‘Dancing with the Stars 23’ week 5 rankings: Laurie Hernandez, James Hinchcliffe, Calvin Johnson on top
While there are many strong contenders at present on “Dancing with the Stars” this season, “parity” is not a word to describe it. We’ve had virtually the same three people at the top of our personal contestant rankings since the very beginning, and there honestly is not too much of a reason to change it when they continue to either get great scores or a ton of fan support.
As per usual, we’re basing our rankings on a formula that includes performance quality, screen time, voting history so far, and voting history of similar Stars who were a part of the competition in years past. There may not be an elimination this week (we’ll see for certain tomorrow), but the rankings continue no matter what.
9. Marilu Henner and Derek Hough (last week: 5) – This is a pretty harsh fall for Marilu, but the truth is that for the longest time we thought that Maureen McCormick was the older woman on the season destined to go home sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, the “Taxi” star has shown more struggles as of late and could be the next person out the door.
8. Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke (8) – Lochte’s still not getting great scores. Therefore, we’d feel awfully silly putting him anywhere higher up on this list. We haven’t seen too much yet in the way of proof that he can do better, and that is something that we have to look for at this stage.
7. Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko (6) – The Glittery Grim Reaper is probably coming for some point for Jana and Gleb, and it could be either this coming elimination or the one after that finds her in trouble.
6. Maureen McCormick and Artem Chigvintsev (9) – It may have taken some time, but we’re getting closer now to getting about the Maureen – Artem train. It’s pretty wasy to when you think for a minute about what makes them effective as a team: A great relationship, hard work, effort, and good technique out on the floor. They are incredibly likable to boot.
5. Amber Rose and Maksim Chmerkovskiy (10) – This was the Amber that we expected going into the show! She was confident, emotional, passionate, and strong in this past dance, and if she can continue to channel this, we don’t see her going home for some time.
4. Terra Jole and Sasha Farber (4) – We think that the bottom five on this ranking are all a tier, and the top four are on another level. We do think Terra, coming off of some great scores, has a chance to win this whole season. We just haven’t seen enough consistency yet with her fan following to push her higher.
3. Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold (2) – Had Calvin and Lindsay scored a point or two higher, we’d consider having him stay at #2. The issue with that is that he’s coming off one of his worst outings of the season. while James is coming off of one of his best.
2. James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess (3) – Given that Helio Castroneves won a season, we know that IndyCar racers can win this thing. We also know that he’s got a great personality and sense of humor that seems to be winning people over. Great dancing definitely does not hurt.
1. Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy (1) – We may as well consider Laurie a tier on her own. She probably has the most active fan base of anyone, and she’s also the best dancer by a wide margin. It’s going to take something crazy for anyone else to catch her.
Now, we turn this over to you in the attached poll! Also, be sure to check out some of the dance spoilers for Monday night’s new episode right now. (Photo: ABC.)