'Dancing With the Stars': What's going on with the score confusion?

The newest episode of “Dancing With the Stars” included two pairs of contestants being eliminated after the competitors took part in “icon night.” 

Von Miller, a player for the Denver Broncos football team, and Kim Fields, an actress who has appeared on such programs as “The Facts of Life,” were both eliminated from the competition following their performances on the May 2 episode. Ms. Fields had been competing with dancer Sasha Farber and Mr. Miller had been dancing with Witney Carson. 

Ginger Zee of “Good Morning America” and her partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy received a perfect score for their Viennese waltz, as did martial artist Paige VanZant and her partner Mark Ballas after performing a jive. 

Meanwhile, Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team and Sharna Burgess received some of the night’s lowest scores, 24 out of 30. Miller and Ms. Carson, who earned the same score, were also on the low end. 

The night also included more confusion over scores. Contestant Nyle DiMarco, who became the first deaf winner of the reality competition “America’s Next Top Model,” and his partner Peta Murgatroyd performed a foxtrot and judge Bruno Tonioli first said that he gave the dance a 10 but apparently put a 9 for his written score. This was a concern earlier this season as well when there was a difference between what the judges submitted as a score and what they said during the show. 

Why would these be different?

On an April 18 episode, Mr. DiMarco and his partner Ms. Burgess thought they got a score of one 9 and three 10s from guest judge Maksim Chmerkovskiy and judges Mr. Tonioli, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Len Goodman. The judges hold up paddles to show their score and also give scores they’ve written to the producer of the program. 

But on the April episode, Mr. Chmerkovskiy and Tonioli gave scores of 9 to the producer but displayed 10 on their paddles. The scores the judges have given to the producer are the ones that matter. 

On the newest episode of “Dancing,” Tonioli did this again, giving a 9 score to the producer but holding up his paddle that says 10. But it’s the scores for the producer that will continue to matter as the competition moves forward.