Dancing with the Stars – The Latin Round

Okay, maybe it’s my faulty memory, but I don’t remember them doing a Latin night before.  I thought they always had a Latin and a Ballroom dance each week.  Now it’s fine if they are doing something different.  But the way they are talking, they make it sound like this is something they do every year.  Whatever.  Let’s get to the hot Latin action.

Marie Osmond & Jonathan Roberts – Samba – When I heard that Marie was doing this show, I thought that the Latin dances would be her problem.  She proved me wrong again tonight.  That was hot and fun.  It did seem potentially too safe at times.  And just as Len was starting to praise it (or so it seemed), she fainted.  But it looks like she is fine after all and handling it was good humor.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 7 Len – 7 Bruno – 7  Total – 21  I would have liked to hear what the judges thought of it.  Maybe it was that it was too safe.  I was expecting higher scores.

Jane Seymour & Tony Dovolani – Rumba – You know, I always think of Latin dances as being fast.  Yet this is dance two and the second slow one.  Frankly, I found this one a tad boring.  It was hot in spots, but the dance was made up of lots of holds and arm movement.  This was not a holding contest but a dancing contest.  I agree with the judges that it was classy, but they seemed to think that was a good thing.  I was left wanting something more.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 8 Len – 9 Bruno – 9 Total – 26  I completely disagree with that.  I would switch Jane and Marie’s scores if it were up to me.

Mark Cuban & Kym Johnson – Samba – Say what you will about Mark, he continues to entertain.  That was a very entertaining routine.  And I loved their choice of music, the theme to "I Dream of Jennie."  But technique was lacking and his lack of natural dancing ability still hurt it.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 7 Len – 7 Bruno – 7 Total – 21  Only one point down from last week.  And tied with Marie.  This could spell doom for Marie.  This dance was more fun, but Marie’s was overall better in my opinion.

Sabrina Bryan & Mark Ballas – Rumba – Okay, so obviously the Rumba is supposed to be a slower dance.  But the difference between this dance and Jane’s is night and day for me.  Hot and sexy with some wonderful dancing.  And very convincing.  I sure don’t know what Len’s problem was.  There’s a reason Sabrina has been at or near the top of the leader board every week.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 9 Len – 9 Bruno – 10 Total – 28  You know, it is so hard to read the judges sometimes.  Len gave that a 9 after those comments?  Still, it’s a score that matches the dance for a change.  In fact, this is the first one where I agree with the judges.

Jennie Garth & Derek Hough – Samba – Now there’s the higher energy I was looking for.  And, despite the pre dance interviews, it wasn’t all about the shake.  Jennie pulled those off, too, but there was lots of great dancing in there.  An absolute great routine in my opinion.  And this time I find myself agreeing with Len.  You just never can tell from one dance to the next who you will agree and disagree with.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 8 Len – 9 Bruno – 8 Total – 25  I thought it was a little better than that.  The scores are definintely all over the board tonight.

Helio Castroneves & Julianne Hough – Rumba – Now if someone tells me to look sexy, I wind up looking like I am in pain.  I think Helio suffers from the same curse.  I couldn’t take my eyes off his face most of the time since it was so amusing to watch the pained looks on his face.  And Bruno agrees with me.  I can tell Julianne didn’t care for the comments, but it was how it struck me.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 8 Len – 7 Bruno – 8 Total – 23  That’s a nice score considering how he looked.  That wasn’t the best they’ve done.

Mel B. & Maksim Chmerkovskiy – Samba – Every season there seems to be one couple who fights their way through each week.  And it never hurts them on the floor.  That’s true of this seasons fighting couple, too.  While I didn’t care for it, I do agree with the judges that it was a great Samba with lots of energy.  I would never know they were sick based on that performance.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 10 Len – 9 Bruno – 10 Total – 29  And the judges showed that they did indeed believe this was the best Samba of the night by giving it the best score of the night.

Cameron Mathison & Edyta Sliwinska – Rumba – Cameron said he wanted a sizzling hot Rumba that would make the judges need a cold shower.  I don’t know about them, but I need one.  Of course, those spins are very close to the lifts that got everyone in trouble last week.  In fact, Carrie Ann said one of them one.  Still, for my money that was the best dance of the night.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 8 Len – 9 Bruno – 9 Total – 26  Looks like Carrie Ann did indeed knock them down for the lift.  I hope Cameron can keep this up because he is becoming a great dancer.

The scores are a bit more spread out this week.  Here’s the judges leader board.
1. Mel B.
2. Sabrina
3. Jane (tie)
3. Cameron (tie)
5. Jennie
6. Helio
7. Marie (tie)
7. Mark (tie)

So, my predictions.

Since Mel B. hasn’t done an encore yet, I’m going to guess that she does the encore this week.  She had the high score, so it’s a logical choice.

The bottom two is much harder this week.  Even though he’s tied for the bottom, I’m going to leave Mark off the list.  He’s going to need a much lower score then that to get eliminated.  He should be the one going, not the two stars who had bad nights.

So the bottom two are going to be Marie and Helio.  And I bet Marie’s fans are rabid enough to save her, so Helio will be the one to go.  Which is a shame because I think he’s the best male dancer on the show.

Mark