The week 5 Dancing With the Stars results show from Oct. 19 saved Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas, but sent home a couple that surprised many viewers of the show. It had been expected that either Bristol Palin or Kyle Massey would be the celebrity going home on Tuesday, especially after they received the worst judges’ scores of the week. Instead, though, hosts Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke revealed that it was Florence Henderson and Corky Ballas who were leaving the show this week.
The pairing of Palin and Ballas has averaged a score of 18 out of 30 this season on Dancing With the Stars, placing them in the bottom two of the leaderboard the last three weeks. In week 3, it was Margaret Cho and Louis Van Amstel who went home, and then in week 4 The Situation and Karina Smirnoff received the least audience support.
On Monday, Palin and Ballas were given the lowest judges’ scores of the week (18 out of 30), and it seemed that their run of luck could end. That wasn’t the case, though, and it seems that the home audience support is as big as we predicted when the season began.
Florence Henderson and Corky Ballas have been in the middle of the pack when it comes to scores this season, so an argument could easily be made that they weren’t showing a lot of promise to actually win season 11 of the show. This week, they danced a Tango to the theme from The Brady Bunch, and the judges gave them a combined score of 21 out of 30. The audience votes just weren’t there to keep protecting them, though, and it was revealed at the very end of the Tuesday results show that their time on the show was over. They seemed pretty surprised that it happened, but Henderson took the news very gracefully during the broadcast.
If anyone ever doubted that Dancing With the Stars is a show based on popularity, they were given a rude awakening Tuesday night. It is quite clear that the audience this season wants to see more of Palin, even if she isn’t able to dance very well. Some viewers think that she is being given scores that are far too low, and of course there are other viewers who feel she is only getting support because of who her mother is. Regardless of the reason, the audience voting is keeping the partnership of Palin and Ballas alive, and they will now be back as part of the top seven couples this season competing in week 6.
References:
Full_Week_5_Performance_Recap
Week_5_Results_Show_Recap
DWTS_Main_ABC_Website
