PureDWTS Season 22, Week 7 – Power Rankings

VOOOOONNNNNNNN! Not my human redwood/teddy bear/chicken man! 🙁 I think Von was the first elim this season that really stung for me – while I liked Doug & Marla, I recognized that they had probably peaked already and weren’t going to improve much; Von, on the other hand, I thought was just starting to realize his potential. I don’t think a lot of folks realized just how hard he was working – or how much fun he was having. Did I see him as finale material? Nah, but I wouldn’t have minded seeing him at least entertain us till week 9.  Oh well – guess TPTB determined that there was more money to be had in backing Antonio than Von, and engineered ways to make the former look better while just kinda letting the latter do whatever on his own. If I had it my way – it would have been Antonio sent packing instead of Von. At least Von was actually trying, and came across as a down-to-earth human being, rather than a narcissistic robot.

As for Kim – can’t say I was terribly surprised or disappointed, as I had been saying for weeks that she had been playing it a bit too safe this season.  Kim’s dances were never bad – she was always on time, and seemed to be having a lot of fun; but they were never really particularly memorable, either – and with a season like this, where you’ve got so many powerhouses, you’ve really gotta pack a punch. I find it interesting that Kim seemed so blindsided by her elim – I had heard from a source that they overheard Kim say a few weeks back that she was “fairly sure” she was going to make the finals. Not sure if Sasha is just THAT positive a teacher that he convinced her of this, or Kim just didn’t quite see the writing on the wall, but denial is not just a river in Egypt, Kim…he’s also Peta’s partner, and the guy that’s probably going to win this season 🙂

Which brings me to my next point: what does it mean that we’ve now seen Jodie, Paige, & Wanya in jeopardy, while Nyle, Antonio, & Ginger have yet to land there? I saw a lot of folks asking me to make sense of this on Twitter, and while I myself am not by any means sure of what to make of it, my best theory is this: they’re using jeopardy as a warning for some, but just as a way to boost votes for others. At this point, I still think this season is Nyle’s to lose; however, I don’t think TPTB want it to appear obvious that Nyle is running away with the trophy already.  They gotta make it a horse race, so it benefits them to give a bit of a boost to the couples that stand the best chance of giving Nyle a run for his money in the finale (Wanya & Paige).  Paige lands in jeopardy last week; Wanya this week.  I don’t by any means think that either is a low vote-getter, but I do think TPTB may be rallying the troops to ensure those two land in the finale with Nyle. As for Jodie – I think her being in jeopardy two weeks in a row was an effort to keep a better dancer around over a less-skilled one (part of me thinks that Doug may have actually been beating Jodie in votes during those first few rough weeks she had), and now that she’s one of the weaker dancers left – there’s no need to protect her anymore. Somebody’s gotta go home, and I don’t see them keeping Jodie over Paige or Ginger. I don’t think Kim just suddenly fell into the bottom 2 in the past week – she’s probably been there before, and perhaps TPTB just didn’t see fit to try and save her. As for Ginger & Antonio? TPTB may be starting to see the writing on the wall there – Ginger is not nearly the dancer that Paige is, and Antonio has been a colossal disappointment. They probably owe it to the ABC fam to at least make sure Ginger makes it to week 9, and with 2 of the 3 NFL’ers already gone, I guess they maybe want to enjoy Antonio as long as they can…but I think it will be a complete joke if the latter in particular makes the finale over Wanya or Paige.  Big credibility killer there. I think it’s getting to the point that it may be painfully obvious to just about everyone that a Nyle, Wanya, & Paige finale is the most logical scenario…so I don’t know that it really behooves TPTB to try and shake that up too much. But hey, what do I know…I’m just a lowly blogger 😛 Read more..