A 10 out of 30 is about as bad as it gets on Dancing with the Stars, and that's exactly what Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson pulled on premiere night.

The pair danced a cha-cha to Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" on Tuesday, September 15, and walked away with a score the show itself flagged as one of the lowest in its history. Carson, 32, wasn't having it. She told Us Weekly the judges' verdict was "lame," and she wasn't shy about defending the routine.

"I think, [for] this cha-cha, we worked on so much," Carson said. "We really worked on the timing and not rushing it. I think that you know there were bits where we were a little bit off, but he got right back on it and he listened to what I said."

She added that Rodriguez, 55, followed her lead and had fun out there, which, in her words, is really all a partner can ask for in week one. "I'm so proud," she said.

Rodriguez, best known as Jimmy Kimmel's longtime sidekick on Jimmy Kimmel Live, wasn't pretending the score didn't sting either. "I was not happy with the score because I think I did good and everything," he told Us Weekly. But he was quick to credit Carson for keeping him steady through the routine.

"I'm not too happy with the score, but listen, I listened to Witney. I felt like I'm at home," he said. "I gotta listen to my wife, I gotta listen to my partner. She said, 'Look at me. Smile. Don't rush it. Have fun. Enjoy.'"

That framing, part partnership and part marriage joke, has become something of a running bit for the pair, and Rodriguez leaned into it again when asked about what's next.

"I say Dancing With the Stars is hard, but I passed the first week, so I don't have nothing else to lose, nothing to prove," he said. "I'm here to stay. I'm here to work hard and do my best."

The low score didn't cost them a spot in the competition. Despite finishing at the bottom of the leaderboard, Rodriguez and Carson were both declared safe from elimination on premiere night, meaning they'll get a shot at week two.

Whether the judges soften up or Rodriguez pulls off a bigger routine remains to be seen. For now, he's treating survival itself as the win, and Carson isn't backing down from calling the scoring exactly what she thinks it was.