Dancing with the Stars kicks off its the all male semi-finals tonight, featuring NFL running back
Emmitt Smith, former "Saved By the Bell" stalwart
Mario Lopez and former teen hearthrob (and "whoa" master)
Joey Lawrence.
Mario Lopez is the favorite, followed by Joey and then Emmitt. As always, I'll be rooting for Emmitt all the way. The live blog will begin at 8PM ET/5PM PT. Don't forget to hit refresh; the updates come every couple of minutes.
Your Take
yasmin said:
Maria and his partner are the best of the three couples and then followed by joey and emmit Mario always h...
8:01: We begin tonight's Dancing with the Stars with an election update from Charlie Gibson. It appears things are looking good for the democrats. But, Dancing with the Stars is a bipartisan affair, folks. Let all of us celebrity dance fans reach across the aisle and, together, we can enjoy what I hope to be a dominant performance from Emmitt Smith.
8:04: Filler will be in full force tonight and we get a FULL recap of Rod Stewart's performance of "Hot Legs". I'm a Rod Stewart fan from all the way back to his "Faces" days. Now we get Monique's dance to "Billie Jean".
8:05: ABC, I understand Dancing with the Stars dominates the ratings. But, cmon, you could've shortened this episode down to an hour. There's only three dancers.
8:06: Lionel Richie. A good-looking man he's always been. A lot of recapping tonight, folks.
8:10: And a lot of commercials.
8:12: "The Knights of Prosperity" looks like a good show. I'll go on record as saying that. I may regret it.
8:13: So, tonight, we're going to be recapping some of the season's best performances from the results shows. Now we're reliving the group jive danced to, appropriately, some Billy Idol.
8:14: Now it's the Tom Jones appearance, with a dance from two of the pros. Tom still looks good sporting a great mustache. Unfortunately he performed "It's Not Unusual" instead of "Sex Bomb".
8:17: More commercials before we actually see our stars.
8:15: Now a group performance to Beyonce's "Crazy in Love". They brought in a ringer to do some acrobatics for this one.
8:21: Whoever had the idea to give William Shatner a game show where he dances on stage with beautiful women should be promoted.
8:22: One of the ways that we'll be filling the 90 minutes tonight: constant voting updates.
8:24: Monique's departure makes this an all-male semi-final, which I think is good. It puts things more on a level playing field. This is not saying one gender is better or worse, just that it's now easier for the judges to be fair in their scoring. They aren't judging anyone differently.
8:26: Emmit Smith is wearing Dr. Evil's suit from "Austin Powers" tonight. Interesting choice. An intimidation ploy, to be sure.
8:28: Mario is up first. Karina, Mario's partner, just keeps looking better every week. They'll be dancing the tango tonight. Hopefully, they'll adhere to the rules this time.
8:29: Mario returns to his old high school in Chula Vista, where the principal declares the day "Mario Lopez Day".
8:30: Time to dance.
8:31: It seems pretty flawless to me, this dance. Who knows? It seemed a little easy.
8:32: Len comes out firing. He starts yelling, but then tells Mario that it was his best dance ever. It's a veritable love fest from the judges. This will be a perfect 30 score. I guarantee it.
8:34: A PERFECT TEN! The first of the season. Well played, Slater. Well played.
8:35: Commercial time.
8:38: The founding president of the nation of Zambia is in the crowd. What?
8:39: Emmitt is up next. Emmitt and Cheryl went campaigning at a Nascar race. Emmitt is the grand marshall at the race. They are shamelessly shilling for votes here.
8:40: Emmitt will be dancing the waltz. Go Emmitt!
8:41: Cheryl is wearing a totally backless dress. Just thought you'd like to know.
8:42: So, that was really good. I think.
8:43: The judges look pleased. Carrie Ann loves it. Is Len drugged up? He's only saying nice things. Bruno loves it too. Perhaps two 30's in a row?
8:44: The scores: Two tens and a nine for Emmitt. The nine was from Carrie Ann, surprisingly.
8:49: Joey Lawrence is up next. It looks like they'll be doing the quick step next. From what I know, the quick step is always a difficult dance. Joey and partner do their campaigning at DisneyLand. They danced in front of a huge parade crowd in the middle of the park. Some poor little girl claims that seeing Joey was the best moment of her life.
8:51: Joey is wearing a full on sailor outfit. Yikes.
8:52: And Joey is dancing extremely well. Maybe too much showboating in the middle, but good nonetheless.
8:53: Bruno goes crazy for it. Carrie Ann brings up some technical mumbo-jumbo. Len thinks the technical mishaps were menial and still loved it.
8:54: Two tens and a nine for Joey. All three dancers are stepping it up tonight.
8:55: And that's it for the ballroom round. We'll see what happens in the latin round.
9:02: Now, Mario is up to dance the Cha-Cha-Cha.
9:03: Karina is wearing bra, pretty much. They're dancing this to "Bad" and Karina is gyrating all over the place. I am a big fan of this routine. Wow.
9:04: George Lopez is in the crowd and he liked it, so that's good.
9:05: Len didn't like the amount of break dancing. Bruno and Carrie Ann loved it. Definitely not going to get a perfect 30, however.
9:06: Their scores: two tens and a nine. Deserved, for sure.
9:07: Here's Emmit, no commercial needed.
9:08: Emmitt's guns are on display tonight.
9:09: And that was pretty awesome. The crowd is going crazy.
9:10: Bruno is in love with it. Carrie Ann loved it and so did Len. This has to be a perfect score. Scores are coming after the break.
9:15: Now for the scores: A PREFECT 30!! Emmitt is the man.
9:17: Final dance of the night is Joey performing the rumba.
9:19: That dance looked all well and good, but the difficulty seemed pretty low.
9:20: Len loves it. As does Bruno. And Carrie Ann. (Are we sensing a theme tonight?)
9:25: So, Joey also gets a perfect 30 from the judges. This puts the dancers in a three way tie. This means its all up to America.
Probably the best dancing this season on Dancing with the Stars. I know I enjoyed it. Tomorrow should be interesting. I have a gut feeling that Joey will be going home.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer