‘Dancing With The Stars’ Delivers First Elimination Of Season 23

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Elimination nights are always intense on Dancing With The Stars, and Tuesday night (September 20) was no exception. 

After a rough injury-ridden week, actress-turned-country singer Jana Kramer impressed fans as she landed one of the week’s highest scores and avoided elimination. 

Kramer suffered “torn muscles” between her ribs during a rehearsal session last week, but the former One Tree Hill star pushed through the pain to deliver an impressive tango with partner Gleb Savchenko. Kramer has been dependent on her chiropractor, some shots, and a high dose of pain meds, the singer told E! News. But more than anything Jana is thankful for her partner and his support. 

“At the end of the day, it was his friendship and his confidence and his partnership,” she said. “He was like, ‘We got this.’ He’s really inspiring me to keep going.”

Even Gleb was shocked that Jana was able to fight through the pain and deliver an awe-inspiring performance. “The whole energy was absolutely incredible,” Gleb said. “She’s never danced like that during rehearsal, during a dress run…I was like, ‘Oh my god, who is that person?!’ It was great.”

Jana and Gleb’s dance was enough to land them high on the leaderboard that they didn’t have to worry about being eliminated. Wizards of Waverly Place star Jake T. Austin and his pro partner Jenna Johnson ended up being the first to go after landing in the bottom four with Brady Bunch alum Maureen McCormick and partner Artem Chigvintsev, model/actress Amber Rose and her pro partner Maks Chmerkovskiy, and Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte and pro dancer Cheryl Burke.

Watch Jana and Gleb pay tribute to the actresses former show, One Tree Hill, by dancing to the show’s theme song sung by Gavin DeGraw in the video below.