Last night, there was a shuffling of the leaders, sort of. I mean, it stayed mostly the same, but they need to make it sound more exciting. Wow, I was just watching the credits, and they showed Belinda Carlisle and I thought, "Wasn't Priscilla Presley on last season?" That's not flattering. But tonight, one couple will go home, and we'll find out LIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!
We're starting right off with the reprise again, but we don't get to hear Len say why they chose it. This would be especially interesting, because the couple who will be dancing again is Lil' Kim and Derek, and Len didn't really like their routine. Anyway, it's as good as last night, except that Derek doesn't have the pompadour, which I find distracting. His hair is all over the place. I do see Len's criticism that there isn't much jive in this jive, though. Kim doesn't mess up in the middle like she did last night, but I think that the segment where Derek spins her around the floor and then she spins him around the floor was ill-conceived, because it takes up too much time and sort of throws them off the beat. And it's also not very jive-like and doesn't add much to the routine. But they do the routine well, although I'd still like to hear Len's rationale for choosing this one for the reprise.
Before we can get along to more dancing and performing and elimination, it's time to recap what happened last night. Ty vows that no one will break their spirit, even if their scores were pretty low. Steve-O took a drubbing from the judges in both comments and scores. He doesn't understand how he can get a lower score for doing the routine correctly than he did when he totally forgot his steps. I kind of understand what he's saying, but I also think the bar is higher the further we go, and that the judges have higher expectations of him when he's healthy than when he's injured. Chuck and Julianne got good comments from Bruno and Carrie Ann but Len thought it was too raunchy. Chuck and Julianne joke about how it's weird that Bruno likes Chuck being raunchy. Because he's a dude! And he shouldn't be looking at Chuck that way! I keep wanting to assume Chuck's whole "I'm a man!" thing is just poorly chosen wording on his part, but when he keeps saying it every week, it gets more difficult to defend.
LT and Edyta got praise from the judges and their highest score to date. LT is happy for once. Bruno liked the naughty-but-nice nature of Shawn's rumba, and afterwards, Mark tells her it was all about the eyes. Gilles didn't score as high as he has previously, but still did really well. Gilles had a lot of fun with that routine. Melissa's rumba was scored to a horrible version of Beyonce's "If I Were a Boy," but she got told that she's a great dancer. After screwing up last week, Melissa is happy that she performed so well and didn't mess up the steps. And finally, Lil Kim's jive fired up the ballroom and made Carrie Ann's bracelet go flying into the audience. And apparently Kim had a near wardrobe malfunction that got edited out for the West Coast feed, and I totally missed it. I need to start looking at boobs more closely.
I'm actually really excited for this performance, which features the cast of the revival of West Side Story doing "America." This is one of my favorite songs from my favorite musical, so I hope they don't screw it up. I had to do some research because I'm more familiar with the movie than the stage production, and it looks like this version (with just Anita and the other Shark women, and no male parts) is the stage version. Well, I miss Jerome Robbins' choreography and Rita Moreno. I do like the costuming and there are parts of the choreography that are really good. It just feels kind of small. But I would still totally go see this show!
Samantha is backstage with Kim, Melissa, Ty, and Steve-O. That's an interesting group. Sam's satin purple dress is much less prom-y than usual. Samantha points out that Kim is the first to knock Gilles off the top of the scoreboard, and Kim says she's not taking anything for granted. Samantha asks Melissa about week's group dance, and Melissa says she would love to dance and not worry about being scored. Samantha asks Ty about his lower scores, and Ty feels that they were deserved, but he hopes to come back and prove himself again. Samantha asks Steve-O about his fan support, and Steve-O gives a (somewhat scripted sounding) response that he's "eternally grateful" for the support.
There's no dance-off this week! Yay! So now we get some results. Well, this is different. They have Lil' Kim and Derek step down to the front along with LT and Edyta. And they will both be back week! Well, there goes my prediction of LT leaving.
They are running the gamut of genres tonight, because now it's time for Rascal Flatts to perform while Julianne and Tony dance. The lead singer of Rascal Flatts always cracks me up, because he just doesn't look like a famous musician. He looks like the guy who works at the feed store in the town over, or maybe the youth pastor at your church. Anyway, Julianne and Tony's routine is insane with the lifts. He's just throwing her around and carrying her and she's eight feet in the air at all times. It's certainly interesting but there's not much dancing happening. I wonder if Chuck is backstage going, "Am I supposed to do that? Because I don't know if I can do that." I love Julianne's white dress though.
Tom and Samantha tell us that usually the pro partners pick out the outfits and design the costumes for both partners, but for week, the star will be designing the costumes. Chuck and Gilles both want their partners to be practically naked. LT is going the other way and thinks Edyta needs to wear more clothes. Ty picks out denim shorts and the costume designer is grossed out. But we have to wait until week to see how that goes.
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There are six couples remaining, and Tom is about to reveal two more couples that are safe. He calls Shawn and Mark down to the front, along with Melissa and Tony. And they're both safe. I don't know how I feel about calling them down and making it out like they are in danger, when they're both safe. It seems kind of a copycat of Idol.
Backstage, Samantha asks Kim what she has in mind for Derek's costume. Kim says it doesn't matter what he wears, and Derek makes a joke about pasties. Derek! I kind of like him naughty. Samantha asks LT why he's going to cover up Edyta's body, and LT says he has to think about his mama watching. Edyta seems almost offended! At least he hopefully won't put her in those horrible legwarmers.
Speaking of women who don't like to wear a lot of clothes, Carmen Electra and the Pussycat Dolls are here to dance. Carmen starts out on top of a piano and then joins the Dolls on the stage to dance to "Stuff Like That There." To my eternal surprise, Carmen's body doesn't look that great. She's not fat, obviously. I mean, she's Carmen Electra. It just looks kind of untoned through the midsection. Anyway, it's a burlesque, which I think can be done really well, but this one is pretty boring. It's not that sexy, and there's not enough dancing. I do like the song though. I wonder if Carmen is hinting that she wants to be on the show. Who would you like to see her paired with? I think she'd be great with Maks. Can you imagine?
Rascal Flatts are back with the most anemic version of "Revolution" by The Beatles that I've ever heard. It's sort of like when Faith Hill covered "Piece of My Heart." No, that really happened. It was a travesty. Anyway, while they sing, there are some people I would probably know if I watched So You Think You Can Dance performing a routine, including Chelsie. Seriously, this version of this song is giving me heartburn. It's a song about questioning the way you think (in my opinion), and this is just a generic middle-of-the-road Jason Mraz version. Blech. And the dancers are wearing Soviet costumes or all black, because they're rebelling against communism? Let's all just agree to pretend this never happened.
Just to kill more time, they've brought in a body language expert to analyze and tell us what the celebrities are thinking. Lil' Kim wants to take everything in, so she opens her eyes and mouth wide. I'm kind of upset that they just showed Kim doing three different dances, because now I've noticed that she always has the same facial expression. Shawn shrugs when she's insecure, and she shrugs a lot. I think she's just taking a deep breath. I don't know if I buy this body language stuff. Ty holds onto his partner because he's scared. Or the producers told them to stand close together. Melissa's face shows a lot of fear. Yeah, why would she be scared when she's on television in front of millions of people? Chuck has a lot of facial tension because he's uncomfortable being judged. Gilles looks up as if praying because he knows the scores are out of his hands. Lawrence has open body language, which says that he can handle the judging. See, I interpreted that more as he's puffed up in an almost aggressive stance. But I'm not a body language expert. Then she has some more bullshit to spin about how the various stars stand during elimination but it basically all boils down to they're scared and waiting to hear their fates. I really hope they didn't pay this lady a lot of money.
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Four couples are left. Who else is safe? Tom tells us that it's Gilles and Cheryl. Then there's a commercial break before we find out the couple that will be returning week. That couple is... Chuck and Julianne.
Tom reminds us that the two remaining couples are not necessarily the bottom two. Carrie Ann says that if Steve-O goes home, we would lose a lot of determination and positive energy. Len says that if Ty goes home, we'd lose a lot of enthusiasm and someone with a lot of potential. Bruno has to say who he thinks should come back. He dodges the question at first, but then says that Ty is the better dancer. So that time's been wasted and it's finally time to find out who's going home. And the big losers this week are... Steve-O and Lacey.
Steve-O says that he's met a lot of challenges and made a lot of mistakes. He looks actually grateful and happy. Tom compares Steve-O to Jerry Springer in the way that he overcame negative expectations and charmed everyone. And then Steve-O says that Lacey was really patient with him and his tendency to man-struate. That's not really how you want to leave everyone, is it? But that's what happened. See you week.
What's more depressing than has-beens grasping at fame? Find out.
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