‘Dancing with the Stars’ slugfest: James Van Der Beek back on top, or is Kate Flannery now the front-runner? [WATCH]
“I put [James Van Der Beek] back at number-one in my predictions because out of the first three weeks, it feels like he has been most consistently at or near the top,” says Gold Derby editor Daniel Montgomery about his “Dancing with the Stars” Mirror Ball Trophy forecasts after “Movie Night.” But he admits that this is the third week in a row he has switched his prediction in what is shaping up to be a wide-open battle for the season 28 title. Watch him debate the state of the race with Joyce Eng, Jeffrey Kare and Cordell Martin above.
Kare is “sticking with James Van Der Beek” on the strength of his “Movie Night” rumba, which was “just breathtaking” even though it fell one point shy of the top of the judges’ leaderboard: he scored 23 out of 30, while Ally Brooke and Kate Flannery tied for the top spot with 24 out of 30. Martin also thinks the “Dawson’s Creek” and “Pose” alum is “the one to beat,” though he’s quick to point out that Ally is also “coming into her own” and Flannery “is just that dark horse. I don’t know if she can win, but if she continues on this upward swing, who knows?”
Eng theorizes that Flannery is also helped by “the apple in the bag of oranges.” The veteran comic actress stands out against “four pretty girls in their 20s who are kind of on the same level. They all dance pretty well. Sometimes I have dance-blindness with them: I’m like, was that Ally or [Lauren Alaina]?” There’s no one in that ballroom quite like Flannery, and in a competition where viewer votes matter just as much as the judges’ score, standing out is literally half the battle.
Be sure to make your predictions so that the contestants can see how they’re faring in our racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the next episode airs every Monday on ABC. You’ll compete to win a spot on our leaderboard and eternal bragging rights. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our reality TV forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.