Monday night was the semi-final round on season thirteen of Dancing with the Stars. The big story is that Rob Kardashian has emerged as a serious contender for the Mirrorball trophy.
Who could have imagined that the 24-year-old man-boy could get his act together over the course of the competition and discover that he loves to dance and looks good doing it.
Rob and his pro partner Cheryl Burke, who could easily pass for one of his gorgeous older sisters, danced a Samba, the Argentine Tango and participated in the team relay. They scored 65 points, landing them in second place on the leaderboard.
At the top of the heap with 67 are Ricki Lake and her partner Derek Hough. No surprises here. They were tight, strong and full of confidence.
The shocker of the evening was the below par performance of J.R. Martinez and Karina Smirnoff. The war hero rolled his foot in practice and had to curtail practice over the weekend, during the time when he and his partner would normally have been beating feet to perfect their dances. The pain and disappointment was clearly evident on their faces throughout Monday’s ABC telecast.
Olympic soccer athlete Hope Solo was not in the same league as her fellow competitors last night, earning a disappointing 49 for her efforts with opinionated partner Maks Chmerkovskiy. He has clearly gotten under the skin of all three judges this season. Last night Carrie Ann Inaba warned him to wipe the smirk off his face while she was providing a critique for one of their performances. Hope summed it up during her post-performance on camera interview, “From day one they wanted me off of the show.”
Winning the group Cha-Cha-Cha relay competition was Rob K– earning an additional 10 points. Ricki L picked up 8, J.R. was awarded 6 and Hope 4. Has Solo reached the end of the line? It certainly looks like a no-brainer.
Check out this week’s leaderboard and view some of the top performances below:
Photos: WENN