big whoppa

Final round, folks. Two athletes against ex-boy band member. Who deserves to win? Vote for who should win instead of who should be eliminated.

RocShemp

I'm confused by the date on this thread. This aired yesterday?

Red Dog

So is the actual dancing tonight or tomorrow? I know that they expanded tomorrow's episode. I assume that there will be a ton of recap and filler somewhere.

Dubya

They dance tonight and tomorrow is plenty of recap/filler stuff.

Struz

Is there any chance ABC will give Julianne her own show with her dancing in skimpy outfits ?

big whoppa

No change. Show tonight. Results tomorrow. A full 2 hours Tuesday night. Just posted this earlier. Helps to serve as a reminder to watch.

Red Dog

Apolo and Julianne might have been the best throughout the season, but Joey and Kim won tonight IMO. I don't care if A&J got 10s in the freestyle because what J&K did deserved 11s - so much more difficult - the lifts were so well done, and disco easily trumps hip hop in my book.

Meanwhile Leila bored me again. Their paso was actually quite good, but their freestyle looked like an aerobics routine. Too bad Ian and Cheryl weren't here instead - always look forward to seeing what Cheryl comes up for the freestyle.

Mok

Joey and Kim deserve to win awesome job on the freestyle.

cmleidi

I was not impressed with Apollo or Joey. The latter's dance routine looked like outtakes from an nsync video. Apollo's free style was a mess. He had timing issues, looked uncomfortable, and it was all jumps and theatrics. Laila's was good, but something was missing. Liked the ending of the dance though. I'd have given a perfect ten just for that.

onebyone

Although I am sure they will fix it tomorrow, it was good to see the judges not completely on the smack this week. I kind of agreed with them, which is strange. I thought that Laila's first dance was great and much better than the guy's routines. They seemed to want to do their freestyle early or something. However, as feared, Maks had no game at all in the freestyle round. The guys were equally good to me there, so I guess which you like better is up to personal taste. I enjoyed Joey and Kym's the most myself. Since the winner of the show usually is who rocks the freestyle the most, I suspect one of them will win. Laila's been my favorite all year, but as Stacey and Tony know, you can't blow off the freestyle and win this show.

I really enjoyed this year. I am not ready for it to end.

RocShemp

I give the first round to Laila and Maks but the second round to Joey and Kym.

After two terrible freestyle dances from Laila and Apollo, I was afraid Joey was going to follow suit. Glad to see Kym choreographed something truly worthy of the freestyle round.

magiccmom

The problem I have with Apolo and Julianne was the same problem I had last year with Mario and Karina. They didnt dance together. They danced side by side, which is fine, but defeats the whole purpose of the show for me. Apolo and Juliane looked spastic to me. And although I think they rocked all season long, this to me was one of their worst performances. I would have taken any other dance than this one to end the season with (nonwithstanding tomorrow night...but this was the last viewer impression) Joey and Kym rocked it! They danced with each other and the lifts were fantastic, and the moves were great. I thoroughly enjoyed their connection, and IMO they deserve the trophy. Laila's freestyle was really amateur to me. Max let her down, with simplistic choreography. Dont really understand all the judge's love for whatever she does. I'm giving my vote to Joey and Kym, which surprises me, because I had Apolo as a lock for this.

Patman

Leila looked a little heavy-footed tonight, she doesn't have that snap that the other dancers have, so I don't get all the love she gets from the judges either.

Joey and Kym's free style was really fun and creative, plus all the crazy skating pairs moves just flirted with disaster for those 90 seconds. Apolo and Julianne's free style was okay, but the lifts looked a little too awkward (due to Apolo's build/height).

I think the judges were a little too hard on Joey and Kym in their first dance as they eschewed the pizazz for more structure in the dance.

Overall, a good season once again (at least the top 3-4 were fun to watch all the way through).

das Monkey

If there's any justice, Laila's out. That was awkward and just plain boring. Bad Max! Laila completely deserved to be in this final, but had people known the freestyle would suck like that, they would have rather seen Cheryl and Ian.

I honestly don't know who I want to win between Joey and Apolo. I guess I prefer Apolo. Julianne's choreography was incredible in many of the dances and IMO actually better than what we've seen from Cheryl. Also, in 4 seasons, I don't think we've seen a couple with more chemistry on the dance floor than the two of them. Everything about them just goes together. That said, Joey's equally deserving, and if I were betting on this, I'd go with him.

das

Struz

Laila's freestyle sucked !
They don't deserve to win, Joey and Apolo are much better dancers.

Big Quasimodo

Wow, I am shocked at our poll results. I think Joey and Kim are the cream of the crop, with Joey being the best dancer by far of the celebs.

big whoppa

Laila's freestyle did suck. Too amateurish as some of you mentioned. Based on their dances so far, Maks is not a cheorographer. I enjoyed Apolo's first dance but I knew he was going to get dinged for a fast rhumba. His freestyle was good especially the blindfold and hankie bits but some of the elements (lifts, spin, hand gestures) were too similar from Mario and Karina's freestyle from last season (see below). Joey was great in both dances and yes, I saw the N*Sync moves too. I thought "Last Dance" was going to transition to "Bye Bye Bye." They had the best freestyle but I have to give the win to Apolo & Julianne for their performances throughout the season.

Mario & Karina:
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Apolo & Julianne:
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Oh, Julianne looked like Christina Aguilera with the old fashioned hairdo and dress for the rhumba.

Red Dog

So how does the scoring work again for this? There is 1 more dance tonight (dancer choice?), right? However, I assume that there can't be audience vote for that since that would shut out the west coast, right?

So 50/50 with all 3 dances graded by the judges and just the first 2 by the audience?

magiccmom

I gotta say...every year I hear the celebrities and I just groan, because I think they are gonna be god awful. I mean John Ratzenberger? Billy Ray? But every year, I end up really enjoying them. Billy Ray was an awful dancer, but he was pretty funny and an enjoyable guy. John Ratzenberger was a class act. I think Joey Fatone is a great guy with a great personality and really funny. I really enjoyed this year, and like the poster above said, I'm not ready to see it end. It went really fast this year.

big whoppa

There won't be an audience vote for the 3rd dance. I don't remember if the judges will score the 3rd dance. They probably will.

Red Dog

I agree. For the most part, the celebrities really put in a good effort, particuarly the old farts (Cliffy, Jerry, and George H.) who look like they enjoy being there more than anyone else.

It is a cheesy show, but it is very entertaining cheese.

jarofclay73

Looking at Mario & Apolo side by side - I think Apolo's version is much better. Karina really didn't dress the part - she still looks like she's wearing a frilly, feathery ballroom dancing costume.

Apolo did a fricking shoulder roll! Do you know how hard it is to do that? Also, Mario's lifts were terrible. If I had to nitpick on Apolo, in some instances he wasn't perfectly synched up with Julianne.

I like Joey a lot too, but his "cha cha cha" had not enough "cha" and too much 'NSync - "No Strings Attached." "Last Dance" was great and I loved the costume rip.

If Apolo comes back with another strong performance he should win. If Joey wins tonight's dance, then he should win. The only way I see Leila winning is if she does something MIND BLOWINGLY AWESOME - either that or America felt the need to jock sniff and give it to Leila like how Emmitt won it last year.

Red Dog

Fortunately, Leila doesn't play for the Dallas Cowboys. I still think it is a travesty that Emmitt won last season.

Steam

Good for Apolo. He better be hitting that too.

onebyone

Although I really wish Maks had done better with the freestyle so my girl Laila would have had more of a shot, I am happy enough with the results. The top two deserved to be there, and I couldn't argue either of them winning. I enjoyed them both a lot. I hope Julianne is back next year, as she is a real talent.

I enjoyed tonight. I even liked Kimmel's bit. I felt sad though, that it was ending at all. After American Idol left me with a bad taste in my mouth, this show made me very happy. It was a great season with surprisingly great contestants. I think it's my favorite yet, and I almost didn't even watch it.