“Dancing With the Stars” pro Artem Chigvintsev will sit out of Tuesday’s show after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
“Artem will not be dancing tonight due to COVID,” the show’s official Instagram account wrote Tuesday morning. “Wishing him a quick recovery!”
“Bachelorette” Charity Lawson will instead perform with troupe member Ezra Sousa for the ballroom dancing competition show’s “Latin Night.”
Chigvintsev’s absence follows a successful premiere episode of “Dancing With the Stars” for the pro and Lawson, as the duo secured the highest score of the night with a 22 out of 30 for their tango to “Only Girl (In the World)” by Rihanna. Judge Bruno Tonioli called the performance “exquisite,” with Carrie Ann Inaba echoing Tonioli saying it was “stunning.”
During last week’s Season 32 launch, singer Jason Mraz and Daniella Karagacha took second place after Lawson and Chigvintsev’s victory as their Cha-Cha-Cha to Mraz’s “I Feel Like Dancing” scored a 7 from each judge. Tonioli even called Mraz “the one to watch,” joking that his dancing skills were a result of an “extra vertebra.”
Prior to the resolution of the WGA strike last week, ABC had prepared to potentially delay the season launch so as to not break the rules of the writers’ strike as “Dancing With the Stars” employs one WGA staffer.
As the show prepared for its Sept. 26 premiere, striking writers picketed the rehearsals, putting significant pressure to delay the live show. Luckily, the WGA and the AMPTP came to a tentative agreement on that Sunday, prompting “Dancing” to keep its original launch date.
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