‘Dancing with the Stars 16’ review: Kellie Pickler, Sean Lowe take on Latin week

Monday night was Latin Week on “Dancing with the Stars,” which meant an opportunity to see who had really mastered some of the technique that they have learned so far over the course of the past several weeks. It separated the men from the boys … or in this case, the men from the superb women left in the competition.

The episode made it clear that there is one dancer weaker than the rest, two that are really just buying their time, and possibly four people that have a genuine shot at winning. Now, we just have to wait and see if there are any stunners in the voting.

Jacoby Jones & Karina Smirnoff – We have been saying for weeks that this is the point in the competition in which Jacoby really needs to step it up, that way he can go from being a possible contender to a serious one. Luckily, he decided to do just that this week. The samba is a great dance for him, and it showed through his hips, his passion, and his athleticism. Score: 27

Ingo Rademacher & Kym Johnson – If there is one glaring flaw with the men that ABC cast for the show this season, it is that none of them seem to be fully capable of delivering during some of the more romantic routines like this. Ingo has grown on us, but this dance is not where he needs to be if he wants to make it deep into the competition. Score: 22

Kellie Pickler & Derek Hough – In case you needed even more convincing that Kellie is probably going to win this season, this sensational samba had everything (to quote Stefon from “SNL”): hips, cheery outfits, goofy grins, people in the audience freaking out. It was a real samba, and we don’t see that on the show often. Score: 29

Andy Dick & Sharna Burgess – We predicted that this would happen this week: Andy being shown the door as the competition enters the “serious” stage. We love Andy, but we almost wish that he could have left last week, just so that he would not be subjected to the high level of sandbagging that is going on now. He’s always been a bad dancer. This was no different. Score: 17

Aly Raisman & Mark Ballas – Despite the injury that Mark suffered this week, he was still able to hit the dance floor without too much of a problem. This salsa was very comparable to what Kellie did with the samba. It was just as energetic and as fun, even if Mark’s injury kept there from being any elaborate moves. Score: 29

Sean Lowe & Peta Murgatroyd – Compared to some of the other guys tonight, Sean’s rumba was actually a revelation. We’re sure the tabloids will have a field day with the fact that he had chemistry on the dance floor, which is completely ludicrous and takes away from the fact that he did a good job. Perhaps this keeps Sean from being in jeopardy? Score: 24

Zendaya & Val Chmerkovskiy – For the last solo dance of the night, Zendaya really tried her best to pull out all of the stops with a strong, intense paso doble. It’s interesting that at this point a nit-pick like your chin could be enough to keep her from 10s, but that happened here. Score: 27

There were some dance duels at the end of the night, and the winners here (who received three points each) were Zendaya (over Jacoby), Aly (over Andy), and Ingo (over Sean). Kellie had the highest cumulative score out of the top 2, and was declared immune.

Who is your favorite on “Dancing with the Stars” this week? If you want to see where we ranked the contestants moving into this episode, be sure to hit up the link here.

Photo: ABC