Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week THREE – LIVE BLOG

T-minus 15 minutes to the Eastern/Central time zones live broadcast of DWTS.   If you are so inclined, you can start voting when we do based on last weeks dances. Don’t tell me you don’t already have one person you want to see stay. That’s right, you’re not voting for the winner tonight, just people you want to stick around for another week. So put on your big girl and big boy pants and VOTE. 🙂 Regardless of where you live.

In case you’ve been tuned out for the last week, like I have thanks to a short vacation, there are several things you can do to catch up. First, Courtney’s Power rankings – do you agree? Vogue has been posting a ton of media, and I’ve done a little numbers retrospective AND posted that it’s very likely that Ray and Cheryl are dropping out this evening due to injury. Whew!!  Lot’s happened in a short period of time.  Oh! And here’s what we THINK the couples are dancing to and when some of them are dancing. 🙂

Here we go….Oh wait, a Direct Insurance commercial starring Tonya Harding?? WTF?

Okay, the promised movie night opening. That was it? so not a big deal. Maybe there’s more. Opening pro dance….Finally Daniella showing that she’s the best dancer on the damn show. So under utilized thus far. Choreographed by Kathryn Burns – better than Mandy Moore, IMO.

Ray Lewis is confirmed as out of the competition. At least they didn’t wait.

Lauren and Gleb up first with Pretty Woman. Love that movie.  Lauren does as well, apparently. Let’s see if Gleb can even come close to Derek’s tango with Nicole to the same song.

Apparently we’re going all trash no class on this version. Little too much head flinging. Of course, she can’t kick like Nicole, but not many can. And the ending was lacking some steps. It was okay. Lauren was great, IMO, but Gleb as usual did her no favors with the choreography.

Len is a little bit disappointed. Audience boos and Gleb encourages them. He’s talking about the hat or some such thing. He says it’s full of attack, drive and purpose, but stop and start. Tango they did was excellence. For attitude he says it was terrific. Wonder if she’s in trouble.

Bruno says she’s racy. He says she loses balance in the transitions (true), but great performance.

CAI – love the confidence, needs to work on musicality (true). When in hold she lets body lean on him, needs more resistance – agreed. It’s a bad day when I agree with CAI and Bruno over Len.

Scores: 6, 7, 7 for a total of 20 out of 30.

Hannah is up next with a Rumba to a song from Bridesmaids. Hannah’s friend is getting married and she is throwing her a bachelorette party. Her friends are there and of course they are pushed by the producers to ask if there is a little romance, which Hannah puts the nix on. Lots of video from the Bachelorette party. At which Alan plays male stripper. Thankfully he sits on Olivia and not Hannah. 🙂

Danniella is the bride in this dance, thank god. Hannah is way too smiley – cheerleader-y. A little mis-step there at the beginning but she recovers. This song is actually too fast for a rumba and I think it hurts Hannah a bit. She does a good job, but she needs to work on the sultry – although I think the constant romance pushing is pushing her away from that.

Bruno – looks pretty good to him. Wonderful, lyrical dancer, the top is great. Needs to use the floor more, needs cuban motion.

CAI – upper half is beautiful, but no hip action. Claims she has a lot of training (?), damning with faint praise.

Len – Knows she did ballet as a young lady, so the lyrical dances she has beautiful musicality, down below she needs more hip action, little more action needed. Lovely dancer.

I agree with most of the comments except CAI trying to sabotage with the training comment. I love that dress by the way.

Scores: 7, 7, 7 for a total of 21 – that’s fair. Down three points from last week for the lack of hip action and too smiley.

Karamo and Jenna are dancing to something from Rocketman – “I’m still standing”. In order to impress Len…well, I’m not going to say what I think he has to do, because he can’t do it. They’re doing Jive. I LOVE the dude who played Elton in the movie. Awesome.

He’s not getting a lot of bounce but he’s staying on time. Relatively simply choreography but he’s executing it well. He’s not quite sharp enough and his feet are a bit too sloppy. He’s throwing away his arms as well. But really, pretty good job for a novice!

CAI – kept waiting for Bruno to come out. LOL. She says it’s not the greatest and you could see it in your face. He entertains us. There were a lot of mistakes, feet issues.

Len – what I liked was there was no messing about. I liked the mix of steps. He wants Karamo to be happy. It is what it is. Going wrong is like a hicky. Okay.

