"Dancing With the Stars" cut its first finalist during Monday night's last performance show: Bethany Mota, the YouTube star.
Although she had a higher average judges' score than Sadie Robertson, it's clear Robertson had a much bigger following. Nonetheless, it's impressive someone who was virtually unknown outside her YouTube fan base before the show began was able to make the finals. This says a lot about Mota's sweet, spirited dancing throughout three months of competition.
Mota also had Derek Hough as her dance partner. That alone got her bonus votes. Plus, he is a brilliant choreographer who showcased her strengths and hid her weaknesses extremely well.
This leaves a final three of Robertson, Alfonso Ribeiro and Janel Parrish. On pure skill, Parrish should win. But half the vote is popularity and that shifts the balance to either Robertson or Ribeiro. (Ribiero has the highest judges' scores after 15 dances with a 36.7 vs. a 36.3 for Parrish and 35.3 for Robertson.)
All four are excellent celebrity hoofers and they all received perfect scores for at least one of their dances Monday night. (Alfonso? Perfect scores on both!). In fact, nobody received less than a 9 out of 10 from any judge.
The show as interrupted in the second hour for 20 minutes on the east coast by the Ferguson grand jury results related to the Michael Brown shooting. Some DWTS fans on Twitter complained, leading to others to snipe back at them.
The mirror-ball trophy winner for this 19th edition of the show will be named Tuesday nigh during the two-hour finale beginning at 9 p.m.
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