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Couples face off against each other on Dancing with the Stars

Posted at 1:46 PM, Sep 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-29 13:46:40-04

Super quick Dancing with the Stars this week to make room for the presidential debate.

They paired off the couples for face-offs. Each pair danced to the same style. Whoever won the face-off, also won immunity. And as usual, those who needed the immunity rarely got it.

The first face-off was Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and Allison Holker vs. Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko doing the Jive. I am a fan of both of these stars, but neither appeared very comfortable doing the Jive. I was shocked to learn that Babyface has no hips. He was stiff as a board. Jana did okay, but the performance looked more forced than fun. 25 for Babyface and 26 plus immunity for Jana.

Rick Perry and Emma Slater squared off against Vanilla Ice and Witney Carson. They each performed a Paso Doble. This was the first time that Rick Perry actually had some substance to his movements and didn't rely only on his personality. I'd call it his best performance to date.

Every week, I'm digging Vanilla Ice more and more. He's bringing it every week! I love his commitment. I guess their form was awful, because they both scored 23. Len was the tiebreaker and gave it to Ice.

James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess had a Cha Cha face-off with Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke. James was good. He kept up and got all the moves right, he just needs to polish things up a bit. Lochte was not my favorite. The dance didn't seem very Cha Cha-ey to me, but I'm no expert in actual technique. I was surprised that Len mentioned it was Ryan's best performance. I disagree. James won the smackdown 29 to 25.

Terra Jole’ and Sasha Farber were pitted against Calvin Johnson Jr. and Lindsay Arnold doing a Viennese Waltz. I'm so impressed with how Terra carries herself on the dance floor. She carries herself with such confidence. Her waltz seemed a little pedestrian, but she pulled it off. Calvin's usual charisma flooded the floor again and he was able to show a "softer side". I'm still such a fan of his. He won the battle, 32 to 30.

So, I don't know if they were trying make Amber Rose look like Snookie for her Salsa, but they did. And I'm pretty sure these wigs they keep putting on her sucks all the mojo out of her body. Maksim Chmerkovskiy crushed it, the choreography was fantastic. Amber just wasn't up for it. She does all the moves fine, but she's just there. She doesn't own it. Maureen McCormick wasn't all that much better. Artem Chigvintsev's choreography was much more traditional, but I'm pretty sure Maureen got a little off-step at the end. This would have been a tie for me, but the judges gave Maureen the edge, 28 to 25.

There was this whole to-do with Laurie Hernandez and Valentin Chmerkovskiy going up against Marilu Henner and Derek Hough with a Tango. Laurie is talented, but lacks life experience (except, you know, that whole Olympics thing). Marilu isn't the best of the stars, but she brings a maturity to the format that Laurie doesn't have. Ultimately, neither one of them rocked my world when it came to maturity and emotion, but Laurie is so crazy pristine. Every movement is sharp and intentional. This was Marilu's best dance, but it didn't compete with Laurie. 31 to 28.

I knew before writing this that Rick Perry got the boot, and I guess that he should have been the one. He tied for the lowest score with Vanilla Ice, so I hope that doesn't mean bad things for him next week! 

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