Was Ralph Macchio's 'Dancing with the Stars' Debut a Fluke?

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By RAPHAEL CHESTANG
March 25, 2011

Ralph Macchio set himself up as the man to beat on the season premiere of "Dancing with the Stars" on Monday, but his high score doesn't seem to have boosted his confidence going forward.

"You start getting those second guess theories like, 'Maybe because it was so new, so fresh and I didn't know what was coming - that's why I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be,'" Ralph admitted during his dance rehearsal on Thursday. "Who knows? This Monday I might be a bag of jitters."

Ralph's debut performance made him number one on the show and his kids number one at school. Ralph divulged that his son told him "school wasn't even like school" on Tuesday, apparently due to congratulatory high-fives and pats on the back from classmates and teachers.

"We had a great night," said Ralph. "But it does put added pressure on and all I can do and all we can do is just pour in all the work and push ourselves as much as we can and just deliver the best performance we can in that minute and a half that you get and hope that it all comes together."

Ralph and his partner Karina Smirnoff have tried to maintain the mindset of an underdog while preparing for their next dance, the Jive, which Ralph admits is "kicking [his] butt."

"It is out of the gate at 1,000 miles an hour and it doesn't stop 'til it ends," Ralph said. "My goal this week is to nail all the steps because if you miss one you're off the train tracks."

See how Ralph and Karina can repeat the magic of their debut on an all-new episode of "Dancing with the Stars" Monday on ABC.