Bruno – you didn’t go off like a rocket. Lost the footwork. Difficult dance. Great potential – regroup.

I can’t argue with the comments too much, although I think they made it sound a bit worse than it was.

Scores: 5, 5, 6 for a total of 16.  I’m voting for him. Now.

Ally is up next dancing a rumba to Selena. The movie starring Jennifer Lopez, I believe. They go to visit her family which is fun.

Opens alone, which it tough. Her feet came off the floor. She has good movement though. Very cool love there towards the end. Good job, Ally!! I think she did very well with that. Should be the high score of the night so far.

Len – says the cucaracha was easy to see, and it was fantastic. Enjoying the performance, and then they did a fan – great job!

Bruno – put all of your heart and soul into that dance. linked all the steps. Beautiful!

CAI – had chills the whole time. That is exactly what we were looking for.

Scores: 8, 8, 8 for a total of 24 – well deserved!

Next up is the Ray Lewis story of his injury.  They show the package – there were going to be dancing to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off “Twist and Shout”.  He’s having fun but all the dancing it making the injury (tendon tear) from years ago worse. He’s going to have to have surgery on the tendons. Doctor said no bueno to continued dancing. He clearly enjoyed his dancing experience.

And RASHAD is going to do the dance for him. How fun! Cute Choreography by Cheryl.  Nice fill in – since the show was probably going to be short, it was better filler than they usually come up with.  If they still end up long, shame on them. Of course, judging by the crap camera work during that dance I won’t be surprised.

Not doing numbers yet – the likely lowest scorers haven’t danced yet.

James and Emma dancing Rumba to “Shallow” from A Star is Born. Love that movie, love that song. Cue James’ wife. She’s cute! They dedicate the dance to her (of course).

Emma’s dress – hot. Sometimes his arms and legs look a bit odd…but still miles ahead of everyone else. This is excellent. Nice choreography by Emma. Should be either tied with the high score or the high score of the night.

Bruno – nothing shallow about that performance. Harder for man to do rumba, have to complement the lady. Made her look fantastic.

CAI – beautiful choreography – wrung every ounce of emotion out of it. stunning.

Len – got a little bit wide in the leg action which impeded the hip action. Little bit too passionate for him. I agree with the comment about the leg action – I just didn’t know how to put it into words. 🙂

Best dance of the night though. 🙂 Seems they got the hint from me that they should front load the good dancers just in case going last really is a hindrance rather than pimpage.

Scores: 8, 7, 8 for a total of 23 – he was fuckin’ robbed. Should have been tied with Ally easily. He had the better dance.

Kate is up next with her quickstep to “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton. I love her. That song seems right for her, it’s just a question if she has a quickstep in her. Pasha’s wife, Daniella, toured with Derek – I wonder if Derek gave him some pointers to choreograph for TV.

Little too realistic costuming. Off to a great start, although slow. Then they kick it into gear. Tiny mis-step but overall she is killing it. I saw no mis-steps other than the one. Great job!

CAI – you are killing the game. So synchronized.

Len – I really really liked it. Great performance.

Bruno – this is a big hit.

I have to agree, she did amazing.

Scores: 8, 8, 8 for a total of 24 and a tie for the top spot of the night. Right on target!! She did great!!

Lamar and Peta are up next with a Cha cha to Risky Business. I’m liking him, actually.  Kobe tells him he has to practice 7 or 8 hours a day. He’s looking pretty good in rehearsal actually.

He seems greatly improved from last week. The hard work shows. He’s still awkward, but Peta has made progress and he seems to be having a man good time. He went wrong a bit at the end, but much better.

Len – what I liked is that he’s so much fun. He was going along great and got over here and the wheels fell off a bit.

Bruno – started quite well but couldn’t manage it to the end. Admire him for going for it.

CAI – way more confident. Right on beat up to that one step that went wrong.

Scores: 4, 4, 4 for a total of 12. Overly harsh. Give the man some 5s fer god’s sake.

NUMBERS UPDATE: Okay, right now Lamar needs about 20k votes per million votes cast to catch Karamo. On the one hand, I’m happy for Karamo (although I would not be surprised to see him in the bottom), but I’ll be sad for Lamar. He was so close to getting it this week. He’s between 40k and 60k votes per million away from everyone else who has danced thus far.

