{"id":28390,"date":"2025-09-17T20:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T20:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/28390\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T20:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T20:36:08","slug":"robert-irwin-gets-top-score-in-dwts-debut-hugs-sis-bindi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/28390\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Irwin gets top score in ‘DWTS’ debut, hugs sis Bindi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It looks like wowing the judges on \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d is now an Irwin family tradition. <\/p>\n

Robert Irwin<\/a> hit the stage Tuesday for the first time with pro partner Witney Carson on the Season 34<\/a> premiere of \u201cDancing With the Stars,\u201d knocking out an upbeat jive set to \u201cBorn to Be Wild.\u201d The first thing the wildlife conservationist did after nailing the routine was run to hug his sister, Bindi Irwin<\/a>, who was in the audience along with other family and friends. <\/p>\n

The judges called the performance, which closed out the night, \u201cabsolutely brilliant.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCrocs are my comfort zone, dancing is not,\u201d Robert Irwin said in the introductory package that was shown right before his performance. In the same compilation, Carson explained that a jive is difficult for a first dance and praised Irwin\u2019s positivity. <\/p>\n

Bruno Tonioli was the first judge to address the pair, getting on his feet to tell Irwin that the performance \u201cwasn\u2019t [just] good, that was great.\u201d <\/p>\n

Derek Hough<\/a>, who was Bindi\u2019s pro partner when they won the Mirror Ball during \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d Season 21, told Robert that he was \u201cso relieved because you had some big shoes to fill.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t just fill them; you owned those shoes,\u201d said Hough, who asked if Irwin had been practicing for this moment for the last 10 years. \u201cThat was probably the best first dance I\u2019ve ever seen on this show.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earlier in the episode, Irwin said that when he watched his sister win 10 years ago, he had thought, \u201cOne day, that\u2019s going to be me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Watching Bindi win in 2015 also served as preparation for Robert. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I had a good idea of what this show was about coming into it, cause my sister had done it,\u201d Irvin told E! News<\/a>. \u201cBindi just said, \u2018Take a breath and enjoy every single second of it … really try and enjoy this cause it goes by so fast.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Irwin and Carson was awarded 15 points, which put them in a tie for top marks alongside team Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It looks like wowing the judges on \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d is now an Irwin family tradition. Robert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[28074,26058,28078,156,28075,3958,111,139,69,6777,10405,28076,16814,6926,1305,27886,5436,437,28077,379],"class_list":{"0":"post-28390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bindi-irwin","9":"tag-derek-hough","10":"tag-dwts","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-good-first-dance","13":"tag-judge","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-performance","18":"tag-positivity","19":"tag-pro-partner-witney-carson","20":"tag-robert-irwin","21":"tag-season","22":"tag-show","23":"tag-sister","24":"tag-stars","25":"tag-tv","26":"tag-upbeat-jive","27":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}