'Dancing With The Stars' Recap: Ralph Macchio Holds Onto High Score

The season's barely started, and already there was a three-way tie for the top on Monday night's "Dancing With the Stars."

When the new celebrity contestants got a second chance to make a first impression, following last week's non-elimination premiere, Chris Jericho and Cheryl Burke; Romeo and Chelsea Hightower; and Hines Ward and Kym Johnson stepped up their game this week. All three earned a total of 23 points from the judges.

After all of the contestants performed the quickstep or the jive, their scores were added to last week's tabulation. Both scores will then be added to the call-in votes from viewers. With last week's scores taken into account, it was actually Ralph Macchio and Karina Smirnoff at the top of the leader board, with 45 total points. Ward and Johnson were next with 44, followed by Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy with 43 points. It's a bit confusing, but Tuesday's elimination — the first for season 12 — should clear things up a bit.

Judge Carrie Ann Inaba seemed most impressed with football superstar Ward's quickstep. "That was amazing; I loved it," she said. Hard-to-please judge Bruno Tonioli loved that Burke was able to turn wrestler Jericho from "a beast into a gazelle." Head judge Len Goodman loved Romeo's quickstep, saying it was "the best dance of the night."

Aside from the 23 points the top three couples grabbed, here's how the others fared: Last week's favorite, Macchio, didn't impress judges with his Monday night jive. Goodman said he overdid it.

Alley, fresh from a Twitter beef with talk-show host George Lopez, said she wanted to win both the competition and at weight loss. "You are so in your element. I love watching you dance," Inaba told her. Tonioli told her that she had talent.

Former Playboy model Kendra Wilkinson did little to impress the judges, though Inaba told her, "I saw more than the choreography. There was a newfound elegance." She scored 19 points.

Supermodel Petra Nemcova and Disney star Chelsea Kane each grabbed 18 points. The judges didn't seem to care too much for Kane's jive.

The bottom scorers went to legendary boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, talk-show host Wendy Williams and radio personality Mike Catherwood, who each earned 17 out of 30 points.

Who is your favorite star on the new season of "DWTS"? Talk about it in the comments.