The 19th season of "Dancing with the Stars" has reached its final leg, and fans would agree that it has been one awesome ride. The first part of the finals, aired Monday, was nothing short of entertaining, with the dancing pairs showing off real talent, creativity, showmanship, and great fun.
Alfonso Ribeiro with partner Witney Carson have really overcome the odds. Regardless of his back injury, Ribeiro remains as one tough contender to beat. The pair received a perfect score for jiving to "3-6-9" by Cupid featuring B.o.B, and another perfect score for their take on Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" and The Sugarhill Gang's "Apache." Based on their scores throughout the season, the Ribeiro-Carson pair is the frontrunner, with an overall average score of 36.7 points, consistently giving amazing performances week after week.
Meanwhile, for the Judges' Pick, Sadie Robertson and Mark Ballas re-created their "Duck Dynasty" samba to "Hunter" by Pharrell Williams, for which they received a score of 38 out of 40. And for their freestyle routine, the dancing pair brought the house down with their performance to Koji Kondo's "Super Mario Bros. Theme." Dressed as the characters in the highly-popular video game, Robertson and Ballas gave the audience a performance that judge Carrie Ann Inaba deemed as one that would land in the DWTS Freestyle Hall of Fame, while judge Len Goodman said that it's certainly one that he would never forget.
Janel Parrish was close to tears when she and dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy landed on the bottom two, with the possibility of getting eliminated. Nevertheless, the pair pulled through. They received 37 points for their samba performance to Celia Cruz's "La Vida Es Un Carnaval" and a perfect score for dancing freestyle to Sleeping at Last's "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)."
But while each of the four remaining pairs is worthy of reaching the finals, the show had to trim down the contenders to only three. Bethany Mota and Derek Hough took their final bow after having performed the jive to Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" and freestyle to "Revolution" by Diplo featuring Faustix & Imanos and Kai. They received 36 and 40 for their performances, respectively.
Only one of the remaining three pairs will be able to go home with the Mirror Ball Trophy — and who it will be remains to be seen on the second part of "Dancing with the Stars" season 19 finale, happening Tuesday, Nov 25, at 8 p.m. on ABC.
