‘Dancing with the Stars’ Fans Say ‘Too Many Rumbas’ for Bond Night
Dancing with the Stars Season 31 Week 3 will celebrate James Bond. Each couple will perform to a song inspired by songs from the James Bond film catalog, but many fans aren’t looking forward to the upcoming theme night. Find out why they’re not happy with the songs and dance styles the season 31 cast will perform in the Oct. 3 episode of DWTS.
‘Dancing with the Stars’ is celebrating 60 Years of James Bond
On Oct. 3, the Dancing with the Stars Season 31 cast will pay tribute to James Bond. Each couple will perform to a song from James Bond films like Casino Royale, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Die, and For Your Eyes Only. What’s more, we’ll also see two new dance styles: the Argentine Tango and the Samba.
Bond Night songs and dance styles
Here are the dance styles and songs the remaining 14 couples will perform this week:
- Jessie James Decker & Alan Bersten: Rumba to “Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey
- Joseph Baena & Alexis Warr (standing in for Daniella Karagach): Argentine Tango to “Writing’s on the Wall” by Sam Smith
- Heidi D’Amerlio & Artem Chigvintsev: Argentine Tango to “Another Way to Die” by Jack White & Alicia Keys
- Trevor Donovan & Emma Slater: Tango to “You Know My Name” by Chris Cornell
- Cheryl Ladd & Louis Van Amstel: Rumba to “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey
- Sam Champion & Cheryl Burke: Samba to “Los Muertos Vivos Están” by Thomas Newman featuring Tambuco
- Vinny Guadagnino & Koko Iwasaki: Rumba to “Thunderball” by Tom Jones
- Charli D’Amelio & Mark Ballas: Rumba to “No Time to Die” by Billie Eilish
- Wayne Brady & Witney Carson: Tango to “The Name’s Bond… James Bond” by David Arnold & Nicholas Dodd
- Gabby Windey & Val Chmerkovskiy: Cha-cha-cha to “Die Another Day” by Madonna
- Shangela & Gleb Savchenko: Rumba to “GoldenEye” by Tina Turner
- Selma Blair & Sasha Farber: Rumba to “For Your Eyes Only” by Sheena Easton
- Daniel Durant & Britt Stewart: Rumba to “The World Is Not Enough” by Garbage
- Jordin Sparks & Brandon Armstrong: Rumba to “Licence to Kill” by Gladys Knight
Some fans are displeased with the repetitiveness of theme nights
Dancing with the Stars fans have expressed their distaste for the show’s theme nights, which take place every week. As for James Bond night, one fan thinks there are “too many Rumbas” (via Reddit). “This is why theme nights don’t work,” they pointed out. More than half of the dances performed on Oct. 3 will be Rumbas.
“Theme nights can work if they are the right theme night,” points out another Reddit user. “Elvis wasn’t a terrible theme night, but maybe would have been better later in the season when there weren’t so many couples (so we didn’t get so many jives and quicksteps). Likewise, Bond night could have worked with fewer couples.”
In reality, these theme nights help the show stick to its roots. When Dancing with the Stars first started, the dances were even more limited, with every couple performing one of two styles in any given week. “Way back when week one was ONLY cha-cha or foxtrot, week two was mambo or quickstep, week three was jive or tango, etc.,” pointed out another Redditor. “They used that formula for YEARS.”
‘Dancing with the Stars’ Season 31 has even more theme nights in store
Showrunner Conrad Green, who returns to the ballroom in season 31, teased the upcoming theme nights to Entertainment Weekly. For example, the music of Michael Bublé will inspire the dances on Oct. 24. Bublé is also expected to sit on the judges’ panel and perform.
“Michael performed on the show years ago, and he’s a brilliant guy,” Green said. “He’s a really good friend of Derek’s [Hough], and it’s probably their friendship that has finally got him to come and give us a whole night of his music and judge along.”
Of course, season 31 will also feature the signature Dancing with the Stars Disney Night. However, there will be one significant change to Disney Night this season. “They will be doing a Disney+ night, not [just] Disney,” Green explained. “Which is great because it means you’ve got this incredible catalog to look at. Everything from Marvel to Disney Pixar, all of the animated films, all of their live-action films. There’s such a range.”
Stream Dancing with the Stars live on Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET Mondays.
