Dancing With The Stars Judges Dish On the Surprising Season, Favorite Dances, And More!

Cameron Mathison of Good Morning America caught up with the judges after the semi-finals this week to ask them who they think will win Dancing With The Stars Season 13. They give their thoughts about the “surprising season”. They highlight their favorite dances (I’m with Bruno. Ricki and Derek’s ‘Psycho” tango has been my favorite. Which dance has been your favorite this season?). Bruno points out how the dancers better not get their freestyle wrong and he is right. More below. Be sure to read the full story at the link.

“First week, the Viennese waltz, Rob Kar-Krashian! And here he is. In the final!” he (Goodman) said of Kardashian.

He also had his doubts about Lake, the former TV talk show host.

“Ricki Lake, I thought: ‘well, you know, is it going to work?’ She’s in her 40′s, you know, maybe a little overweight,” he said.

And then there was Martinez, the actor who was severely injured while serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq.

“The soldier. You know, no real dance background. You know, he’s just come out of a war zone. And then he’s on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’” Goodman added.

The competitors are going into their last dances under tremendous pressure. Martinez has the added worry of a twisted ankle that clearly affected his performance and scores this week.

“That is a major handicap,” judge Bruno Tonioli said. “So, hopefully, he’ll be able to do his best, you know. I don’t know.”

Judges’ Favorites
Tonioli’s personal favorite dance of the season has been Ricki Lake’s thrilling tango to the theme from the movie “Psycho.”

For Goodman, the favorite was Martinez’s instant jive. That performance was judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s favorite, too, although she was impressed by Kardashian’s Argentine tango.

The winner will be determined by a combination of judges’ scores and viewers’ votes.

Asked about the impact of social media on the judges, Inaba said she felt as though Facebook and Twitter allowed certain ideas to bloom – whether those ideas made sense or not.

“Sometimes I go to bed very sad about what I’m seeing people saying,” she said. “But they have a right to their opinion. That is … the beauty of our show. We judge what we think.”

The final opportunity to judge comes on Monday, when contestants get to show off the all-important freestyle. That’s the routine they get to choose, and it’s critical.

“If they get that wrong, they’re not going to win, that’s for sure,” Tonioli said.