PureDWTS Season 19, The Finale – Power Rankings

ZOMG guise Janel r hurt! Janel didnt getz enuf rehursul tyme! O the humanatee!!! Seriously, felt like the lolcat sympathy hour for awhile there, with everyone reacting with such horror at poor Janel and her rib injury and lack of rehearsal time.  Nevermind the fact that Alfonso has been injured FOR WEEKS, or that all of the contestants this season have outside commitments.  I took Tavis to task almost 2 months ago for complaining about not having enough rehearsal time – you best believe I’m an equal-opportunity chastiser, and I’m gonna take Janel to task for it too.  You don’t get to sign up for DWTS, knowing you have another commitment, and then complain about how little rehearsal time you have.  Bethany & Derek made do with 7 hours for one dance. Suck it up, buttercup.

All that aside – tonight was a pretty strong night for just about every dance.  Probably the strongest freestyle round, across the board, that we’ve seen in awhile, with everyone committing 100% to their dances.  I don’t think anyone struggled with showmanship.  Judges’ choice round could have been a bit better, but overall I think  everyone did ok.  Tomorrow night should be interesting, though – with only 3 points separating the leader (Alfonso) from the third place (Janel), they really are kinda throwing it to the fans to figure out – and while I’m pretty sure I know how things will shake out, the fact that they did a real bottom 2 tonight will probably whip some fans into a voting frenzy.  How convenient.

As for Bethany – she should’ve stayed.  Even though she fumbled a bit on her jive (dumb bed), I thought her freestyle was spot-on and was her strongest dance yet. Sorry to see her go – she seemed to have finally blossomed. But I think she and Derek went out on a high note, and can take pride in what a fantastic job they did this season. 🙂

3rd place: Janel & Val

Note that it was Bethany & Janel in the bottom 2 tonight – and this was after Janel was 2 points away from a perfect score last week.  So even with a near-perfect score – she couldn’t get past Alfonso & Sadie.  For that reason alone, I’m gonna venture a guess that Sadie & Alfonso are (as predicted) running away with the bulk of the votes.  Now Janel will probably get a slight boost in votes from the fact that she was actually in the bottom two tonight, but my gut still says that the average viewer is gravitating towards (and voting for) either Alfonso or Sadie.  I do, however, think Janel will end up with the encore – I saw some folks on Twitter just eating that freestyle up, and tweeting accordingly.  Last I checked, she was the only one that was actually trending – but you know what? I say let her have the encore. If her fans are so busy tweeting, they probably aren’t voting.  As for the freestyle itself – sure, she didn’t mess up, she was invested in it, and there were some pretty lifts.  But you know what? Nobody tonight messed up their freestyle, EVERYONE was invested in it, and everyone had their own sets of tricks to impress.  So then it becomes a matter of how memorable her freestyle was – and sorry guys, but nothing about this felt new, fresh, or unique to me.  In fact, it kinda felt like a recycle of his contemporary with Kelly in season 15 – even down to some of the floor spacing, the moves, and the running up the steps.  But hey, they got to make goo-goo eyes at each other, and that’s all that matters, right? As for their judges’ choice – didn’t feel much different this time around.  Still didn’t feel like a samba.  Oh well.

Runner-up: Sadie & Mark

Thank god this week is one of the weeks that Sadie actually got scored fairly 🙂 I think she hit a nice stride tonight – she seemed to be having a blast during her samba – maybe got a little bit of excited puppy syndrome and got a little messy on some of the footwork, but it was still very fun to watch 🙂 I actually have to give Mark major props for having the cojones to do a Super Mario Bros. freestyle – I was admittedly VERY skeptical when I heard it, thinking “Ok, this is gonna ruin Sadie’s chances of winning.” On the contrary – I think it just may have solidified her place in the top 2.  Loved the energy of it, and how they incorporated some of the signature Mario moves into it – also appreciated that it was fun, playful, and not overtly sexy…it was very SADIE.  And I thought she just looked stinkin’ adorable in her Princess Peach outfit 🙂 As I mentioned above, I’m pretty comfortable saying that she & Alfonso are probably the top 2 vote-getters of the season – so I still think it will come down to her and Alfonso as the last two standing.  And simply because Fonz is my favorite – I’m putting Sadie 2nd. But that’s the only reason – really & truly, I think Sadie has earned the MBT every bit as much as Alfonso – I’ve seen great performances and a great attitude from her week after week, and I’ve enjoyed watching her.  I’d be perfectly fine seeing her hoist that trophy tomorrow – ok, maybe not perfectly fine.  MOSTLY fine 😉

The winner: Alfonso & Witney

I’ve made no secret that these two are my favorite couple of the season – hell, they were my favorite couple even before they were a couple 😛 And after tonight, I think they’ve more than earned their place not only as the winners of this season, but my favorite couple of all-time.  Just love the way they’ve worked together this season – I know a lot of people scoffed when we broke the news that Witney got “Fonz” as her partner, saying that she “hadn’t paid her dues” yet, but honestly…I can’t imagine him with anyone other than her.  She’s given him great choreography and worked with his strengths all season.  She’s also done a bang-up job of working with his injuries.  So at the end of the day – I’m glad Wit ended up being his partner instead of one of the other female pros.  Anywho! These two had probably the strongest showing of the night – the jive was even more flawless this time around, and I even enjoyed the extra 30 seconds of choreography they threw in…just allowed Fonz to be his cool, smooth self.  And that freestyle – wow.  I think that may be my favorite of all-time on DWTS – loved the tapping.  Loved the side-by-side jazz.  Loved the homage to a lot of their routines this season.  And ADORED the “Jump on It” interlude 😎 I think (and I hope) America was as entertained as I was and picked up the phones as a result – I’m banking on the fact that his name seemed to be on everyone’s lips this season.  God I hope he’s the one going on the national tour – I’d fork over the $400 for the VIP package if I knew he was gonna be there!

So that’s my thought’s on tonight’s show…what are yours?