DWTS: Standings Week 2

For a show that's 90% filler, Dancing With the Stars is usually pretty good at padding out their hour-long results show with decent content. This week wasn't a particularly good example of that, with two ho-hum music numbers by the Jonas Brothers, and a Cirque Du Soleil act that mostly consisted of performers hanging from a big metal ball and kicking up their feet. They also had a comedic bit featuring former DWTS star Cameron, who just isn't very funny.

Adam proved that he is the funniest and wittiest of anyone up there by completely ignoring co-host Samantha's questions to rip on the Jonas brothers and Steve Guttenberg, who, Adam said, is "dead to me." Those of us watching on the east coast had the opportunity to see him call judge Carrie Ann Inaba a bitch last week; if you watched it in the Midwest, you'll have to search youtube.com to find it.


When all was said and done, Penn Jillette was the first star to be eliminated, and it was a little sad to see him go. Even though the elimination was deserved, he was much better than the worst performers in other seasons-- Tucker Carlson, Master P, John Ratzenberger, and Kenny Mayne have set a pretty low bar. So, despite losing 50 pounds and getting botox injections, Penn was unable to muster enough votes to stay in the competition. His judge scores were very close to those of Steve and Adam, but his personality seemed to have too much bluster and not enough charm. As much as I like watching Penn perform illusions, he's the last star I'd want to get stuck talking to in a confined space.

In the pool, Penn's exit was great news for Lisa, Dawn, and Mom, all of whom correctly predicted the ouster and gained 50 points apiece. It was the worst news for Kim, who thought Penn might magic his way as far as eighth place.

The second elimination was the least suspenseful. The judge scores placed tennis star Monica Seles by herself at the bottom of the heap, and it was hard to imagine that a huge fanbase would materialize on her behalf. Her two dances were awkward, and while she drew sympathy from all involved, her elimination was a foregone conclusion (and probably a kindness).

This was a good turn of events for Kim, who predicted Monica out in 12th place and lost only 10 points on the ouster. It was worst for Lisa, who put the most faith in Monica's athleticism and predicted her to last until 4th place.

That leaves the standings as follows:


Standings

1st: Dawn 1052 (+30)
2nd: Mom 1008 (+0)
3rd: Lisa 1002 (-20)
4th: Carl 981 (-40)
5th: Matt 963 (-80)
6th: Kim 958 (-50)
7th: Paul 930 (-70)


Dawn had the most accurate picks so far, and jumped out to an early lead (to go along with her lead in the Survivor pool). Mom nailed second place by standing still, while everyone else dropped some points. I performed the worst of everyone, hurt mostly by thinking that Monica would last until fifth. While I was buffered somewhat by my bonus points, Paul had no such luck and has hit bottom (to go along with his last-place standing in the Survivor Pool).

Be sure that you send me the name of the star that you think will do best next week. The highest individual scores so far have gone to Kristi (27), Jason (27), Mario (26), Shannon (24), and Priscilla (24), so the smart money is on one of them.