Overview
- Stiles name‑checked Andy Cohen in her rehearsal package during the Season 35 premiere, saying his 2025 radio quip about her dancing was “imprinted” in her brain and that she stopped dance classes after Save the Last Dance.
- She and partner Ezra Sosa performed a quickstep to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” received an 18 out of 30 from the judges, and advanced past Week 1 after the public vote.
- Judge Derek Hough directly addressed Cohen on live TV with a playful retort and praised Stiles’ performance, and Cohen later apologized on Watch What Happens Live, calling himself the show’s “Jackhole of the Day.”
- Stiles noted some film sequences were doubled and credited choreographer Fatima Robinson, a context Kerry Washington had raised in the original 2025 radio exchange.
- The moment has become a running storyline for Stiles’ season because it ties her personal reclaiming of dance to public accountability and adds emotional weight from Parton’s recent approval of the song choice.