‘Dancing with the Stars’ Recap: Who Doesn’t Make It Through Switch-Up Week?
The latest episode of "Dancing with the Stars" looks a little bit different, but it feels a lot stranger for the remaining contestants. The switch-up week had its highs and lows, with the added relief of everyone surviving the night without any elimination.
Host Tom Bergeron returned to the stage after taking a leave of absence last week, and former pro Maksim "Maks" Chmerkovskiy served as a guest judge alongside Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Julianne Hough, according to a report from Wall Street Journal.
Tamar Braxton is one of the competition's frontrunners so far, but the television personality failed to muster the same flash and chemistry with her new partner Louis Van Amstel, resulting in a disappointing score of 29 from all four judges.
Similarly coming out with a lukewarm performance is Hayes Grier with new partner Allison Holker as they put on a Viennese waltz routine. The male judges found the dance jumpy while the women praised the charm of the performance, with the couple earning a total score of 30.
Real-life hero Alek Skarlatos had chemistry behind the scenes with his temporary partner Emma Slater, but the pair was unable to translate it onstage and they earned a total score of 29.
Perhaps expectedly, Paula Deen was given the lowest score of the night even with a new man leading her on the dance floor in a high-energy jive. Mark Ballas coaxed Deen's best performance yet, but the chef only earned a score of 26 from the judges.
Meanwhile, other contestants shone in their new pairings include Bindi Irwin, who continued her streak of amazing performances. Irwin and Val Chmerkovskiy's cha-cha got them a score of 37 with guest judge Maks, the pro's brother, offering a perfect score for the pair.
Nick Carter also put on a good show with Witney Carson. The pair delivered a paso doble that had the judges giving them a total score of 35. Andy Grammer showed off his sexy side in an Argentine tango with Sharna Burgess, establishing his determination to bag the Mirror Ball trophy as the judges gave him his best score yet of 36.
While there were good performances, there was no denying that the week belonged to the PenaVega couple, who wowed with new partners Lindsay Arnold and Derek Hough.
Carlos and Lindsay staged a quickstep performance that was truly championship-worthy. The judges raved over the high-energy dance, earning them a total score of 39, with Maks offering the lone 9 from the judge's table.
The fairer PenaVega did even better with Hough in a strong tango number that was confident and eye-catching from start to finish. It was a memorable performance that had Alexa as the celebrity to beat and got them the first perfect score of the season.
In her People blog, Alexa shared how easy she found working with Hough saying, "I feel like we could not have asked for a better switch up. It has been such an easy transition."
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