TVSquad

(S07E17) It's crunch time. A trip to the semi-finals was riding on the results tonight. One couple would fall just short of that goal. Would it be the steady, season long leader, Brooke? Or the young, and sometimes erratic, Cody? Have fans warmed up to big Warren Sapp? Or do they prefer their championship athletes to be of the faster variety, and favor Maurice? And what of Lance & Lacey? Is it just Len, or have fans turned on them too? The answers, are after the jump, along with a rundown of the various performances and taped packages. Those include my favorite results show performance of the season, and my most hated piece of filler as well.

Starting with the performances, I'd have to call it an outstanding night. Warren & Kym kicked things off with the encore performance of their tango. I would have picked the foxtrot from Cody & Edyta, but Warren & Kym were certainly a deserving choice. It was a good way to get things started, but the real fun came later.

ABC has never been shy about cross promotion, so we found Brad Paisley, host of Wednesday's CMA awards, as the musical guest this week. He came out to serve as the backing for the performance I was most looking forward to, Lacey & Benji Schwimmer. They were as good as advertised, delivering an incredibly fun performance full of energy and tricks. For his part, Brad Paisley played the song "Ticks." I'm told it's a hit, but man, I didn't get it. For me, it ended up being an odd combination of a terrible song and a fantastic performance. Fortunately, Lacey & Benji got a lot of camera time and carried the segment. I'll take it.

I thought that performance would be the highlight of the show, but then they brought out the Macy's Stars Of Dance number for the week. This was the performance put together through fan voting. The end result was Derek & Julianne dancing a jive to "Great Balls Of Fire." And it was fantastic. Their performance was full of great tricks. From Julianne dancing on the piano keys, to the reversal of Derek being on Julianne's shoulders, there was just nothing not to like. Even the reveal of Julianne from behind the piano was very clever. Clearly my favorite results show segment of the season.

Finally, they also started the promotion of the DWTS tour. Maks, Karina, Alec, Edyta, Kym, and (I think) Genya Mazo, came out to perform with Brad Paisley. This confirmed for me that I'm just not a Brad Paisley fan. That's fine though, we can't all like everything. The pro part of the performance was good, but a little short. Paisley got much more of the camera time in round two, which held it back a little. After the performance Tom asked Maks what fans can look forward to on the tour this time. He said it's going to be fresher, with pop music and new choreography. He also mentioned that Toni Braxton will be dancing and singing. You can find tour dates at the ABC site.

Before we get to the big results, a quick word about those 'other' segments. While Derek & Julianne doing the jive was my favorite results show segment of the year, Dr. Drew's might have been my least favorite. Good grief, where did that come from? Derek shouldn't demean and insult Brooke... Brilliant! Let me play. Cheryl shouldn't kick Maurice in the crotch. It's so easy, even a caveman can do it. It didn't help that it was followed by Dr. McNitt-Gray on the anatomy of the dancer. That one gets some points for getting Edyta & Alec all stripped down I suppose, but the conclusions left a little to be desired. Professional dancers are great athletes. Yeah, we got that a long time ago. Didn't really need fancy testing at USC to tell us. More puzzling was the part about the face and the contention that it's the only sport you have to perform from head to toe. Yes, the only one except, figure skating, gymnastics, ice dancing, rhythmic gymnastics, cheer leading, synchronized swimming... Please, more dancing, less of that.

Finally, the results. In no particular order, we learned that Warren & Kym and Lance & Lacey were moving on to the semi-finals in the first segment. Returning to the results, we found Maurice & Cheryl in jeopardy, Brooke & Derek safe, and Cody & Edyta in jeopardy. One tension building commercial break later, and Maurice and Cheryl are going home. It was a great run for Maurice and his spirit and enthusiasm will be missed. He said he's had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends on the show. Cheryl chimed in, telling Maurice that out of all the seasons she's been on the show, he's been the hardest working partner she's had.

And there you have it. Our final four are Warren & Kym, Lance & Lacey, Brooke & Derek, and Cody & Julianne. They'll fight it out next week to see who makes it to the finals. At this point, it's too close to call. Any of these teams could end up in the finals, which should make for a fun week 9.