Season 20 - Week 10

From buddytv.com:

The finale of Dancing with the Stars season 20 is here. Only three couples remain and they will all perform three more times before the Golden Mirror Ball Trophy is awarded.

The finale will include a one-hour performance show Monday at 8pm where the couples will each do two routines. Then on Tuesday at 9pm, we get the two-hour finale with one last chance to earn judges' points with the 24-hour fusion challenge, a slew of guest performances by eliminated contestants and the winner.

The Final 3

For Monday's performance show, the Final 3 couples will each reprise one routine from earlier in the season before going into their Freestyles.

It seems Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovskiy will go all the way back to week 1 to redo their Foxtrot that put them at the top of the leaderboard with all 8s. Their Freestyle routine will blend Contemporary with the Argentine Tango, which is exciting as they are the only couple from the Top 8 who never performed a Tango this season.

Noah Galloway and Sharna Burgess will bring back their week 3 Latin Night Argentine Tango, which got them two 7s and two 8s. As you might expect, their Freestyle will be a Contemporary routine featuring several other pros.

Riker Lynch and Allison Holker certainly win the award for best reprisal as they're bringing back their Pirates of the Caribbean Paso Doble from Disney Night (which is my all-time favorite routine of the season). They got 10s from Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli, but Len Goodman and Julianne Hough only gave them 9s.

The Finale

Besides the 24-hour fusion challenge, an encore of the Freestyle the judges liked the best and the winner being announced, finale night is going to be full of special performances. Here's a quick look at what to expect.

-Redfoo will perform his song "Juicy Wiggle"

-Charlotte McKinney and Keo Motsepe will reprise their "California Gurls" Cha-Cha-Cha, aka the dance that started Sasha Farber's season-long tenure in the crab costume

-Suzanne Somers and Tony Dovolani will reprise their "Copacabana" Salsa

-Robert Herjavec and Kym Johnson will reprise their "Bills" Cha-Cha-Cha from week 1

-Chris Soules and Witney Carson will reprise their fun week 1 "Footloose" Jive

-Willow Shields and Mark Ballas will reprise their creepy, rabbit-headed Alice in Wonderland Foxtrot from Disney Night

-Nastia Liukin and Derek Hough will reprise their amazing Modern Charleston (this time, possibly, with Derek instead of Sasha)

-Patti LaBelle and Artem Chigvintsev will reprise their Empire-inspired "In Da Club" Salsa

-Patti will also perform her song "2 Steps Away"

-Season 19's final two stars Alfonso Ribeiro and Sadie Robertson, plus season 18's Amy Purdy, will return for special performances

-Sia will perform her song "Elastic Heart" accompanied by a dance performance from siblings Derek and Julianne Hough

-Jason Derulo will perform his song "Want to Want Me"

Wow, that's a whole lot of action for the two-hour finale. Which reprisal are you most excited to see, which celebrity are you most excited to see again on finale night and who do you think will win the Golden Mirror Ball?

Dancing with the Stars airs Monday at 8pm and Tuesday at 9pm on ABC.




I am most excited to see Rumer and Val.  I love that they're going back to the foxtrot after seeing what she did in the dance-off.  A full routine with that elegance and grace would be amazing.  Their freestyle sounds awesome as well - Val is terrific at the AT, and it's something we haven't seen Rumer try yet.  Fusing it with a contemporary could be quite interesting.  I notice they don't give any hints about Riker's freestyle, and of course Noah will do a contemporary.  Then he can stand there and be a forklift for Sharna. 

I hope the buddytv.come poll is at least somewhat accurate.  They asked which couple you wanted to win. Right now, Rumer and Val lead the pack with 56% of the votes, Riker has 33% and Noah as the final 11%.  That would be the right outcome as far as I'm concerned. 

I loved that Foxtrot!!  I hope buddy's poll is correct.  It would be a good outcome for me.

Rumer and Val for the win!!  She is fabulous, and he has finally come out of Maks' shadow and become his own person.  Their freestyle ran rings around the others.

