The reason there were only two judges on the "Dancing with the Stars" season 34 premiere is that longtime judge Carrie Ann Inaba was absent due to illness. ABC decided not to bring in a guest judge to replace her for the episode, so the judging panel consisted only of Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough. This was the first time in 20 seasons that Inaba missed judging a performance, and ABC chose to proceed with just the two judges rather than add a substitute, resulting in scores being out of a maximum of 20 points instead of the usual 30. Inaba is expected to return for the following episode after resting and recovering from her illness.
