Dancing With the Stars Delivers One Last Twist While Revealing Its Season 33 Finalists
If time does fly when you’re having fun, then we seem to have had a marvelous time during Dancing With the Stars‘ 33rd season.
Somewhere in all that merriment, we’ve already reached the semifinal round, which aired on Tuesday night and revealed which couples will dance for the Mirrorball trophy in next week’s finale. Aw, it seems like just yesterday that Anna Delvey was blankly cha-cha-ing across the ballroom floor and hating every second of it. Good times.
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Anyway, during Tuesday’s semifinals, each duo performed two routines: one in a ballroom style, and one in a Latin style. It was a competitive evening, and even co-host Julianne Hough noted how hard it was going to be to say goodbye to one of the remaining contestants. So, y’know what? The show kept them all!
Yep, just like in last year’s semifinals, Dancing opted not to eliminate anyone on Tuesday, resulting in all five contestants — Chandler Kinney, Joey Graziadei, Ilona Maher, Danny Amendola and Stephen Nedoroscik — scoring a spot in the finale. Feel-good shows for the win! (All of this week’s scores and votes will count toward next week’s finale result.)
In the meantime, how did everyone’s semifinal performances shake out? And who are you rooting for ahead of the finale? Keep scrolling for a recap of the evening’s routines, then drop a comment with your thoughts!
Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong
First up for Chandler was a salsa, which was executed with super-fun sass to open the show. I agree with Derek Hough that the routine lacked some pure salsa content — namely in those side-by-side sections — and Chandler seemed a little timid at times, like when she walked her hands up Brandon’s body when they were dancing near the judges’ table. Fortunately, no such shyness was present in her Round 2 foxtrot, which was remarkably elegant and brimmed with the exact kind of attitude that its premise required.
SALSA SCORE: 29 out of 30
FOXTROT SCORE: 29 out of 30
TOTAL: 58 out of 60
Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson
Joey started the evening with a smooth-as-silk foxtrot. It’s rare for any celebrity contestant — but certainly a male celebrity — to not only claim that they enjoy dancing in frame, but to perform those strict ballroom styles with such airy ease. He and Jenna looked like they were floating on clouds here, and Joey’s confidence didn’t falter for a moment. And, hey, his confidence didn’t even falter in the Round 2 paso doble, even though there were a couple of small missteps that knocked him down to nines from Carrie Ann and Bruno. I was impressed by Joey’s commitment to the forever-intense paso doble persona, and that knee-slide section where he performed directly to the camera was especially magnetic.
FOXTROT SCORE: 30 out of 30
PASO DOBLE SCORE: 28 out of 30
TOTAL: 58 out of 60
Ilona Maher and Alan Bersten
Ilona was tasked with a paso doble for the first round, and it may just have been her best dance yet. Though, yes, there’s still a disparity between Ilona’s ballroom technique and, say, Chandler’s ballroom technique, Ilona brought a really compelling intensity to this performance, and she held her own in the multiple sequences where she was dancing apart from Alan. Then, it was time for the Viennese waltz — and, I take it back, that was actually her best dance yet. In her pre-performance package, Ilona was concerned that she wouldn’t master the elegance of this style, but when it counted most, she delivered on every level. Ilona was killing it, and she knew she was killing it, and the clear joy on her face only elevated an already-lovely number.
PASO DOBLE SCORE: 28 out of 30
VIENNESE WALTZ SCORE: 29 out of 30
TOTAL: 57 out of 60
Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold
Stephen’s first style was the cha-cha, which, unfortunately, was executed in a way you might expect from Week 3 of the competition instead of the semifinals. Stephen’s inconsistent musicality came back to haunt him here, as did his struggles with hip fluidity, though Rylee did her best to make the routine look sultry. And then, oh no! The glasses! In Stephen’s second performance, a tango, he started the number with his glasses on — a notable departure from the norm — and kept his cool even when they were obviously askew on his face. At some point, the specs flew off anyway, and Stephen did a nice job maintaining his composure amid all the distractions.
CHA-CHA SCORE: 25 out of 30
TANGO SCORE: 28 out of 30
TOTAL: 53 out of 60
Danny Amendola and Witney Carson
A Viennese waltz was up first for Danny, a routine that was competently danced, but — contrary to what Carrie Ann and Bruno were saying — featured almost none of the emotion that its storyline demanded. Witney told us, ahead of the dance, that it centered on two people who desperately wanted their romance to work, but knew they weren’t good for each other. And while Danny’s face has softened a lot from those early performance weeks, it never conveyed any longing, hurt or heartbreak the way his partner’s did. (Also, my fellow So You Think You Can Dance aficionados: That door immediately brought you back to Katee and Twitch’s “Mercy” performance, right?)
Later, in Danny’s Round 2 salsa, he and Witney delivered their most daring and impressive lifts yet, which effectively distracted the judges from giving any real criticism. “Obviously, the dancing in between, there’s some stuff there…,” Derek began, before dropping that critique and revisiting the tricks. But wait, Derek! That “some stuff” is the stuff that matters here! And Danny deserves the honest feedback! When he wasn’t flinging Witney in the air during this routine, his salsa content looked frantic and unsteady, and not calling out his technical shortcomings is only doing him a disservice.
VIENNESE WALTZ SCORE: 27 out of 30
SALSA SCORE: 27 out of 30
TOTAL: 54 out of 60
OK, your turn! With one episode left in the season, which Dancing finalist is your favorite? Hit the comments!
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