Dancing With the Stars 8: Tonight’s Performance Show

Tonight marked the halfway point in this season of Dancing With the Stars. It’s becoming very clear who will probably make it to the final three and who will not. After tonight’s performances, I think it’s a slam dunk that Gilles Marini & Cheryl Burke, as well as Lil Kim & Derek Hough will be in the final three. My big indecision is between Melissa Rycroft & Tony Dovolani and Shawn Johnson & Mark Ballas. Those two teams are both very close in their skills and it will be interesting to see who does better as the season progresses.

As for this week, sadly, I think the bottom two will follow the judges’ scores. It seems clear to me that the two who deserve this week’s dance-off are Steve-O & Lacey Schwimmer and Ty Murray & Chelsea Hightower. I just don’t think they will be here much longer. Overall, it’s a good season with lots of interesting dancers. Here are my comments on tonight’s performances:

		Judges’ Scores
Style	Review	Inaba	Goodman	Tonioli	Total
Jive	Ty Murray & Chelsie Hightower – Started off very tense, but loosened up about midway. He did lose the steps once, but he was a lot looser than last week. I think he might be in the bottom two this week.	6	6	6	18
Rumba	Shawn Johnson & Mark Ballas – Very nice!! She was extremely smooth and graceful and the dance was romantic. I loved it!	8	9	9	26
Jive	Lawrence Taylor & Edyta Slawinska – This week’s dance was a huge improvement over last week’s. Lawrence actually moved his hips and was lighter on his feet. It looked like he had a great time doing it too.	7	7	8	22
Rumba	Melissa Rycroft & Tony Dovolani – Fantastic! Great dance! She was definitely back on her game this week!! Very graceful and clean.	9	9	9	27
Jive	Lil Kim & Derek Hough – WOW! What a great dance routine! She was wonderful. It was flawless! Len Goodman was soooo wrong about it! It was a great jive!	10	8	10	28
Rumba	Steve-O & Lacey Schwimmer – Bless his heart, he’s just not a dancer. The word “clunky” comes to mind. He was robotic and awkward. He’ll be in the bottom two, I think.	7	4	5	16
Jive	Gilles Marini & Cheryl Burke – Now that’s how it’s done!! Nearly perfection! He’s an amazing dancer and I think he’ll definitely be in the final three this season.	9	8	9	26
Rumba	Chuck Wicks & Julianne Hough – That was definitely a steamy dance and they looked amazing together. Chuck really did a great job this week! Very romantic. Not perfect, but very good.	8	7	8	23

Who did you like the best tonight? Who do you think will go home?