Stephen Nedoroscik Explains Why His Musicality Is Getting Better on ‘DWTS’

Stephen Nedoroscik is putting in the work ahead of the Dancing With the Stars season 33 finale — and he’s got the receipts to prove it.

While at the DWTS rehearsal studios, Nedoroscik, 26, and his partner, Rylee Arnold, recorded themselves listening to The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You” without the music. The pair were attempting to see if they could remember where the tune’s iconic claps occurred in the song.

“Put the volume all the way down and tried to see who could clap on beat,” Arnold, 19, wrote over her Saturday, November 23, TikTok. She captioned the clip, “What’s even more fun is that we are dancing to this song for one of our dances in the finale!!!!”

In the video, Nedoroscik clapped several seconds ahead of Arnold. When they synced the video with the song, Arnold’s timing was spot on.

Fans of DWTS were quick to weigh in in the comments section of Arnold’s post. “Steve ur ahead of the music!” one user wrote, while another added, “This was the musicality Bruno [Tonioli] was talking abt Steve….”

Nedoroscik, for his part, set the record straight in a clip of his own. “Alright, guys. Y’all saw the video. Everyone’s saying my musicality is bad. Everyone. Cause look how early I went compared to Rylee,” he said in a TikTok on Saturday.

However, Nedoroscik claimed that he had only heard the audio one time before the video — and didn’t know there were two sections of music before the claps. To prove his point, Nedoroscik clipped the video to only play one section of the tune.

“That’s where I thought it actually started when we recorded this. Watch this,” he explained as he began playing the edited version.

In the clip, Nedoroscik clapped on beat. “Guys! I was dead on, everybody,” Nedoroscik exclaimed. “I didn’t know that section of music played twice. Guys, I promise my musicality is getting better.” Nedoroscik captioned the TikTok, “GUYS I WAS DEAD ON IN MY HEAD I PROMISE.”

Throughout his stint on DWTS, Nedoroscik has been encouraged by the judges to focus on his timing. After Nedoroscik and Arnold performed a Cha Cha to “Bailar” by Deorro featuring Elvis Crespo, judge Carrie Ann Inaba told the Olympian that he went “backwards a step with the musicality.”

Now, Nedoroscik and Arnold are set to perform a Quickstep to “I’ll Be There for You” for their redemption dance and a freestyle to Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.” The pair are competing against Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson, Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong, Danny Amendola and Witney Carson and Ilona Maher and Alan Bersten for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.