Sailor and Val up next with a tango to Mama Mia. Doesn’t seem like it should, but I think it should work for a tango – very definitive beat, I think.

Why so many other dancers? She was doing great until the huge open mouth thing. Same problem Hannah has. Val borrows from Derek. Flattering I guess. Pretty damn good dance, all in all.

Bruno – I can really see that they’ve taken the comments. Worked very hard and it showed. Great, feel good tango. That group hold (taken from Derek).

CAI – legal lifts? Umkay. Huge congrats – huge leap forward.

Len – full of snap crackle and pop. Lots of action, lots of clever moments.  Fantastic routine.

Oh god, Val is on the soap box again. Shut up dude.

Scores: 7, 8, 8 for a total of 23.  I think that she should have been tied for the top, even though I can’t stand Val and wonder who did his choreography for him.

Kel and Witney up next, dancing rumba to “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. He’s a bit Leo fan.

He looks great in a tux! A bit stiff in the hips, but I like his arms and his face. He went a bit too fast at the crescendo, but all in all I think he did a very good job. I wasn’t expecting much based on the rehearsal footage. But I liked it very much. He’ll probably get hosed.

CAI – really solid dancing, can tell how hard you’re working. A little tight (agreed). Needs to be smoothed out, otherwise quite lovely.

Len – needed more shaping in your hands, comes from the thumb. Would have liked more toning in the feet. A good solid performance.

Bruno – you managed to complete the sailing without sinking. Solid performer, need to soften it a bit. Talent enough to come back even stronger.

I love him – possible dark horse competitor, IMO.

Scores: 7, 6, 7 for a 20 out of 30.  I think Len could have given him another point.

Numbers Update: Lamar is quite a ways behind everyone else and a lot depends on S&@n’s performance/score. If S@#n gets a 16 or higher, then Lamar needs at least 20k votes per million votes cast to have even a hope of staying out of the bottom two. If he’s in the bottom two, he’s a goner. If he manages to squeak it out again, look for Karamo and someone with a higher score (perhaps Kate or Sailor or Kel) to make a shocking appearance in the bottom.  Unless S@#n ain’t all that. He could be there as well.

Lindsay is up next with her partner and they are dancing Cha Cha to Saturday Night Fever.  Has he had all upbeat dances to date? Hmmmm. He’s pigeon toed.

Way too many extra dancers. Again very simple choreography, the women are doing all the dancing. He didn’t move his feet for a long time. He also had a huge mistake a la Lamar right there in the beginning. He manages to pull it together. Super simple steps at the end and he still manages to majorly screw it up.

Len – Monday night luke warm. Ha – pigeon toed. He walks he does fine, but he does wrong.

Bruno – you’re a genius, disaster blockbuster. Not a compliment.

CAI – living your best life, smiles all through. Loosen up a bit, just a bit robotic.

If he does much better than Lamar, the fix is in – he had multiple mistakes, he ended wrong, he went off time.

Scores: 5, 5, 5 for a total of 15 out of 30.  I’ll take that, but he should have had a 4 in there.

NUMBERS UPDATE: It SHOULD be Lamar and S@#n in the Bottom two, but don’t be surprised if Karamo is there in place of either S@#n or Lamar – possibly Lamar judging by the margins he covered last week. But, Mary and Ray aren’t there to provide cover for him. There are 15,200 votes between Lamar and S@#n, while there is 20k between Lamar and Karamo. Karamo should be safe if it’s him and Lamar. If it’s Lamar and S@#n – they will probably save S@#n.  Would not be surprised to see Kel or Kate or Sailor as a shocking bottom two in the place of either Lamar or S@#n.

SAFE: Ally and Sasha

SAFE: S@#n and Lindsay

SAFE: Hannah and Alan

SAFE: Lauren and Gleb

SAFE: Kate and Pasha

SAFE: James and Emma

SAFE: Sailor and Val

SAFE: Karmo and Jenna

Kel should be safe here, easily.

Len is announcing that NO ONE is going home this week. As we predicted. But this is a huge wake up call to Kel’s fans – that dude is a great dancer. VOTE!! I predicted it would be someone shocking, but I didn’t expect it to be him. He was 23k votes ahead of S@#n. Seriously people. He would have been safe this week, but next time he might not be so lucky.