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Stayin’ Alive: Those vintage John Travolta pelvic thrusts? “Those moves came together at the very end,” supermodel Albert Reed told PEOPLE following the show. “In the last couple of rehearsals I said, ‘Hey, I want to slick the hair back, you know?’ We’ve got to add some spice to it.” And all that shaking and shimmying paid off: Reed and partner Anna Trebunskaya’s performance left judge Carrie Ann Inaba speechless for the first time in DWTS history. “That was kind of funny actually, I loved that,” Trebunskaya said. Added Reed: “She was knocked out. I don’t think they were expecting me to come out with a bang. We did a couple of bangs—bang bang bang!”


T.G.I. Over!: He may be the king of Vegas, but singing legend Wayne Newton was a bundle of nerves before his first Dancing performance. With his family (including wife Kathleen McCrone and daughter Lauren) looking on, Newton sweated through a respectable cha cha cha with partner Cheryl Burke, who told the judges Newton is her “best partner” yet. Still sweating well after the cameras stopped rolling, Newton expressed his relief after the show: “I’m feeling great, I’m just glad the first one’s over.” Whew!

Wardrobe Check!: That darn Spandex sure is slippery! The draft Karina Smirnoff felt during her number—that wasn’t from those explosive cha cha cha moves she performed with partner Floyd Mayeather, Jr.…or was it? “My dress started to come off in the back, so I was freaking out that my crack might make an appearance,” she said. Though Mayweather didn’t notice, he made sure to examine the wardrobe malfunction after the show. “Let me see, turn around,” he joked. “I was once told sex sells. If there’s anybody who’s sexy that’s here, it’s Karina Smirnoff.”

Night Moves: Helio Castroneves may be the man to beat, scoring the highest score of the night—25!—with partner Julianne Hough, but the racecar pro admits he was already revved up the night before the show. “Last night I called (Julianne) and was like, ‘Listen, we’ve got to practice,’ and she was like, ‘No, no, you’re fine, don’t worry,’” he told PEOPLE. “But I was, actually, at 3 o’clock in the morning, practicing by myself—swear to God!”

He’s Stiff Competition: “I’m gonna hurt tomorrow,” Mark Cuban told PEOPLE after his premiere night fox trot with partner Kym Johnson. “That big jump at the end—we don’t do that every time we practice, so I had to save it. I jumped off my good hip and I had to land on my good hip.” Though Cuban and Johnson saved their big leap for the show, the couple did plenty of practice runs backstage. “In the hallways, people were laughing at us because we were doing it so often,” Cuban admitted. “(Kym) kept on saying, ‘Mark, you got it!’ And I was like, ‘I know, I just don’t want to sit there and watch everyone else and get stiff.’”

The Loopiest Couple Award…: …Goes to Mel B. and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who chatted “all the time” throughout the show, “Brown told PEOPLE. “She is one of those people who when she goes to the theatre, you would be like, ‘Shhh! Shhhh!’” joked Chmerkovskiy. No surprise, Maks already has Mel on speed dial. “He speaks Russian to me on the phone,” the Spice Girl said. “He’s trying to teach me. It’s impossible. But I like listening to it.”