The First Dance Off of the Season Doesn't Save the Snowboarder

Last night saw the first Dance Marathon of the show - and tonight we get a double elimination and the first Dance-Off of the season! Who will go home? We’ll find out soon - LIVE!

Taylor Swift begins the show with a song off her new album. She’s a cute kid with a nice voice.

In the confessionals, both Melissa and Kelly thought they would have gotten better reviews and scores. We again get to see how Louie dropped Chelsie on her can twice. Mark said he had a blast “in spite of my mess-ups” and after Lacey told him “don’t say that” he changed it to “improvisations.”

We find out the new rules for the Dance Off tonight. The couple with the lowest combined judges’ scores and votes will go home; then, the next two couples with the lowest scores will compete in the Dance Off and the judges will have the final say on who stays and who goes.

Tom and Samantha announce the first couple safe is Joanna & Derek, and then the announce Mark & Lacey (who look really surprised).

We see a clip about the double elimination night and the stars’ fear of getting sent home. Karina says “I’ll be the one to cry if we have to go home.” Aaron yells “don’t send her home” and fake cries. Kelly doesn’t want to go home on her birthday. After the clip, Donny & Kim are told they are safe. Aaron & Karina are announced safe as well, and Karina squeals and jumps (and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Karina that happy!)

Tieplo Libre (and that's just phonetically the way Samantha pronounced it) a band from Havana, perform next. I don’t know if the dancers are with the band or not, but they’re good. I wish I understood Cuban or Spanish or whatever language that is, it’s hard to listen to stuff when I have no idea what they’re saying. Sorry, I’m lazy and didn’t pause the TV at the right time to see if the dancers were our pros or not.

This week the stars get to design the pros’ costumes. Donny scares us a bit by grabbing some leopard print. Michael says he wants to hear every Russian curse work come out of Anna’s mouth (as she stands by the door yelling to Michael in Russian). Joanna asks the designer how many rhinestones can fit on a Speedo, saying that Derek is going to feel like she does every week - half-naked. Mark wants to dress Lacey in something she would wear on a beach in Brazil. The designer tries to help Louie and suggests chiffon - and Louie asks “what’s chiffon?” (Like a snowboarder would have a clue anyway!) Donny comes out of the design room dressed in white, with a white spangly headband and a white boa, to “measure something” on Kym, who is cracking up (me too)!

We will find out the couples in the bottom three - but first, Mya & Dmitry are safe. Now if Kelly gets in, I think we’ve about got it right. And yes! Kelly & Louis are safe! The couples remaining will have to sweat it out during the commercial, and Taylor Swift’s next song. I like this song a lot, and especially because Maks and Edyta, Tony and Cheryl, Jonathan and Anna are dancing to it. I’ve seen Anna dance on the ballroom competitions they show on PBS with other guys, and while she’s damn good, she just looks much better with her hubby.

The stars strive to see the “10" paddles, and for help in getting them, we get some advice from some folks who have seen them - Nadia Comaneci (Russian Olympic gymnast) and Greg Louganis (U.S. Olympic diver) who got the first set of perfect scores in their respective sports, and Bill Walton, who was on a college basketball team that went 60-0 over two seasons. They talk about the importance of practice and visualization, and turning the negatives into positives.

Enough filler - Tom will tell us which couple is going home now. Poor Melissa looks like she’s going to cry - I like her, but she really can’t dance well. And she’s the one going home. She looks like Candice Bergen with the way her hair is styled tonight. Mark says he’s proud of Melissa and she will always have the Charleston, where she got a 10. They don’t get a last dance, I guess they’ll have to share the floor with the other eliminated couple at the end.

After the break, Louie & Chelsie and Michael & Anna will dance the dances they have chosen to dance, to the music they picked. Michael & Anna will go first. We see that they went to the studio to rehearse their Samba at 6:30 a.m. Hope it pays off! Oops, Michael misses grabbing Anna’s hand right off the bat. Michael’s shaking those hips! He looks like he’s having great fun. Len tells Michael that he’s really come alive, but he wasn’t thrilled about the walking-over-Anna-on-the-floor part. Bruno tells Michael that he started out with the Brazilian party and then “let it all hang out at the end.” Carrie Ann says that his personality was there even though the technique part wasn’t.

Louie & Chelsie will Dance Off next. They showed up for practice at 7:15 a.m. They’ve chosen the Jive, even though he liked the Argentine Tango better. Sorry, he just looks bad. I like Louie’s personality, but he’s just ... pathetic. Bruno begins by saying that the Jive is energetic, precise, sharp - “and you did all of that” (huh?). He says that Chelsie put in a lot of content. Carrie Ann goes totally opposite, saying she’s disappointed there wasn’t more content. Len said it was sharp, fast and clean and he doesn’t agree with Carrie Ann (even though he doesn’t know “what happened up there” when Louie lost his steps). After the commercial, the judges will reveal their decision on who goes home.

Bruno says it’s difficult to choose, but the couple that had the edge was Louie & Chelsie. Len like both couples’ routines, even though both disappointed him, and he’s going with Michael & Anna. Oooh, Carrie Ann gets to be the bad guy here! She says that she wants to take into account the work of the whole season, but has to judge solely on the Dance Off, and that means Michael & Anna.

Louie says it’s harder than it looks - getting out in front of millions of people doing what he’d never done before. As we see the faces of the couples that are staying, again Aaron has the ... face. He really looks like he’s ready to bite someone! I think Karina is rubbing off on him - except that she looks happy!

So I switch the channel over to the Red Wings game and see Vancouver score at about 69 seconds into the game. Good grief, one of those nights, huh?

Well, we’ll see how it goes next week - we’ll have another double elimination! Can Michael manage to stay through another Dance Off? Will Aaron join him, or will Kelly go next? We’ll see, next week - LIVE!