Eric Roberts makes his DWTS dream come true after 19 years: 'Petrifying'

Better late than never!

In his Dancing With the Stars debut in the season 33 premiere, Eric Roberts revealed he was first asked to do the show 19 years ago, but a scheduling conflict came up and he had to bow out. "I'm finally here," the Oscar nominee said in his opening remarks. "I've been making movies for 45 years, but I was asked to do Dancing With the Stars 19 years ago. One day of filming a movie overlapped, and I was devastated by that because I'm such a huge fan of the show and I'm ready to make up for lost time."

He later added, "I've been waiting 19 years for this moment and I'm not going to mess it up... hopefully."

The actor, who has appeared in over 700 movies and TV shows according to host Alfonso Ribeiro, danced the cha-cha with pro dancer Britt Stewart choreographed to “Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger.

Roberts seemed to enjoy his debut, though the judges were not quite so kind. Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough all gave the star a score of 5, for a total of 15 out of 30, with Hough commenting that the performance was "a little bit like assembling IKEA furniture, some pieces fit really nice, and that's a bit of a puzzle."

Inaba sweetly remarked that she was a big fan of Roberts, and thanked him for being on the show, before being a bit frank with him. "I just want to warn you, my score might not be so great, but what I do want to say is that you are a star and it showed the whole time," she said.

A man of few words, Roberts summed up his debut in his post-performance interview by saying it was simply "petrifying."

The season premiere also featured a stellar opening number to “Set My Heart On Fire (I’m Alive x And The Beat Goes On)” by Majestic, the Jammin Kid & Céline Dion, choreographed by Jamal Sims.

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In addition to Roberts, celebrities on the 33rd season of the dancing show also include Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, Tori Spelling, Jenn Tran, Anna Delvey, Reginald VelJohnson, and more. For their first performances, the celebrity and pro duos' dances ran the gamut from the tango, to the cha-cha, salsa, foxtrot, and jive.