Val has been humbled this season.  Quite attractive that he's realized what his desire to win was doing to his partner.  Indeed, newto, he's stepped out of Maks' shadow.  I'm really liking this guy more than ever.

I loved their freestyle.  Glad to see them get back to REAL ballroom.  Rumer's lines are amazing.  I hope she wins.

I know the judges give automatic 10's on the freestyles, but Riker's was a mess.  From the moment they turned their hats at the beginning, they were out of sync.  When Riker jumped to the platform at the end and danced solo, I thought he looked great.  But it only lasted 3-5 seconds.  Shame.  When I watch Allison, I'm thinking bull-in-a-china-shop.  Not a favorite of mine.

I am hoping more than ever now for a Rumer win.  Last night really showed just how much better she is than either Riker or Noah.  Riker can be fun to watch (although I agree about Allison, singly), but he doesn't really have the technique down most of the time (for which I blame Allison).  Noah does a few things really beautifully, but he's just so limited in what he can do.  Rumer has good technique, elegance, grace, power, gorgeous lines, can play the character.  She's got it all.  It would have been amazing to be able to compare her and Nastia in the finale, but that was not to be.  But I am more convinced than ever that a win by anyone other than Rumer would just be such a shame and such an unsatisfactory end to the season.

A lot of people on other boards are complaining that Rumer's freestyle was "just a straight AT," but it really wasn't.  There was a lot of 'show dance' aspect to it with touches of contemporary thrown in.  It was just absolutely beautiful.  And I had no idea Rumer could sing that well.  What a great cover.  And what a nice touch to have Val playing violin on the recording as well.  What a great way to really personalize it.

Noah's freestyle had some beautiful moments, but honestly parts of it felt like a rehash of last week's paso by CarrieAnne (with the guys carrying and moving Noah) and their earlier contemporary.  At one point one of the troupe girls had to steady Noah as he stumbled going through all those bodies.  It was nice but I felt really manipulated by it, so it didn't have the emotional impact I think it was supposed to have.

Riker's was fun, but it was unfortunate that Allison chose the top hats route - it reminded me very much of both Alfonso/Witney's and Cheryl/Jack's freestyles, as they both used that same thing (if memory serves).  Again parts of it were nice but parts were kind of sloppy, and I also noticed that they were out-of-sync.  And some parts were just awkward - like when they twirled over those bars.  And honestly two really overblown production numbers in the same evening kind of made the freestyle seem like just another dance.  I know the POTC dance was a crowd favorite, but Riker might have been better served with a straight ballroom dance for his encore dance.  Then the freestyle would have seemed different.

I was happy with the finish, but f-fwdd through the better part of the show.  Too much in the way of Mandy Moore's choreo with peep-show porn gyrations.  I'm all but certain this was my last season of "packages" and voting favorite personalities.  At least the best dancer won - maybe.  There's still the question of Nastia, who unfortunately didn't smile enough for the majority of voters.

I actually enjoyed the show and most of the filler.  Could have done without the Sia song - don't care much for her, and I find it distracting to have her standing faceless in the background.  Also too much 'violence' in the dance.  But I liked the rest - seeing the other contestants back, some nice pro dancing, the behind-the-scenes, the 'bad lip reading' segment. 

So so happy that Rumer won!!  She really deserved it.  I'm not sure what would have happened if Nastia had been part of that final 3 as she should have been.  It would have been a real toss-up then in terms of ability.

Show faked me out this time!  I was certain that Riker had won because he was standing next to Tom, and that's been their pattern for as long as I can remember.  The winner has always been the couple standing next to Tom.  I wonder if they realized the fans had figured that out and decided to switch it up?  Glad they did, though, because I am thrilled that Rumer won. 

I, too, am glad of how it all turned out.  I was not up for the two-hour extravaganza so I did not watch it.  Rumer so deserved this, and so did Val.

Good post, rkc.

I agree about the spastic dancing with Allison and Riker.  I think if you hitched that girl to a train, she'd be able to pull it.  lol.  Her choreo always seems to be fast and furious.  I don't really think she can contain her energy.

