Things are going to get scary on Dancing with the Stars, and not just because head judge Len Goodman is returning. Monday’s episode will be the annual Halloween Night, and the eight remaining couples will perform individual spooky routines as well as two group numbers.
Fans will remember that last year’s Halloween-themed group numbers were two of the best dances of season 17, with Bill Engvall leading Team Spooky Bom Bom are the caretaker of a zombie-filled cemetery while Derek Hough and company dressed up as furries for Team Foxing Awesome, which I declared the best dance of that entire season.
Will the teams this year have the same magic? And will Derek Hough continue his impressive streak of always being on the winning side of group dances? Let’s look at the two teams.
As always, the two top scores from the previous week are the team captains, and this year that would be Alfonso Ribeiro and Witney Carson as well as Bethany Mota and Derek Hough.
Team Creep Du Soleil
Alfonso will lead a team with Tommy Chong, Antonio Sabato, Jr. and Sadie Robertson. On the pro side, that means Witney will work with Cheryl Burke, Mark Ballas and Peta Murgatroyd, three former champions. The team name suggests that there will be acrobatics of some sort involved. Or maybe it’ll be a circus theme, with scary clowns like American Horror Story: Freak Show.
I instantly mark this team as the loser. Alfonso is great, but Sadie may not be able to work well with others, especially the likes of Tommy. It doesn’t help that Tommy and Antonio are two of the worst dancers, both at the bottom of last week’s leaderboard.
Team Itsy Bitsy
Bethany leads a team with Lea Thompson, Janel Parrish and Michael Waltrip. For the pros, Derek will work with Val Chmerkovskiy, Artem Chigvintsev and Emma Slater to craft the routine.
Clearly Michael stumbled ass-backwards into a great spot. I have to assume he was the last person to be picked and this team got stuck with him. But the other three are all fantastic dancers and should be able to shine, especially with the added bonus of having Derek the Golden Boy to choreograph.
With their team name, I assume Derek is moving from foxes to spiders and as long as they use Michael as an outsider to the actual dancing, like Bill Engvall was, they should be coasting to a victory.
In addition to the group routines, the individual dances will include Tommy taking on the Quickstep and Bethany doing the Paso Doble while Janel and Lea will be taking on a Waltz and a Tango, respectively. Between his inevitably losing team and the Quickstep, if Tommy isn’t eliminated on Monday, I’m guessing he’s in real danger the following week.
Are you excited for the Halloween group routines on DWTS? Which team will win? Do you think Sadie will work well with others? Will Derek clash with the Russians on choreography? And how will Michael be utilized?
Find out on Halloween Night of Dancing with the Stars, Monday 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.
