‘Dancing with the Stars 23’ rankings: James Hinchcliffe, Laurie Hernandez in clear lead entering week 7
This season of “Dancing with the Stars” remains fun, but we do have to be honest here when we say that you can probably fast-forward through the next couple of eliminations. We have a reasonably good idea at this point as to where we are going, and in turn, where this season is going to be wrapping up in terms of the final four teams. Also, the winner feels incredibly obvious.
Nonetheless, we do like to get many of our ducks in a row before the performance show comes on the air, and that’s what these contestant rankings are really all about! As per usual, we’re basing these rankings on a wide array of things, which include overall scores to date, the perceived audience size, and performances from similar people over the years.
8. Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke (last week: 9) – We’ve been wrong about Lochte’s performance on the show for weeks, but we’re just starting to wonder now that with everything in mind in terms of him performing first last week (never a good spot for memorability) and his scores, we could be getting to the point now where he is totally doomed.
7. Maureen McCormick and Artem Chigvintsev (7) – This past week for Maureen was relatively tough from a performance point of view, and it was a dance style that just wasn’t great for her. We do think that there will be better ones that are presented for her if she stays, but we’re admittedly very nervous for her right now.
6. Marilu Henner and Derek Hough (6) – Marilu’s a very good dancer, and it feels off to put her this low; the problem is that when you look at the entire field above, we feel like they’ve either had bigger routines to date or we believe them to have bigger fan bases.
5. Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko (8) – While we would still be shocked if Jana wins the competition, kudos to her for finding a way to deliver a passionate perfect score this past week. Our big concern with her is the fan base size.
4. Terra Jole and Sasha Farber (3) – After surpassing Calvin for a little while, a weaker outing puts her back firmly into fourth. We still think Terra could bounce back, but unfortunately, we think that both she and Calvin are somewhat doomed to be third and fourth in some capacity.
3. Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold (4) – It’s not so much that Calvin and Terra are even doing anything bad at this point; they’re just up against two people who may be some of the best dancers in arguably the entire history of the show.
2. James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess (2) – Note that we’re not saying James is the best male dancer yet like Julianne Hough did, but the potentially is there and he’s a naturally-gifted, wonderful dancer. It’s just too bad for him that he’s on a season with an Olympic gymnast with an enormous following.
1. Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy (1) – This reminds us of the season that Amber Riley won, where we consistently had her #1 the whole way through just because we thought she was both a good dancer and had a following that couldn’t be overcome. We think the same can be said here.
Who do you think is rocking the ballroom the most right now? Vote in our poll, and head over here to get some other news on the show! (Photo: ABC.)