I agree about Allison.  Unfortunately, I expect she will be back next season, but I hope TPTB re-think that.  The only reason she made it to the final 2 is because Riker already knew the basics of the dances; I suspect she taught him choreography but not actually how to dance.  He had some issues, like hunching and being kind of wild with his arms sometimes, and she did nothing to correct that because I don't think she knows enough to know it was a problem.  And with all her talking about giving Riker the 'hardest choreography ever on the show,' I'm afraid she'll think that was a good thing and that's what got them to the finals.  I feel bad for whoever her next partner happens to be . . . unless she gets another ringer.  I still think Riker would have been really special under the tutelage of a real ballroom pro.


I am still so happy that Val won, but I'm getting really tired of the people on some of the other boards whining that Val only won because he "whined" about not winning, and so TPTB had to "orchestrate" a win for him.  It's such an insult to him and his hard work and dedication and to Rumer and all her hard work, dedication and abilities.

LadyMustang65 wrote:......edited.....

I am still so happy that Val won, but I'm getting really tired of the people on some of the other boards whining that Val only won because he "whined" about not winning, and so TPTB had to "orchestrate" a win for him.  It's such an insult to him and his hard work and dedication and to Rumer and all her hard work, dedication and abilities.

I resent the idea that TPTB orchestrated a win for Val.  The reason he won is because he finally became his own person, out from the shadow of his brother, and because he worked hard and truly believed he could win with the right partner.  I am so tired of the whining...

You and me both, newto.

All of this has made me more determined than ever to go into next season not complaining.  If Derek is back, he's back, and I'll concentrate on his celeb and vote based on whether or not I like her/enjoy watching her dance.  Same with everyone else.  I may get frustrated with judges' comments/scores, but I'll concentrate on what I can control, which is how I vote and how I react (or don't react) to all the producer-driven 'drama' they try to create. 

Since this became such a blatant personality contest, I don't even vote.  I truly think I'm done.  It's gotten just too theatrical for my tastes.  If they went to the kind of dancing that Val and Rumer did this season, I might reconsider.  As of now, I'm out.

Singly -- don't hold your breath.  The snowball of extravaganza is rolling down the hill getting bigger and bigger.

Time to kiss this show goodbye?

LadyMustang65 - If Len is no longer a judge, I wonder if they will replace him with someone who will not use the judges' comments as an emotional fest, which is what will continue with just the three remaining judges.  Their antics have become worse and worse as the years have passed.  JMHO.

Honestly, if they do decide we need four judges, then I would love for them to invite Louis Van Amstel or Anna Trebunskaya to be that judge.  Or Maks.  Someone who would be kind while still offering constructive criticism and not be prone to hyperbole and excessive emotion.  I was so disappointed that Julianne has started down the Bruno/Carrie Anne road instead of taking the Len road.  She usually has some good comments to make, but they got lost in her attempts to one-up CarrieAnne in the emotionality department.

I've been assuming that having four was their way of getting us accustomed to the judge who would take Len's place.  Julianne is the only one of the remaining three who has any REAL expertise in ballroom.  With all the other dances being added, CA and Bruno are finally judging from their own backgrounds.

When Bruno finishes his theatrics, he gives some good pointers about things like following through with the arms, etc.  I must say, I never take CA too seriously.  She's a mess - and her drooling gets in the way.

But the judges are the least of my problems with the show.  More bothersome, are the salacious troupe dances and the departure from what I've considered ballroom.  Each season, it's more free-style from start to finish.  Half the time, I don't know what dance I'm supposed to be watching and the couple I'm looking for gets lost in the "extras" in the performances.

I'm anxious for SYTYCD to start.  Just praying Paula Abdul doesn't ruin this for me, as well.  I could not stand her when she was on Idol.  Hopefully, she's off whatever "medication" she was on then and will speak clearly, staying on topic.  That slurred rambling made me nuts!

I swear most of the time she sounded like she'd been drinking.  Hopefully that is over with now.