It’s Spring Break time for Dancing with the Stars as the show celebrates surf, sand, fun and team dances. But, just like in a cheesy Lifetime original movie, one star won’t survive Spring Break.
Last week’s Disney Night was filled with some incredibly strong performances, especially from Rumer, Riker and Nastia who earned seven 10s between them. But it was also a terrible week for others, especially Robert who had a massive misstep that could spell his demise.
Here’s my breakdown for who will go and who will stay in week 6 of Dancing with the Stars season 20.
THE LEADERBOARD
Here are the scores from last week as well as the corresponding percentages that will get combined with the percentage of viewer votes they receive.
39 (15.3 percent): Rumer Willis
38 (14.9 percent): Riker Lynch, Nastia Liukin
34 (13.3 percent): Willow Shields
28 (11 percent): Noah Galloway
27 (10.6 percent): Patti LaBelle, Chris Soules
24 (9.4 percent): Robert Herjavec
DEFINITELY SAFE
Riker Lynch, Rumer Willis and Nastia Liukin all earned a few 10s for their dances this week and were once again the Top 3 couples on the leaderboard (as they’ve been four out of five weeks this season). In fact, after five weeks, only three points separate them for their cumulative scores, making this an insanely tight race.
Willow Shields is close behind them also. As I’ve written every week, these four seem destined for the finale. They are, by quite a large margin, dominating the other couples, holding the top four spots on the leaderboard for each of the last four weeks.
IN THE MIDDLE
I flip-flop on Noah Galloway’s chances every week. Sometimes he seems safe, like when he delivered a memorable routine in week 4 that went viral. But this week he earned really low scores from the judges, which could put him in a little bit of danger. But he’s still the sentimental choice with a ton of goodwill and fan support from his Contemporary routine, which should keep him around as the biggest (and only) potential spoiler to bust up that Top 4.
IN JEOPARDY
Every week this season, the eliminated couple had one of the two lowest scores. If that trend continues, it means Chris Soules, Patti LaBelle or Robert Herjavec will be going.
Chris continues to be thoroughly mediocre and is the only star left who hasn’t received an 8 from the judges. When you’ve been through five weeks and the best score you’ve had is a 28, it’s not a good sign. However, he seems to have enough Bachelor support to keep surviving, so maybe he will fit in with previous Bachelors Sean Lowe and Jake Pavelka and finish in sixth or seventh place.
Patti LaBelle is one of those stars who delivers average to poor dances every single week, but she’s so charismatic and memorable as a personality that she should continue to get enough votes to stay. And hell, let’s not forget that Tommy Chong made it to fifth while Cloris Leachman finished in seventh, so 70-year-olds can go far.
That leaves Robert, an anomaly because he’s been outperforming expectations every single week, but he had a huge fall on Disney Night, dropping 10 points from his previous week’s score. He’s in dead last on the leaderboard and that might do him in. The question is whether the first four weeks earned him enough of a fan base to keep him safe.
MY PREDICTION
I predict that Robert Herjavec and Kym Johnson will be eliminated. It’s not really fair, but like with Michael Sam, I think one bad week is all it will take to send Robert home. He just came into this competition with such a low profile and without a big enough base of support to sustain such a terrible week with the judges.
Sure, Robert has consistently outscored and outdanced both Patti and Chris, and for the entire season his total score is actually tied with Noah’s, but it’s really hard to recover from getting a 24 in week 5, especially since he had never received a single 6 from the judges before this, let alone four of them.
Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays 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.
