Episode Report Card Kim: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT No Business Like Show Business
By Kim | Season 9 | Episode 20 | Aired on 11.23.2009
Carrie Ann thought it was high energy and fun but not outstanding. Agreed. She points out that they're competing with the familiar choreography, and Mya wasn't showcased. YES. Len loves Mya's talent, but he thought the dance didn't build to anything. Bruno loved the vibrancy and the joy, and she never lost the beat, but he expected something more spectacular. She should get higher scores than Kelly, but not a perfect score. Scores: Carrie Ann 9, Len 9, and Bruno 9. Exactly. That's exactly right.
The final freestyle belongs to Donny and Kym. In their clip package, Donny admits that Marie distracted him last week. Kym has Marie and Jonathan come in and try to distract him while they rehearse. At one point, Marie yells, "Look at my face!" I'm trying not to because it doesn't move and she looks younger now than when she competed on the show. Kym explains that they're doing a Broadway routine to capitalize on Donny's charisma and showmanship. Donny says he'll do whatever Kym tells him to win. So let's see how that all works out for them.
They start out their routine at the top of the stairs and there's a little faffing about, but not too much, and maybe that won't bother Len when it's the freestyle. They come down the stairs and do a very Broadway routine with lots of jazz hands and kicks and whatnot. Perfect for who Donny is, and his strengths and weaknesses. His technique is not great -- his toes aren't pointed and he doesn't extend his arms fully, and his posture still isn't there. But he sells it, and that goes a long way, especially given how Kelly flubbed it and Mya was boring.
Len calls it "an absolute showstopper." Bruno stands up and yells that Bruno is "Mr. Show Business at his best." Carrie Ann says that she loved it and she wants to welcome Donny to the Freestyle Hall of Fame along with Drew and Cheryl and Mark and Shawn. I think they were just super relieved not to have three kind of lame freestyles after they hyped this round so much. Scores: Carrie Ann 10, Len 10, and Bruno 10. It's Donny's first perfect score.
So now comes the voting, and then tomorrow night the couples do one more dance that is only scored by the judges, which is useless because the judges always give everyone the same scores so it doesn't really matter (although a reader pointed out to me last season that it does matter a little, because of how the scoring system works). Regardless, it doesn't seem to change the standings all that much, and I think Donny might have just sealed the deal with that last routine. We'll find out tomorrow! Here are the final scores: