"DWTS" Week 8: America Made Some Interesting Choices

You GUYS. “DWTS” was SCANDALOUS this week! I guess it’s only natural for there to be a bunch of drama in the lead-up to a double elimination. But we also have ourselves to blame for some of it—because it was “America’s Choice” week, and that meant “DWTS” turned to us for direction on things like costumes, music and dance styles. The result was a lot of exposed chest acreage, especially on Chris Soules’ part, and, um, some serious kissing. KISSING! SCANDAAAAAAAL.

Yes, Robert Herjavec planted a giant smooch on partner Kym Johnson during their contemporary routine Monday night, “confirming” (ahem) the swirling rumors about a budding relationship between the two. Or maybe they were just playing along with the crowd to earn votes in the spirit of fun. Either way, it was a heck of a kiss.

I mean.

But let’s get back to the actual dancing, shall we? We’re at the point in the competition where we know who the frontrunners are—that’d be Riker Lynch and Allison Holker, Nastia Liukin and Derek Hough/Sasha Farber and (especially) Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovsky—and, unsurprisingly, they turned in the strongest performances of the week.

Nastia looked stinking adorable in her retro jive trio with Sasha and Derek, which involved some impressive workarounds for the still-injured Derek…

…Riker got in touch with his sensitive side in a passionate Viennese waltz with Allison…

…and Rumer burned up the dance floor in her paso doble trio with Val and Artem, which involved actual flames and, even more impressively, actual technical ballroom dancing:

Because we’re back to the two-nights-a-week format, there was also time, on Tuesday night, for a few awesome bonus dance performances.

Our friends in Shaping Sound had a lot of fun with The White Stripes and a bunch of brick walls…

…the pro ensemble did a sweet little routine we really, really, really, really, really, really liked to accompany Carly Rae Jepsen’s performance of “I Really Like You”…

…and none other than Maddie Ziegler danced some swoony-sweet choreography (alongside Jaycee Wilkins and Brynn Rumfallo) as Josh Groban crooned “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”:

In the end, despite the shirtlessness and the kissing, Chris and Robert were sent home. Ah, well—so much for scandal.

What did you guys think of the two-night “DWTS” extravaganza? Will Derek be able to think of yet another creative way to camouflage his bum feet next week? Can we all just agree right now that Rumer is going to win this thing and call it a day? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!