For Daniella Karagach and Paralympian Ezra Frech, their Dancing With the Stars scores are just the cherry on top of their performance.
“I’m not even thinking about 10,” Karagach, 33, exclusively told Us after the Tuesday, October 13, Super Bowl Night episode. “I’m not thinking about scores. I just want to make him shine every single week. And if I do that, I’ve done my job. That’s it. I don’t think about the scores.”
After nailing their salsa to Nelly’s “Hot in Herre,” Frech, 21, and Karagach earned all 9s from judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli and guest judge Joe Buck — who called the routine “really powerful” in the ballroom. Frech added a little extra bling by having his prosthetic leg bedazzled with ruby-red jewels for the routine.
The pair tied for the highest scores of the night with The Rookie’s Jenna Dewan and partner Val Chmerkovskiy and were ultimately safe from the elimination. (DWTS ultimately said goodbye to Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez and partner Witney Carson.)
“I mean, we definitely didn’t go into this week thinking about scores,” Karagach said. “We’re just thinking how to survive week to week and do our absolute best. So that was a cherry on top.”
Frech chimed in to add, “That’s our highest score yet. When they were holding up nines, I was like, ‘No way!’ I was like, ‘No way!’ Like, I was really struggling this week to get nines. Like, oh my God.”
Kargach explained that the pair “had to find [their] own formula” with the performance due to Frech’s prosthetic, noting that “there were so many different patterns on each leg that he had to remember to make this dance possible.”
“Each week, she is having to completely rewrite the rule book,” Frech noted of Karagach. “That is so challenging, and there’s so much that goes into that. And so when we get high scores like that after we just poured our hearts into a dance, it’s the best feeling, and it’s an ode to how amazing you are.”
Karagach added, “And to how amazing you are.”
Now the pair are gearing up for Dedication Night, which Karagach teased viewers might have to bring the tissues “a little bit.”
“We’re gonna try to just tell Ezra’s story and just share it with the world. … And hopefully I do it justice,” Karagach said, while Frech confirmed, “You will, 100 percent.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
