ABC
Now that political aide Sean Spicer is gone from Dancing With the Stars, predicting who will go home just got a lot harder. Sure, Spicer kept surviving week after week, but he was an easy pick to make as an elimination choice because his dancing just wasn’t as strong as the rest of the field.
Now, however, season 28 is down to five really strong dancers: singer Lauren Alaina, reality TV star Hannah Brown, actor Kel Mitchell, singer Ally Brooke and actor James Van Der Beek. Let’s take a look at how they’ve done so far and figure out who might be the odd man or woman out this week.
So far, Ally and partner Sasha Farber have averaged the highest score from the judges with a 25.5. But James and Emma Slater are right on their heels with a 25.0. And the other three pairings all average within less than two points of Ally and Sasha: Hannah and Alan Bersten are at 24.7, Kel and Witney Carson are at 24.2 and Lauren and Gleb Savchenko are at 23.8. So they are all running neck and neck.
If you take a look at a few other indicators, however, a couple dancers rise to the top and a couple others fall to the bottom. First off, neither James Van Der Beek nor Hannah Brown have ever been in the bottom two. That’s huge. The other pairs have all been in the bottom at least once, with Ally and Sasha appearing there twice.
On Google Trends, which may indicate audience interest, Brown is far and away the most Googled celebrity left in the competition, while Kel Mitchell is easily in last place there. And at Gold Derby’s odds for this week, Mitchell comes in last as the most likely to win the season, while Alaina comes in first as the most likely to be eliminated this week.
For week 10, the dancers will be performing one unlearned dance and one redemption dance. Alaina is performing a Viennese waltz for her unlearned dance and a paso doble for her redemption dance because it only garnered a 19 from the judges in week two, while Mitchell is performing a contemporary number for his unlearned dance and a tango for his redemption, as it only earned him a 16 in week one.
The only wild card here is that James Van Der Beek revealed on Instagram that he sustained an injury last week — will that affect his dancing and send him home early?
Tune in Monday (Nov. 18) at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC to find out, with the live results airing Tuesday at the same time.