We;re only two weeks into the competition, but the fans of Dancing with the Stars have already been criticizing Season 35's new one-word feedback responses. During the live show that hit the 2026 TV schedule, Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli were told by host Alfonso Ribeiro that the third judge to speak about each of the 14 celebrity dances would have to sum up their thoughts in just one word. The backlash for the one-word rule is not at all surprising, and even Hough had his own response to the situation. DWTS is no stranger to behind the scenes drama, and fans took to social media to complain about the frustratingly limited commentary, which didn’t allow for time to explain why the one word was chosen, lest things spiral into getting scolded for trying to squeeze in more words. The dancer-turned-judge addressed the backlash by having a little fun on Instagram and TikTok, where he added the caption, “I didn’t get the memo," to a video quoting one of Michael Scott's A+ lines from The Office, “I knew exactly what to do, but in a much more real sense I had no idea what to do.” It perfectly sums up the confusion to me, but judge for yourself in the clip below.A post shared by Derek Hough (@derekhough)A photo posted by I found Derek Hough’s Instagram comment particularly funny: Should’ve busted out Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.Of course, it's not as if that word is any more nonsensical than putting the judges into that position in the first place. Comments like “beautiful” and “fabulous” are one thing, but when you use the word “shaky” to describe someone’s performance and you can't give them any context or helpful feedback about how to improve, it’s hard to know where to go from there. Throughout the episode dubbed “Viral Hits Night," the stars and their DWTS pros danced to hugely popular songs. Some top-notch, stand-out performances came from Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy, Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach, and Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov at the top of the leaderboard. But in almost every instance, the one-word feedback created awkward pauses, either from the judges trying to figure out what to say, or by the competitors who were trying to make sense of the purposefully brief outlook.Part of the reason it all felt so jarring was because the first week delivered a two-night competition, with only eight couples (the male celebs and their partners on night one and the female celebs and their partners on night two) dancing in each episode, allowing for some room to breathe. Cramming 14 dances into one night while still adding in troupe dances, behind the scenes glimpses, rehearsal footage, and Julianne Hough’s conversations with the performers cut time from the judges’ feedback. And with DWTS judges getting stricter, I’m not sure what the best way to balance it all is, but they should consider maybe cutting back on something other than judge responses until the number of stars has been narrowed down a bit. We’re still a ways off from learning who will take the Season 35 Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy home, with many themed dance nights still to come. Until then, DWTS can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription or Hulu subscription as you root on your favorite stars in anticipation of week 12’s finale, where the new winner will be crowned.