Bill Nye the Science Guy emerged as an early fan favorite when the cast for the 17th season of Dancing With the Stars was announced, and he cemented that title with his very first dance.
He embraced the campiness associated with the show and performed the cha-cha to a rather fitting “Weird Science” with an elaborate chemistry lab set up on stage. It wasn’t the smoothest performance of the night, but it was weirdly wonderful to watch.
Although judge Carrie Ann Inaba called Nye “the heart of the show,” she and the other judges weren’t as impressed with his performance with professional dancer Tyne Stecklein and gave them the lowest score of the night.
Maybe Nye and Stecklein just need to work on their… well, chemistry. As Nye told his partner at the beginning of the episode, “It looks like the successful couples have that—I mean, frankly, it’s sexual tension. From an evolutionary standpoint.”
Despite his early stumble with the judges, Nye scored big with the audience, who welcomed him with the familiar Science Guy chant of “Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill!” The hivemind at Reddit‘s r/videos predicts that Nye will get through week after week with the fan vote, and the ultimate narrative will be determined by how far he gets on the show.
The first elimination doesn’t happen until next week, but when you start at the bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up.
Photo via TheVocalVault/YouTube
