This was a unique week because only a few of the couples actually danced tonight. Here are the rankings. I won’t make any elimination predictions since not everyone danced tonight. Instead, I’ll just rank them and leave some thoughts below!
5. Nikki Glaser and Gleb Savchenko- Nikki rightfully went home tonight. She just wasn’t built to be a dancer. Gleb did a good job highlighting her performance strengths, as she did do a good job hitting the entertainment points. But she was the weakest tonight.
4. Danelle Umstead and Artem Chigvinstev- Danelle amazes me with her ability. My only worry is that I don’t know how she’ll be able to step it up a notch. I feel like both of her dances have been about the same in ability. Give her a faster dance, and I’m worried for her. I am truly rooting for her, but she will definitely have to kick it up a notch to get the viewer votes she needs. I’ll still vote for her. She has my heart.
3. Nancy McKeon and Valentin Chmerkovskiy- I’ll always commend Val, because he knows how to highlight the strengths in his partner. However, this was pretty sloppy and I think Nancy struggled to keep up. I think they are in some danger in the competition because between both her dances, I didn’t see much growth. Given, it was a day. But I think she’s really gonna need to work hard and put her all into it if she wants to be a contender.
2. Mary Lou Retton and Sasha Farber- Mary Lou’s dance here was a bit sloppy. Nothing terrible, and more technically impressive than Nancy, ,Danelle or Nikki. But I do worry that she is going to get forgot in the shuffle because she is clearly being outdone by Sasha. She’s got the potential, though, and aside from Alexis & Alan, was probably the best of the group.
1. Alexis Ren and Alan Bersten- Alexis is fantastic and knows how to keep a positive energy, despite being in jeopardy. I really thought she’d be okay with votes because of her social media followers. But I guess it just proves that anything can happen, and I think Alexis is going to need to continue to kill it every week. So far, so good. She just has to continue this momentum! I’m a fan.
No predictions today, but I think this made Alexis & Alan a frontrunner. Not having to compete against Juan Pablo, Evanna, Milo, Tinashe, or DeMarcus allowed them to be the best of the night and upstage all the rest. This will give them a big push (and maybe Nancy & Val too, since they went last). As for the rest, I think they’ll be the next few eliminations, starting with Danelle and Mary Lou.