harsh assessment proves to be a turning point for Stiles and Sosa remains to be seen. One thing is certain: Ballas made it clear that recent success wouldn’t guarantee an easy score.
New episodes of Dancing With the Stars Season 35 air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC and Disney+.
