Guillermo Rodriguez's Piña Colada foxtrot draws eighteen times a usual first day
On a Yacht Rock night with Toto, Hall & Oates and the Doobie Brothers on the playlist, the Jimmy Kimmel Live favorite and Witney Carson had the clip people kept pressing play on.
Dancing With The StarsStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 187,309 views a day, 18 times a normal first day on this channel (10,176).
Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson’s Yacht Rock Foxtrot | Dancing with the Stars
"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" is a song about two people who answer each other's personal ads. On Dancing with the Stars it became a foxtrot for Guillermo Rodriguez and his pro partner, Witney Carson. The clip is the busiest thing on the show's official channel.
Twenty-three hours after it went up, the performance had about 186,000 views. That is more than eighteen times what a new upload here usually gathers in its first day. Every dance from the theme night was posted at once, so the other couples make a fair comparison. Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy's samba to Toto's "Africa" came closest. Taylor Hanson's foxtrot to "What a Fool Believes" and Tyler Cameron's jive to Orleans' "Still The One" drew well under half of Guillermo's number.
For most viewers, Guillermo arrived already familiar. He spent years on Jimmy Kimmel Live as the late-night show's lovable sidekick, after starting as a parking-lot security guard on the lot. The ballroom has not made him a polished dancer, and the comments under the clip say so openly. Many call him one of the weaker technicians of the season, and then argue that this is beside the point. The common view is that he plainly dances for the room rather than the judges' paddles.
Two moments come up again and again. One is the ending, which plenty of viewers admit they did not see coming. The other is an umbrella that gets tossed and caught. Several people describe the catch as smooth enough to look like floating. Others say they can see him getting better week by week, and they give Carson credit for building routines around what he can actually do. One viewer says this was the first time they had ever voted, and that they don't even watch the show.
Published on Trari
What viewers say
I was not expecting that ending 😂 Go Guillermo Go! 👏
@mattylynnbarnes3035See it on YouTubeThe umbrella trick was so smooth. It’s like it was floating in the air.
@ruthlammers6441See it on YouTubeWitney knows exactly how to coach him. what he can and cant do. fantastic!
@hamsterpaj111See it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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- Channel
- Dancing With The Stars
- Subscribers
- 1,370,000
- Channel views, pace per day
- 627,321 (on a normal day: 523,451)
- Video published
- September 30, 2026
- Video views so far
- 185,720 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 187,309
The numbers
One theme night, several couples, and one clip that pulled far ahead of the channel's usual first-day pace.
💡 Test your knowledge
Rupert Holmes, who wrote "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)," also won Tony Awards for which Broadway musical?
Holmes wrote the book, music and lyrics for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which won the Tony for Best Musical in 1986, along with Tonys for his book and score.
