‘Dancing with the Stars’ week 5 rankings: Kelly Monaco rises; Gilles Marini #1

Just how good is this season of “Dancing with the Stars” when it comes to the performances? Let’s just say that really, anyone in the top 7 could win this season if we are talking about performance scores alone. There are so many great dancers and entertainers, and we really have a feeling that so many of these rankings could change with the ebb and flow of the competition thus far.

8. Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy (last week: 8) – As fun as Kirstie is to watch, we think she could have some trouble now that the other weak link in the competition in Bristol Palin is now off the show. She is going to have to come up with some crazy-entertaining routines if she wants to stick around, since her scores are probably not going to be there.

7. Apolo Anton Ohno and Karina Smirnoff (3) – We are now at the point in the competition where really anyone could be ranked anywhere depending on how the scores go. We know that Apolo has his fans, and this time around, the low ranking is not really his fault more than it was Karina Smirnoff doing a dance style that she pretty much has no familiarity with at all.

6. Sabrina Bryan and Louis van Amstel (4) – With Sabrina, the rise of Shawn Johnson as a serious contender is really coming at her expense, mostly because they are somewhat similar and it is easy to forget about the one of them that posts the lower score of the two.

5. Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani (6) – You can literally see the fire pouring out of Tony’s eyes at this point. This pro has never won the show despite being in almost every season of the show other than the first. The truth is that Melissa and Tony have a great shot, but we also don’t know if they can be creative enough to attract enough fans for the title.

4. Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke (5) – We don’t necessarily think that Emmitt is a better dancer than Sabrina or Melissa, but we do know he has a large, devoted fan base that will help him stick around for a while. Our only concern for him is what happens when we get near the end of the show, and some of the dancers with smaller bases are gone.

3. Kelly Monaco and Val Chmerkovskiy (7) – Sometimes, reality TV catches lightning in a bottle, and that may be exactly what has happened here with Kelly and Val. They have the best chemistry out of any pair in this competition, and we want to see more of them together. Dare we say it reminds us almost of the sort of chemistry that his brother Maks had with Erin Andrews?

2. Shawn Johnson and Derek Hough (1) – Shawn got close to a perfect score last week, but even with that, she was only tied for the week. This is how good this season is, and we’re already looking at a potential repeat of season 8 when it comes to the final two.

1. Gilles Marini and Peta Murgatroyd (2) – Let’s all cheer for Bollywood now, shall we? Thanks to the rather unique dance style that we saw here, Gilles had the opportunity to do something that will likely be remembered for the rest of the season as one of the craziest, coolest routines ever on the show.

Are you loving the battle going on at the moment between Gilles and Shawn, and who are you rooting for to win?