(S09E21) Dancing with the Stars is down to three finalists, two hours, and one winner. We re-welcome the thirteen eliminated celebrities. Donny & Kym, Mya & Dmitry, and Kelly & Louis emerge from the other side of the stage and run past the eliminated contestants. Louis got a lot of butt slaps; he giggles and continues walking.
We get a recap of last night, ad in the middle of the recap we have the back of Miss Piggy's head. Was that the spaghetti cat of DWTS? The recap played again right after a commercial break.
The best part of the night wasn't the results, it was Miss Piggy laying the smackdown on Samantha Harris.
(S09E20) It's the finals of Dancing with the Stars and the trophy was placed in front of the judge's table. Tom announces that three couples have three new dances; technically Mya was part of Team Paso Doble in week seven.
The second round was the megamix, and I would rather have them return to the group dance-off format. The three couples dancing at the same time was too much to handle. I missed individuality.
I was very disappointed with the Freestyle round. There's free reign and it didn't seem like anyone even took it. I was expecting Kelly to rock out and Mya to pull off a tasteful hip-hop piece. Alas, I got neither.
(S09E19) It's been nine weeks on Dancing with the Stars and I didn't expect to see Joanna, Kelly, or Donny around this long. Unfortunately, one of them was eliminated.
For no reason, Melissa Rycroft showed up on this results show and slipped in the professional's performance. This was probably because her fans caused an uproar since she wasn't a candidate for the Design A Dance competition. Instead of "Sabrina was robbed" we got "Melissa was robbed," and ABC listened.
It was a busy show, but the elimination was not a shocker to me. By this point, fan support outweighs the judges scores.
(S09E17) Dancing with the Stars continues to chug along having five couples become four. With such a small number, the results shows feel even more stretched out, slowly saving contestants one at a time.
Encore - Joanna & Derek - Paso Doble - Len thought that even though Mya had the higher score, the paso was so detailed that it deserved the encore. The two actually looked better with their hair tonight than last night; I could tell that it was them. On the second time around, I believed that they deserved a 30 and Mya only should have gotten a 29.
(S09E16) Dancing with the Stars is only two weeks away from the finals. With only five contestants left, each have to perform two dances to ensure that we fit the two hour block.
The two dances consist of one ballroom and one Latin routine. The biggest flaw with having two dances was that everyone spent all their time making sure that the Latin dance was amazing, and their ballroom dances felt lazy.
I'm shocked to see the seven paddle still around with only five contestants left. This season's quality level was nowhere near Shawn Johnson, Gilles Marini, and Melissa Rycroft last season.
(S09E15) Last night on Dancing with the Stars many of the dancers grew stronger than ever. With Mark & Anna T. on the bottom, it guaranteed that they were either going home or dancing for their lives. Instead of having one performer singing two different songs, we have three performances thanks to DWTS pimping the Ballas Hough Band.
Encore Performance - Team Tango - The second time around, the performance still had the sizzle and the strongest timing. Kelly had this dazed look this time, possibly because she was nervous for the dance-off. Joanna still was the strongest of the night, possibly because Derek's choreography that he gave her was the strongest.
(S09E14) It's week seven of Dancing with the Stars, and the pressure is on. Lacey Schwimmer was the victim of a cold; Anna Trebunskya has stepped in to help Mark Dacascos. The other victims tonight were the professionals who were forced to wear costumes designed by the celebrities. While it worked for Kelly, it backfired on Joanna.
You know that there will be longer commercials between performances when you get a professional opening sequence. Five professionals and one woman who wasn't named performed a tango and paso doble. The dance was supposed to be an example of teamwork, but the paso and tango was also not as synchronized as I expected.
(S09E13) Tonight on Dancing with the Stars there was some actual content tonight: the dance-off. Unfortunately, that meant that there was no encore performance. Instead we go right into Taylor Swift.
Musical Performance - Taylor Swift - "Jump then Fall" - Anyone notice that the stage Norah Jones had last week was just audience chairs? Taylor Swift is a horrible live singer (squeaking every time she sang the word "jump"), but luckily we had some professionals who reminded me of Ryan & Ashleigh from So You Think You Can Dance. Their lift near the end was the best part.
(S09E12) Dancing with the Stars had the Waltz or Jitterbug for individual dancing, but the big twist tonight was the Mambo group competition. All the couples will dance the mambo at the same time. The judges determine the elimination: as the couples dance, Len holds up a paddle and that team is eliminated. The first couple cut gets two points while the last team standing earns ten.
As the contestants walk down, both Louie Vito and Chelsie Hightower trip on the way down. It's a bad omen and never a good way to start the show.
(S09E11) Last night signaled the halfway point on Dancing with the Stars. In last night's recap, we got to see Joanna's stumble at a different angle, her heel got caught in Mak's pant leg. The trip followed.
Behind the scenes we found out that Kelly hurt her foot and her father was by her side supporting her. Ozzy is such a cool father. Her foot's sprained, but she should be fine.
After all the Norah Jones performances and a repetition of the words "jeopardy" and "Michael Jackson," a doozy of an elimination surprisingly eliminates a strong competitor. Find out who went home after the jump.
(S09E10) After reading news about Derek Hough getting sick, we start Dancing with the Starswith Joanna walking down the stairs with Maksim Chmerkovskiy in hand. Turns out that flu-like symptoms hit Mark, as well, but he recovered quickly enough.
It's a night of passion and hi-jinks with the Argentine Tango, Paso Doble, and the Hustle. I was disappointed with the order. The last five solos consisted of four Argentine Tangos and one Paso Doble.
I don't often like complaining about Samantha Harris but I really have to suggest that she goes back to classic straight hair and tasteful dress. She's no Cat Deeley.
(S09E09) I didn't notice until the first recap of many that the women outscored most of the men on Dancing with the Stars last night. Apparently, the four new dances provided a bigger challenge for all the people who had to lead the dance.
With the musical guest being Shakira, I was hoping that I could see a live performance of "She Wolf." Alas, she didn't perform the song, so I'm stuck hearing it for every commercial for Desperate Housewives. There was no Macy's Stars of Dance performance, so there was a lot more unnecessary filler than in previous weeks.
(S9E08) This week on Dancing with the Stars we welcome four new dances: Two-Step, Bolero, Charleston, and Lambada. Lifts are allowed, so Carrie Ann really has no reason to be here this week. Also, most of the professionals have no clue what they are doing this week.
With the opening credits being shown, I know it's going to be one of those nights where it's dance, commercial, dance, commercial, with a lot of Tom hyping up the results show. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of fast forwarding past Samantha Harris. I really dislike the use of the 60-second commercials; let me get the scores right after the judging.
(S09E07) With the return of Len Goodman, a thirteen-point difference separated all the contestants onDancing with the Stars. Even with two bum feet, Tom DeLay managed to beat Michael Irwin's score. As the credits roll, I think the opening sequence needs to take a hint from Survivor and make edited versions where eliminated contestants are removed from the opening every week.
The big drama tonight was whether or not there would be a single elimination or a double. We get a recap of last night: kissing, Paula Abdul, and dancing. The judges made a very interesting choice for an encore.