‘Dancing with the Stars 23’ rankings: Terra Jole closes in on James Hinchcliffe, Laurie Hernandez
We knew that it would take some significant score-changes in order for our latest “Dancing with the Stars” ranking to have any major shifts. There was no elimination on this past installment, so we are effectively looking at the same field of people we were seven days prior.
Yet, we are pleased to report that there are a few shake-ups here in terms of how people are faring in the ballroom, and certainly think that this could be influencing the way that they are voting, as well. As per usual, we base our rankings on dance quality, voting history, and also how similar performers have fared on the show over the years.
9. Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke (last week: 8) – To date, he is certainly a better dancer than he was at the start of the show. The problem we’ve got for him at this point is that everyone else remaining is more endearing. While he may be an Olympic champion, does he really want this as much as everyone else?
8. Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko (7) – She’s a very good dancer, and what she’s been through and how she’s overcome it is a true inspiration. We’re just at a point now where the field is so close that pre-show celebrity has to be considered, and to us Jana is the one person we didn’t know much about going into the season other than James.
7. Maureen McCormick and Artem Chivintsev (6) – We’ve talked before about tiers, and our opinion holds true about the #5-9 spots on our rankings being so close, they’re almost interchangeable. We can see Maureen going home tomorrow, just as we could see her lasting until the start of November. Either way, we don’t see her winning.
6. Marilu Henner and Derek Hough (9) – The biggest improvement in our ranking comes courtesy of Marilu, coming off of her best performance of the season. If she gets good scores, we do tend to favor her over Jana and Maureen thanks mostly to the popularity of her partner.
5. Amber Rose and Maksim Chmerkovskiy (5) – We wonder on a meta level if Maks announcing early that he will not return next season is a way to encourage viewers to vote for him now, and enjoy seeing him working with a celebrity partner while they still can. Given that Amber is much-improved as of late, there are performance reasons to do so, as well.
4. Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold (3) – He has arguably an enormous following, but we cannot ignore that he’s got one of the weakest score averages out of any of the remaining Stars over the past two weeks. That has to dock him a spot at this point.
3. Terra Jole and Sasha Farber (4) – There’s a little something known as momentum that goes with this competition, and Terra has it. At the start of the season, we admittedly felt like her dancing was somewhat overrated. Now, it feels like she’s being celebrated properly as her skill has caught up with her story this season.
2. James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess (2) – James has the best average score from the past two weeks if you combine the numbers. He’s basically become so good of a dancer this season that we’ve started to care less about his pre-show obscurity among people who aren’t familiar with auto racing. He’s doing enough to win fans over with his personality.
1. Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy (1) – It is going to take so much more than Laurie having an off week for us to put her lower on this ranking. She’s still the best dancer this season, and the one with the biggest star power at present. She even has a popular pro for a partner!
Now, we turn this over to you as always! Vote for your favorites below, and head over here to see some of our spoilers for the next “Dancing with the Stars” performance show! (Photo: ABC.)