The special two-episode "Dancing with the Stars" Season 21 premiere kicked off on Monday, and the dance celebration continued on Tuesday.

The latest episode was basically a replay of the first dances of the couples with a smattering of never-before-seen footage from rehearsals and behind the scenes, per Celeb Dirty Laundry.

Victor Espinoza, who was unable to impress with his salsa routine, explained his challenges including being a full head shorter than his partner Karina Smirnoff and having some memory problems.

"People don't know that jockeys have so many concussions, they have short memory," Espinoza revealed. "Which is disaster to learn how to dance the steps."

Tamar Braxton and Valentin Chmerkovskiy scored 23 points by staging a high-tempo quickstep for the audience. Despite their success, Braxton said behind the scenes that she was not happy with her performance and her pro partner calmed her down by telling her she "killed it."

Older crowd Chaka Khan, Paula Deen and Gary Busey failed to impress with their partners, but neither got as bad a score as Kim Zolciak.

A peek behind rehearsals showed the pre-show jitters for the contestants and the low-scoring reality star seemed to give in to her fear early as she told her partner Tony Dovolani, "This is the most overwhelming thing ever. I'm out."

Zolciak, who wept after her performance, later told E! News in an interview, "I think that yes, I get the dance, but letting go is a very hard thing to do for somebody who is in such control...it's something I need to work on. I'll work on it until I win."

Conversely, success stories include Vine star Hayes Grier, singer-songwriter Andy Grammer and real-life hero Alek Skarlatos, who all stepped out of their comfort zones to tackle ballroom dancing. The two contestants earned good scores for their efforts.

One of the most talked about subplots of the season is married couple Carlos and Alexa PenaVega, who were as nervous for each other as they were for themselves. Carlos scored a point better than his better half, but both got rave reviews from the judges and audience.

"If we get to the top two and we compete with each other in the Finals, whoever wins will never let the other one live it down," Carlos said in an interview with Alexa.

Of course, everyone was talking about the two hottest performances of the night staged by Bindi Irwin with partner Derek Hough, and Nick Carter with his pro partner Sharna Burgess. The two couples established themselves as early favorites by tying for the highest scores of the night.

Hough shared a sweet moment backstage with Irwin telling her, "Honestly, you're changing my life with just your energy and who you are as a person."

Fans can look forward to another two-night event in week two as the pairs rehearse for two different performances in a single week, a first for the ABC reality competition.