Dancing With the Stars 17: The road to semi-finals

Well, can you believe we’re at the halfway point on Dancing With the Stars season 17 already? The new once-a-week format has made the time fly by, but I did notice that with this week’s show we’re starting to see a bit more padding to fill out the two hours than we had when the show was fully cast and had to zip along to cram everything in. They really should cut the show back to 90 minutes at this point like they used to do back in the earlier seasons. But I guess it’s easier for ABC to fill two hours rather than trying to find a new half-hour show to fill the gap between DWTS and Castle.

But, now that we are at the halfway point, it’s time for Kim and I to make some predictions and look back at our original post to see if anyone we had high hopes for has left the building prematurely (and I can safely say the answer to that one is yes).

CD: I have to say, the level of dancing on this week’s show was superb all around. We got our first perfect score courtesy of Elizabeth and Val, and more tens were flying around as well. And, as Tom Bergeron said, Len was quite the enigma this week. I don’t know if he has it out for Amber Riley, but this is the second week in a row he’s given a much lower score than Bruno or Carrie Ann.

KT: But you’ve got to admit that Len is always a little bit harder on Derek Hough (and indirectly his partner) than some of the other professional dancers. Either Derek is a golden god in his eyes or he falls from grace nearly every week. It’s a lot of pressure on Derek to constantly outdo himself with his choreography and always allow his partner to shine to her full potential while pleasing Len’s scrutiny! However, I think it’s that dynamic between Derek and Len and the high standards Len holds Derek to that are just some of what keeps me invested in watching this show week-to-week.

CD: And Derek did win an Emmy, so the pressure is even higher on him now! I have to ask now if your opinion of Snooki has changed now that you’ve seen her in action. Carrie Ann said she’s the most improved of anyone this season, and I have to say she looked simply elegant gliding across the dance floor this week. I think week-to-week she’s turned in consistently good dances and she’s shown a real dedication in rehearsals, considering she’s flying back to the East Coast every week to be with her family.

KT: I would agree that she has been turning in elegant, polished performances week-to-week, but that still doesn’t mean I have to like or respect her. I know I should be basing this opinion strictly upon her ballroom performances, but I still don’t really want to see her make the semi-finals. Maybe I’m snarky about Snooki, but I don’t care.

CD: And what about Bill Engvall?! I don’t think either of us thought he would be here this long, and he obviously didn’t either. He’s been uneven, and I thought for sure his sloppy dance last week would have doomed him, but he puts his all into it and he was excellent this week. I still don’t think he’s going to make it to the semi-finals, but he’s gotten further than he had a right to.

KT: I love Bill more than I anticipated! He’s definitely not the most graceful dancer out on the floor, but he puts so much enthusiasm and personality into his routines that he’s hard not to like. I felt really bad for him this week when they made it look like he was going home and then did the old switcheroo. You could tell he was genuinely upset and that made me cast a couple of my votes in his direction this week.