Nov 24 2008
Burke Set For “Dancing” Crown
It’s been all about Derek Hough and partner Brooke Burke this season on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars- tomorrow night, they likely will take their place as this season’s champions. (picture courtesy of ABC-TV/Associated Press)
The Brooke Burke and Derek Hough Show returned to the spotlight tonight on Dancing With the Stars, after the twosome played the unfamiliar runner-up role to Lance and Lacey last week.
The three remaining couples in the ABC dance competition performed a group Samba (for which they were scored as couples) and a freestyle. Burke and Hough scored a perfect 30 for their freestyle routine, which they set to Grease’s “You’re the One That I Want.” (Incidentally, to date, that tune is the only one to be used twice during Dancing’s run; it previously was used during season one.)
The Burke/Hough juggernaut scored a combined 58 out of 60, five points ahead of the 53 that greeted both Bass/Schwimmer and Warren Sapp/Kym Johnson. Sapp earned a 10 from judge Len Goodman, for “pure entertainment value,” which all the judges agree he has no competition in regards to that dynamic. Carrie Ann Inaba went as far as to say Sapp was the most improved dancer, though some (including Goodman) would go with Bass for that distinction.
Regardless of the impressive performances Bass and Sapp enjoy, it’s always been about Burke- out of 11 dance nights, she finished with the highest judges’ score nine times. One week, she lost first place by just one point (to Bass), and the other time- well, that was last week’s competition, when her attempt a the Jive bellyflopped- and hard.
Nevertheless, one bad dance cannot stop the force that is Brooke Burke. Imagine had it been Burke rather than Misty May-Treanor who injured herself and had to leave the competition? Bass and Sapp likely would be a bit more at ease and confident than they may be right now.
Barring some overzealous voting from Bass and Sapp fans, and laxness on the part of Burke fans, Burke should be standing before the judges as one of the final two during tomorrow night’s two-hour finale (which also will feature the return of every contestant- even Crazy Cloris Leachman- from this season).
Is there any way the judges- and America- won’t crown her queen of the ballroom? Maybe if Sapp threatens to tackle them into next week, but otherwise… congratulations, Brooke.
