Dancing with the Stars is ready to make the cruelest cut of all. One-third of the contestants will be eliminated in a brutal double elimination that will take us from the Top 6 all the way to the Top 4.
DWTS Recap: America’s Choice and the Trio Challenge>>
With a double elimination, two weeks of combined scores and votes and last week’s shocking elimination of Willow Shields, anything can happen. Sure, anyone watching the show knows that Chris Soules and Robert Herjavec SHOULD be the ones going home, but that doesn’t mean they will be the ones who get eliminated.
THE LEADERBOARD
117 (18.3 percent): Nastia Liukin, Rumer Willis
115 (18 percent): Riker Lynch
101 (15.8 percent): Noah Galloway
95 (14.9 percent): Chris Soules
93 (14.6 percent): Robert Herjavec
Nastia Liukin: Though I might say no one is safe, she should be. As I like to point out, Derek Hough has made it to the Top 4 in each of his last 10 seasons, and even though he’s injured, he’s still a major part of her performances, including the Trio Challenge. Derek has only failed to make the Top 4 twice, in season 6 with Shannon Elizabeth and in season 8 with Lil’ Kim. So Nastia going home would be one of the most shocking eliminations in the history of DWTS.
Rumer Willis: She earned two perfect scores. If she gets eliminated after that, then there’s no justice in the world. If she or Nastia get eliminated, they would join the extremely short list of stars eliminated while at the top of the leaderboard, a dubious honor that has only gone to Willa Ford, Sabrina Bryan and Christina Milian, plus Maria Menounos who went home in fourth place.
Riker Lynch: Two strong routines gave him six 10s and put him very close to the top. In fact, for total points for the entire season, Riker is now in first place. And his Jazz routine surely got his fans to come out and support him. The only real problem is that he performed before Nastia and Rumer, who both delivered perfect routines, which could make fans forget about him. If anyone from this Top 3 is going home, it will be him.
Noah Galloway: He’s only ahead of Robert and Chris by 1 percent, which is next to nothing. Obviously he has plenty of emotional support, but is that enough? And let’s not forget that he came into this competition with the smallest celebrity profile out of anyone.
Chris Soules: Chris has Bachelor support and he’s the underdog, but he kind of destroyed his image with that awful Paso Doble in the Trio Challenge. Did that kill his goodwill? The two previous male Bachelors finished in sixth and seventh, so his time to go is now.
Robert Herjavec: This is the fourth week in a row that he has come in dead last on the leaderboard. That’s a bad track record, and his Trio dance was a complete and utter mess. His fairy tale romance with the show (and Kym Johnson) should come to an end.
THE MATH
The hardest part in predicting this week is the math. Since they’ve combined the scores from two weeks (which included three routines and a dance-off), the percentage difference is minimal. Nastia and Rumer may have beaten Robert by 24 points, but that only equates to less than 4 percent of viewer votes. If Robert or Chris could beat any of the top three by 3-4 percent of the public vote, or if they can beat Noah by 1 percent of the vote, then they could be safe.
Even with such wide margins on the leaderboard, it’s all about the public vote. Does Chris have enough residual Bachelor love or is Robert and Kym’s love story strong enough to overtake Riker, Rumer and Nastia’s impeccable scores? And with a double elimination, it’s possible that at least one of them (Robert or Chris) could sneak past one of the favorites.
MY PREDICTIONS
Despite my fears, I’m going to foolishly have faith that the viewers will get it right this time by predicting that Robert Herjavec, Kym Johnson, Chris Soules and Witney Carson will be eliminated. Not only do their scores mean they deserve to go, but their awful Trio performances revealed that they don’t deserve to be in the finale. The only glimmer of hope they had was getting Contemporary routines for America’s Choice.
This is certainly the easy prediction, but not one I feel confident with. I actually have a bad feeling that something else will happen, but I don’t know what. I suspect that either Robert or Chris will be safe, but not both of them. And I suspect Noah or Riker will be eliminated instead. The problem is that I have no idea which one of those Bottom 2 would be safe and which of the other would go home in their place, so instead, I’m going to base my predictions solely on personal preference.
Who do you think will go home in a double elimination? Find out on the return of the Dancing with the Stars results show Tuesday at 8pm on ABC.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
