Family forever! James Van Der Beek not only received the best score of the night on the Monday, September 16, Dancing With the Stars premiere, but he also may have had the biggest crowd! His wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, cheered on her husband along side three of their five children and Mary-Margaret Humes, the actress who played James’ mother on Dawson’s Creek from 1998 to 2003.
“Such an amazing night with @vanderjames @vanderkimberly and kids at #dwts,” Humes, 65, wrote on Instagram next to a photo with James and his children. “He SLAYED it! #tango highest score of the night. #dawsoncreek #extendedfamily I could not love them more!!”
Kimberly also shared videos on her Instagram Story of the entire crew on their way to the premiere, and the kids couldn’t be more excited. The couple, who married in 2010, share five children: Olivia, 8, Joshua, 7, Annabel, 5, Emilia, 3, and Gwendolyn, 14 months.
During the premiere, the Pose star danced the tango to “Whatever It Takes” with partner Emma Slater. They scored the best numbers of the week, earning a 21 out of 30. Ultimately, as he said in the package before his dance, he just wanted to make his family proud — and clearly he did!
“I loved watching everyone so much. There are so many genuine hearts on this show,” Kimberly wrote on her Instagram Stories following the show. “But man, my baby did CRUSH!”
Ahead of the premiere, the Room 104 actor revealed what he was most excited about.
“What I’m most looking forward to is having them in the audience, watching me do something that they knew that I basically learned a couple weeks ago,” he told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of the premiere. “I hope to learn some skills that I don’t have in my repertoire. This is really just fun performance. I feel like I felt when I was 13 years old doing my first play in children’s theater. That kind of excitement. The kind of excitement that you have when you’re a kid. That’s what I’m looking for out of this experience. And so far, that’s really how I feel.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
