Now that everyone’s had a chance to perform, it’s time to get to the “competition” part of this celebrity dance competition: one famous amateur dancer is leaving tonight. Going in, my money’s squarely on the arrhythmic and seemingly unpleasant D.L. Hughley, though I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Real Housewife Lisa Vanderpump were to make an early exit either.

Let’s find out who’s first to go:

A pro dance showcase kicks off the evening, demonstrating for some of the lesser contestants what elite dancing looks like–if Victor wants to knock Len’s socks off, this is what he’ll have to bring to the table.

With a little bit of recapping, we get our first results:

Safe:

Ingo and Kym

Sean and Peta

Wynonna and Tony


In Jeopardy:

Victor and Lindsay

Speak of the devil. I guess Victor didn’t knock many audience members’ socks off either.

This year, encore performances are determined by audience tweets. It seems like a fairly transparent way to drum up free viral marketing without really affecting anything of substance on the show, but the DWTS nation picks the excellent Zendaya & Val routine, so I can’t complain.

From there, some more results:

Safe:

Aly and Mark

D.L. and Cheryl

In Jeopardy:

Lisa and Gleb

Huge surprise to see D.L. squeak through. Here’s hoping he continues to apply himself a little more going forward, and leaves those formless Dad’s-still-cool moves behind.

We then have a montage showcasing how much harder dancing is than any of our celebrities thought, apparently–after sixteen seasons you’d think they’d know what the show involves by now, but whatever.

Icona Pop then performs a song called “I Love It,” reminding me how long it’s been since I’ve listened to the radio.

We do have four new dancers this season, and the next segment takes a moment to introduce them: So You Think You Can Dance alumnus Witney, a Brit named Julian, another SYTYCDer named Lindsay, and Gleb, a young Russian man who has some vocal fans in the comments.

And now some more results:

Safe:

Zendaya and Val

Kellie & Derek

Jacoby & Karina

All great performances, no surprises there. After that we have a performance from DWTS favorite and Icon of Epic Voice, Josh Grobin. Sorry if there was a delay in the recap there; Grobin inspired me to go climb a mountain.

Only two more celebrity dancers left after that:

Safe:

Dorothy and Tristan

In Jeopardy:

Andy & Sharna

If Andy’s eliminated, I’ll be sorely disappointed; he was a big hook for me this season.

Results:

Safe:

Andy & Sharna

We then have a twist elimination:

Dorothy Hamill withdraws due to spine injury.


That leaves the bottom two, Lisa and Victor, safe for another week. That’s two big surprises tonight, as a promising act leaves while the lowest scoring pair escapes jeopardy. There is no justice in Danceville tonight.

Kudos to Dorothy for making a difficult decision with class, poise, and empathy for those around her. Maybe next year, Tristan. Maybe next year.


Compete in Fantasy TV: Make your picks on who you think will be going home. Hurry, you have until April 2 at 12pm PST to cast your vote!


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(Image courtesy of ABC)

Ted Kindig

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV