A jazz routine to Mariah Carey’s ‘Emotions’ earned Miller a four-way tie, but viewer votes helped deliver the season’s second straight shocking exit.
ByBernadette Giacomazzo
October 7, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Ciara Miller and partner Brandon Armstrong exited Dancing with the Starsafter their Mariah Carey Night jazz routine to “Emotions” earned 21 out of 30.
- The elimination surprised viewers because Miller tied three other couples and outscored Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson, who finished last with 13 points.
- Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas topped the night with 25 points, while Miller’s exit cut short the Summer House cast’s bid to win the Mirrorball Trophy.
Ciara Miller’sDancing with the Stars run has ended unexpectedly early.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Summer House star and professional partner Brandon Armstrong were eliminated during Season 35’s Mariah Carey Night after performing a jazz routine to Carey’s “Emotions.”
Miller and Armstrong earned a 21 out of 30 from the judges, tying them with three other couples and keeping them comfortably above the bottom of the leaderboard—but the combination of judges’ scores and viewer votes wasn’t enough to keep them in the competition.
The result made Miller the second surprising exit in as many weeks. Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart were eliminated during the previous Yacht Rock Night, and Miller’s departure came despite Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson finishing Mariah Carey Night with the evening’s lowest score, a 13 out of 30.
Miller’s 21 matched the scores earned by Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess, Jackson Olson and Emma Slater, and Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa.
The night belonged to Mariah Carey’s catalog, with contestants dancing to songs including “Fantasy,” “Obsessed,” “Touch My Body” and “If It’s Over.”
Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas topped the leaderboard with a 25 for their waltz to “If It’s Over,” which also earned Carrie Ann Inaba’s first nine of the season. Ezra Frech, Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Dewan followed with 24 points apiece.
Miller’s elimination also means all those plans from her Summer House crew to help push her toward the Mirrorball Trophy have officially been cut short. Before the season began, Carl Radke was predicting his longtime castmate could win the whole thing.
“I think she’s going to win. I’m going to manifest it, put the energy out there,” Radke said at the time.
He praised Miller as both “a good dancer” and someone who “works really hard when she puts her mind to something.”
Radke said Miller’s casting sent the Summer House group chat into overdrive after the cast learned about it online. He, Lindsay Hubbard, Kyle Cooke, and Mia Calabrese discussed trips to Los Angeles to support Miller in person, while Radke jokingly proposed an even more aggressive voting operation.
“I’m going to get a burner phone times three,” he said. “Two burner phones and my personal phone, 10 votes a day, each burner.”
DWTS was another step in an increasingly busy stretch outside the Hamptons for Miller. Earlier this year, Shaboozey cast her as the title character in his “Cowgirl” video, part of the storyline surrounding his Western concept album The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales.
The cinematic visual featured Miller as Cherie Lee, a woman seeking revenge against the outlaws who killed her sheriff father.
