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Dancing with the Stars Hands Out Disco Ball Trophy Tonight
Disco may be dead but the battle for the Disco Ball has only intensified as ‘Dancing with the Stars’ wrapped up its first night of its two-day finale.
Heading into Wednesday night Apolo Anton Ohno holds a slight scoring advantage over Joey Fatone and Laila Ali but viewer’s votes will factor in heavily when the ultimate ‘Dancing’ star is announced.
The evening started well for Ali who, along with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy, earned a score of 29 out of 30 for their paso doble. Unfortunately for Ali her second round dance selection did not impress the judges at all and she picked up a 26. Throughout the ‘Dancing’ season Ali has been showered with compliments for her elegance and sophistication and yet her choice of a Michael Jackson tune for her freestyle dance seemed to erase all of her hard work. Ali’s two dance total was 55.
Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough danced a rumba for the opening ballroom round and took some hits for appearing disconnected. Much of the dance lacked any sort of fluidity and as judge Len Goodman stated the dance “was too fast, was too hectic” yet they managed to grab a 28 in the round. As an Olympic gold medalist Apolo knows pressure in the freestyle round he lightened the mood with Young MC’s “Bust a Move” and earned a perfect 30. Ohno’s two dance total 58.
Much like Apolo, Joey Fatone struggled through the opening round as he was hit hard for a ballroom disaster. At this stage of the competition judges are looking for perfection and it’s all or nothing. For Fatone and partner Kym Johnson it was next to nothing as they were handed a 26 for their cha-cha. Needing a big score to save their ‘Dancing’ lives the pair opted for a Donna Summers classic “Last Dance” and earned a perfect 30 to get back into the game. Fatone’s two dance total was 56.
While Apolo leads on points it could all change tonight as each star has one more dance in front of the judges before the final votes are tallied. ‘Dancing with the Stars’ airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. EST on ABC.
